Chapter 9 - BLOOD IN THE MERCER ESTATE
Z
The Mercer estate had been empty since my mother moved out.
I arrived at 11:52 carrying the ledger inside a leather briefcase. Federal agents waited beyond the property line, but Richard had threatened to kill Gabriel if he saw police.
Marcus had placed a tracker in my shoe.
Elena had placed fear in my heart.
The mansion stood dark except for the library windows. Snow covered the lawn and softened every sound as I crossed toward the entrance.
The door opened before I knocked.
Richard held a gun.
“Put your phone on the table.”
I obeyed.
“Take off your coat.”
I did.
He searched me, found no weapon, and motioned toward the library.
Gabriel sat on the floor with his wrists tied. His eyes were swollen from crying, but he appeared uninjured.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “Your mother sent me.”
Richard struck me across the face with the gun.
“He has a mother.”
“He has two,” I said, tasting blood.
Richard’s face twisted. “Vanessa Cole sold children. She has no right to claim him.”
“You’re right about what she did. That doesn’t give you the right to kidnap him.”
“He is my son.”
“Then stop pointing a gun near him.”
For a moment, his hand lowered.
I understood him then.
Richard was not merely protecting evidence. He loved Gabriel. That love had become desperate, selfish, and dangerous, but it was real.
“You knew the adoption was illegal,” I said.
“Not at first.”
“When did you learn?”
“Thomas told me three years ago. He used it to control my votes.”
“And you helped him take Mercer subsidiaries.”
“I protected my family.”
The phrase sounded exactly like something my mother would say.
Men like us inherited excuses before we inherited companies.
“Give me the ledger,” Richard ordered.
“Let Gabriel leave first.”
“No.”
“Then you get nothing.”
He raised the gun again.
Gabriel whimpered.
I placed the briefcase on the table but kept one hand on it.
“Vanessa doesn’t want to take him away from your wife. She wants to know him.”
“She’ll expose everything.”
“The truth is already exposed.”
“Not all of it.”
His words stopped me.
“What else is there?”
Richard smiled bitterly. “You think Thomas built this network to help wealthy couples adopt children? That was only the profit. The real purpose was leverage.”
Children were placed with judges, executives, politicians, and board members. Years later, Thomas revealed that their adoptions were fraudulent and used the secret to control their parents.
The stolen children were not merely victims.
They were blackmail investments.
“Baby H,” I said. “Who adopted her?”
Richard looked toward the portrait of my grandfather above the fireplace.
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“You still don’t understand why Eleanor kept copies of everything.”
The library door opened behind me.
My mother stepped inside.
She wore no coat, though snow clung to her shoulders.
Richard swung the gun toward her.
“You were told not to come.”
Eleanor ignored him. Her gaze rested on Gabriel.
“Untie the boy.”
“You’re in no position to give orders.”
“I am the only reason you’re still alive.”
I moved between the gun and my mother.
“What are you doing here?”
She looked at me.
“Baby H was placed with a Mercer.”
The room went silent.
I thought of cousins, distant relatives, and members of the family who had quietly left New York.
“Who adopted her?”
“No one,” Eleanor said. “I did.”
I stared at her.
“You adopted a child?”
“I arranged for her to be raised elsewhere.”
“Where?”
Before she could answer, Richard grabbed Gabriel and pressed the gun against his head.
“Enough. Give me the ledger.”
Gabriel began sobbing.
I slowly lifted the briefcase onto the table and opened it.
Richard leaned forward.
The ledger inside was a copy.
The flash device beneath it emitted a sharp signal.
Every light in the mansion went out.
Marcus had cut the power.
I lunged.
The gun fired.
A bullet tore through my shoulder and shattered the portrait behind me. Gabriel screamed. I struck Richard’s wrist until the weapon fell, then pulled the boy beneath the desk.
Federal agents stormed the room.
Within seconds, Richard was pinned to the floor.
My mother knelt beside me, pressing both hands against my bleeding shoulder.
“Julian, stay awake.”
“Where is Baby H?”
“This isn’t the time.”
“Tell me.”
Her face blurred above me.
“Her birth mother was a sixteen-year-old girl,” Eleanor said. “Thomas planned to place the baby with a senator. I stopped him.”
“And then?”
“I gave her to someone I trusted.”
“Who?”
My mother’s voice broke.
“Your father.”
I forgot the pain.
“My father died twenty years ago.”
“That is what I told you.”
The room seemed to collapse inward.
Eleanor leaned closer.
“Your father is alive, Julian. He has been raising that girl in Vermont for six years.”
Paramedics rushed toward me, but I could hear only one sentence repeating inside my skull.
My father was alive.
May you like
And my mother had lied about another child.
---
