Chapter 14 - THE HOUSE WHERE IT BEGAN
I didn’t go alone.
I simply made it look that way.
Rachel’s team surrounded the property from a distance.
The old Mercer estate had been empty for years.
Gray stone.
Broken shutters.
Dead vines climbing the walls.
I walked through the front door.
“Lily?”
“Daddy!”
Her voice came from the ballroom.
I ran.
She rushed into my arms.
Noah was sitting safely on a blanket.
Vanessa stood near the fireplace.
She looked exhausted.
“Are they hurt?”
“No.”
I checked Lily anyway.
“Did Vanessa hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“She helped us.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither did I.”
She pointed toward a laptop on the table.
“I brought you here because this house has something William never found.”
“What?”
“Your mother’s archive.”
I stared at her.
“Claire wasn’t the first person investigating your father.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa opened a hidden drawer beneath the fireplace mantel.
Inside were microcassette tapes.
Old photographs.
Bank records.
A handwritten notebook.
“My God.”
“Your mother documented everything.”
“How did you know?”
“Michael found references to it before he died.”
Her brother.
“So this is what William wanted?”
“No.”
She looked toward the staircase.
“This is what Daniel wanted.”
Floorboards creaked above us.
I turned.
Daniel stood at the top of the staircase.
Gun in hand.
“Always underestimated Vanessa.”
Lily screamed.
I pulled her behind me.
“Daniel.”
“Move away from the table.”
Vanessa stepped in front of Noah.
“You used me.”
Daniel smiled.
“Everyone used everyone.”
“You were working for William.”
“No.”
He descended slowly.
“William worked for Richard. Vanessa worked for William. Colin worked for whoever paid him.”
He stopped halfway down.
“I worked for the institution.”
“What institution?”
“The Mercer empire.”
I almost laughed.
“You people keep saying that like it’s alive.”
“In a way, it is.”
“You kidnapped Claire.”
“I saved her from William.”
“You imprisoned her.”
“I preserved her.”
“Listen to yourself.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Your father built something worth billions.”
“With blood.”
“With sacrifice.”
“My mother?”
He didn’t answer.
“Claire?”
Still nothing.
“My children?”
“No one was supposed to touch the children.”
I glanced at Vanessa.
Daniel noticed.
“Her little doghouse episode was not authorized.”
Vanessa looked sick.
“I know what I did.”
“Do you?”
Daniel reached the bottom step.
“Move away from the archive.”
I lifted both hands.
“Fine.”
Vanessa whispered, “Adrian.”
I looked at her.
She subtly pointed toward the ceiling.
A camera.
The old house still had power in one circuit.
Daniel followed my gaze.
He fired.
The camera shattered.
Lily screamed.
But Daniel made the same mistake Vanessa had.
He thought destroying the camera destroyed the recording.
The backup system I had installed wasn’t limited to the mansion.
After Claire disappeared, I had quietly connected every Mercer-owned property I could access.
Including this house.
Daniel didn’t know.
He pointed the gun at me.
“You’re going to give me the tapes.”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“You spent twenty-seven years protecting a dead man’s crimes.”
“I protected your inheritance.”
“I don’t want it.”
He laughed.
“Everyone wants it.”
“I want my family.”
His expression darkened.
“Then you should have learned from your father.”
“What did he learn?”
“That family is leverage.”
Daniel swung the gun toward Lily.
Everything inside me went cold.
Vanessa moved first.
She threw herself into him.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
I rushed forward.
We hit the floor.
Daniel punched me.
I grabbed his wrist.
Vanessa tried to pull the weapon away.
Then Claire appeared in the doorway.
“Daniel!”
He froze.
Rachel and six agents poured in behind her.
“DROP IT!”
Daniel looked around.
Finished.
He released the gun.
Rachel handcuffed him.
As agents led him away, he looked at me.
“You think this ends when I go to prison?”
I picked Lily up.
“Yes.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Ask Claire who helped her escape Briarwood.”
I looked at her.
Claire’s face changed.
Daniel laughed.
“She still hasn’t told you.”
“Claire?”
She stared at him.
Then at me.
“I didn’t escape alone.”
“Who helped you?”
Her eyes filled.
“Your mother.”
I stopped breathing.
“My mother died twenty-six years ago.”
Claire whispered:
May you like
“No, Adrian.”
“She didn’t.”
