Chapter 4 - BLOOD MONEY AND BETRAYAL
Z
The revelation struck the room like a physical blow. Nora staggered backward, knocking over a wooden chair before collapsing against the wall. Her chest heaved in shallow, jagged gasps as if the air had suddenly turned to poison. She looked at Daniel, her eyes wide with a horrific mix of betrayal and denial.
"Daniel... tell me he's lying," Nora pleaded, her voice a fragile whimper. "Tell me you didn't... tell me it's our baby..."
Daniel couldn't speak. He stood frozen, his eyes wide, looking back and forth between Julian and his broken wife. The silence in the cottage was heavier than any confession.
"He didn't know, Nora," Julian said, taking a step toward the doorway. "Give your husband some credit. He was just a naive fool who trusted a doctor paid off by your stepbrother. Marcus wanted a child that carried his family’s bloodline to inherit his hidden assets if anything happened to him. So he ensured Elise’s egg was used instead of yours."
I grabbed Daniel by the arm, squeezing until my knuckles turned white. "Is this true, Daniel? Did you know any of this?"
"No! I swear to God, Mom, I didn't!" Daniel cried, tears streaming down his face as he fell to his knees in front of Nora. "Nora, look at me! I thought it was our baby! I thought the clinic used our stored embryos! I swear I had no idea!"
Nora pulled away from his touch as if his hands burned her skin. "Don't touch me," she whispered coldly. "All these months... every time I stroked her belly, every time I bought a toy, every time I prayed for that child... I was celebrating your child with another woman."
"It wasn't like that!" Daniel wept.
"Enough!" I shouted, my voice cutting through their breakdown like a whip. "Both of you, pull yourselves together! Our baby—whether he has Nora’s DNA or Elise’s DNA—is currently in the hands of a grieving, terrified woman who is being hunted by dangerous men! A tiny, helpless newborn baby is out there in the middle of a hurricane!"
I turned to face Julian Mercer, stepping directly into his personal space. I was half his size, but rage gave me an edge that made him take a half-step back.
"You want that flash drive," I said, pointing a finger at his chest. "And we want that child safe. You need us because Elise won't trust you, but she might listen to us."
Julian narrowed his eyes, studying me with a sudden flick of respect. "She certainly won't listen to Nora or Daniel after finding out Marcus lied to her too. But you... you’re just the grandmother who drove four states to see her grandson."
"I am the only sane person left in this room," I corrected him sharply. "Where in Savannah is she?"
Julian pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, bringing up a GPS tracking map that showed a pulsing red dot moving steadily south along Interstate 95.
"She’s heading toward a marina in Tybee Island," Julian explained. "Marcus had a boat docked there under a fake name. She plans to get on that boat and disappear into international waters. But the storm system coming off the coast will sink a boat that size in minutes. If she gets on the water with that baby, they both die."
"Then we leave now," I said, grabbing my raincoat from the sofa.
"Not so fast, Mrs. Vance," Julian said, his tone dropping to a sinister whisper. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a black semi-automatic pistol, keeping it pointed toward the floor, but its presence filled the room with lethal intent. "We go in my vehicle. And if either of your children tries any heroic stupidity, or if you attempt to contact law enforcement on the way, I won't hesitate to remove the unnecessary variables from this equation. Am I understood?"
Daniel stood up slowly, stepping in front of Nora protectively despite her cold rejection of him. "If you hurt my family, Mercer, you’ll never get that money."
"Your family is alive right now only because you are useful," Julian replied smoothly, gesturing toward the door with the barrel of the gun. "Move. Time is running out."
We walked out into the pouring rain, the ocean wind whipping wildly around us. As we climbed into Julian's dark, armored SUV, I looked back at the empty, darkened cottage. Just hours ago, I thought my biggest problem was a cryptic warning from a hospital nurse. Now, I was riding in a car with a armed criminal, heading toward a storm, sitting between a son who had lost his way and a daughter-in-law whose heart had been torn to pieces.
As Julian pushed the SUV onto the highway, speeding through the torrential rain, my phone vibrated quietly in my pocket. I slipped my hand inside my coat, carefully tapping the screen without looking. It was a text message from an unknown number.
May you like
I glanced down covertly. The message read:
“Linda, this is Elise. Don’t trust Julian. He killed Marcus. If you are with him, you are in danger. Meet me at the lighthouse, not the marina. Hurry.”
