The Foundation’s Missing Houses
Chapter 07 - The Foundation’s Missing Houses
The Holloway Star unlocked the dormant server.
Lena arranged the diamond beneath a specialized optical reader while Noah, Grace, and a federal cyber team watched. Light passed through the stone, producing a unique pattern that became the final encryption key.
The server opened.
Thousands of files appeared.
Claire Holloway had designed a modular housing system intended for disaster zones. The patent belonged to Holloway Architecture and Trust, with Claire holding sixty percent and Evelyn Mercer forty percent as an early investor.
After Claire’s death, Mercer Development claimed full ownership.
The files showed more.
Evelyn and her husband, Richard Mercer, used Claire’s designs to win federal contracts. They billed for reinforced shelters while substituting cheaper materials. Julian continued the scheme through the Mercer Foundation, creating ghost neighborhoods and laundering money through charities.
Grace found photographs of empty lots marked as completed communities. She found inspection reports signed by dead engineers. She found a list of 143 people injured or killed in failed Mercer structures.
Emma’s mother was number eighty-seven.
At the end of one directory sat a file labeled THOMAS.
It contained her father’s investigation notes and a voice memo recorded the night before his death.
“Claire did not die naturally,” Thomas said. “I have proof the laboratory samples were altered. If Evelyn learns what I know, Grace and Noah may be in danger.”
Noah stopped the recording.
Grace stared at the screen.
Their mother’s official cause of death had been an aggressive heart condition. She was thirty-two.
The server also contained a recent access log. Someone opened the files every month using Claire’s credentials.
The latest login occurred from the north conservatory at Mercer House.
Grace insisted on going.
Noah refused.
They argued until Lena interrupted.
“This family has spent thirty years confusing protection with control. Perhaps we try a new hobby.”
They entered the conservatory with agents hidden nearby. Winter moonlight fell through the glass roof. In the center stood Evelyn Mercer holding a cane and an old laptop.
She did not appear surprised.
“You found the server,” she said.
“Did you send the diamond?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Evelyn looked toward the dark garden.
“Claire’s partner.”
A figure stepped from behind the orange trees.
It was Dr. Simon Vale, the psychiatrist who tried to have Grace declared incompetent.
He placed a small pistol on the table and raised his hands.
“My real name,” he said, “is Simon Holloway.”
Grace felt the room tilt.
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Simon claimed he was Claire’s younger half brother.
The family had never known he existed.
