Mermaid

Chapter 23

Nathan sat in an office chair of one of the Adams families' company buildings waiting to speak with the head of the company Gregory Adams. Nathan was told to sit comfortably but with the head's daughter, Sherrie Adams, sitting across from him with a definite glare, being comfortable was not really a choice at the moment.

When they made eye contact Sherrie looked away from him.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." Gregory said as he entered his office. "The meeting took much longer than I thought."

"It's alright." Nathan said as he stood to greet the man. "I can understand, you being a busy person, along with looking after a daughter all at once, it can be pretty difficult."

Gregory smiled. "If anyone is doing the looking after part that would be Sherrie, she's always making sure I'm at least eating properly and getting sleep."

"Father!" Sherrie snapped. "That man doesn't need to know anything of our private lives." She looked away. "For all we know they may just try to destroy our family, just like with what they did to Erika's..."

Gregory merely glanced at his daughter, mainly at the hand that shook while gripping her arm, before sighing deeply and sitting across from the detective. "So what I can do for you?"

"Actually it's about the Lawrence family, mainly Yara, and her past."

Yara?! Sherrie thought with shock.

Gregory didn't even seem fazed by this. "Yara? Why would you need to know anything about her? She died years ago."

"Do you really believe that?" Nathan asked. "Do you really believe that she's dead?" Gregory was silent so Nathan continued. "I met with my old partner, he's retired now. Yet he told me some interesting things about Yara." When Gregory still said nothing Nathan added. "He told me what Yara really was, that she's a..." before he had the chance to finish his sentence Gregory grabbed a hold of Nathan's shirt in a choke hold.

Sherrie jumped when her father suddenly grabbed the detective; her father was never the type to lash out, at least not like this.

Gregory gave the detective a leveled glare, blue eyes snapping like fire. "I said that she died years ago, there is no need to look into her past. Let it go."

The detective didn't even seem surprised, instead by his expression it seemed to be as if he were expecting it to happen. "As much as I'd like to I can't, there are too many questions for me to back away from this quietly."

"What kind of questions?"

Nathan looked at Gregory with a leveled gaze in return. "Erika Lawrence, you know what she is, don't you? I've done my research, as well as getting a copy of the documents Yara supposedly brought when she came here. But those documents are nothing but fakes, extremely good fakes that only someone with money could create."

His glare deepened. "Are you saying I had something to do with it?"

Nathan gave a half arrogant smile. "Perhaps, you and Yara's husband Allen, were very close friends back in high school and in university in Manhattan, where a certain incident happened a number of years ago, it all started with a certain woman named Ophelia."

Sherrie frowned. Ophelia? Who's that? She opened her mouth to ask her father who that was but froze when Gregory raised his arm to punch the detective in the face. "Father no!" she rushed over and grabbed her father's arm to stop him from hitting the man, but all froze when Gregory's cell phone rang.

He pulled away and gave the detective a menacing glare. "If you value your life, you'll leave well enough alone, especially when it concerns the incident in Manhattan. And believe me when I say that, I'm being nice in warning you." He went to his desk and picked up his cell phone. "Yes? Gregory here..." he froze once more, eyes going wide before rushing over to the TV and turning it on to the world news, the color in his face bleached. "It can't be..."