POV: Isabelle
At six in the morning, the phone screen illuminated my face as I sat upright in bed, blinked a few times and read the headline twice before the words finally registered.
Merritt Family Linked Secretly to Decades-Old Fraud Scheme
The moment I tapped the link, I felt a chill in my stomach as I saw Cole Merritt. Besides being the very contact my mom had gotten in touch with, he was also the ex-Vantage agent who disappeared without a trace six years ago.
It was a while before I set my cup down and fully absorbed the article. I barely read the three paragraphs as the piece was light on details and the source was unclear; Yet, it presented a couple of financial details that were definitely not available from public records.
Someone with genuine firsthand knowledge has given th
