Chapter 13 - THE FINAL DNA TEST
Rebecca went silent when I asked.
That scared me more than anything Margaret had said.
“What does she mean?”
Rebecca sat in Benjamin’s office.
Noah played with a wooden block on the carpet.
Benjamin closed the door.
“Daniel, there is something Charles never confirmed.”
My patience snapped.
“No more riddles.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Thomas may not have been your biological father.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“We were married. We loved each other. But before Thomas…”
She stopped.
“There was someone else.”
“Who?”
“Thomas’s older brother.”
I felt the room go cold.
Michael Mercer.
He died before I was born.
At least that was what I had always been told.
Benjamin spoke.
“If Michael was your biological father, you are still Mercer blood.”
“So the trust still works.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide it?”
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“Because Michael was married.”
I rubbed my face.
“My family tree is a crime scene.”
Benjamin almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he placed a DNA report on the desk.
“Charles kept Michael’s personal effects. We were able to obtain usable material.”
I stared at the report.
“And?”
Benjamin slid it toward me.
Probability of biological relationship: 99.7%.
Michael Mercer was my biological father.
I sat back.
Rebecca whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not telling you.”
“Did Thomas know?”
“Yes.”
“And he still married you?”
“Yes.”
“And raised me?”
“For the short time he had.”
I looked at Noah.
The kid was chewing the corner of the wooden block.
Completely unaware of the empire people had lied, stolen, and killed over.
I picked him up.
“So Margaret was wrong.”
Benjamin nodded.
“Noah is legally and biologically within the Mercer bloodline.”
“And the trust?”
“Now unquestionably his.”
I stared at the report.
Then another thought hit me.
“If Margaret knew Michael might be my father, why raise me at all?”
Benjamin’s expression changed.
“That question bothered Charles too.”
He opened an old folder.
Inside was a handwritten document.
Margaret’s handwriting.
A plan.
Dates.
Payments.
Names.
At the bottom was one line:
Daniel remains necessary until Victor can be legally substituted.
I read it twice.
“She was going to replace me?”
Benjamin nodded.
“With Victor.”
“How?”
“By changing your identity records and proving you weren’t Mercer blood.”
My stomach turned.
Then Benjamin flipped to the last page.
The most recent entry was dated one month before Emily died.
Remove Emily. Secure child. Discredit Daniel.
I stopped breathing.
Margaret had not only planned to kill my wife.
May you like
She had planned to take Noah.
And then destroy me.
