Chapter 6 - CHARLES TALKS
Charles Mercer arrived with two attorneys.
He looked twenty years older than Adrian remembered.
His hands shook.
“I want immunity.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You’re in no position to demand anything.”
Charles looked toward the investigators.
“I have evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Everything.”
Vanessa’s payments.
Hospital records.
Recorded conversations.
Copies of the false documents.
Charles had kept them as insurance.
Adrian felt sick.
“You helped steal my son.”
Charles lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
The simplicity of the answer made it worse.
Charles explained the plan.
Vanessa discovered Elena’s pregnancy through Adrian’s private correspondence.
She knew about the trust.
She knew Adrian loved Elena.
And she knew she could never compete with the mother of his child.
So she removed Elena.
First emotionally.
Then physically.
Vanessa intercepted communication.
Charles redirected letters.
Hospital administrator Dr. Warren falsified the transfer records.
Elena was told her baby had died.
Adrian was told Elena had lost the pregnancy and disappeared.
Then Vanessa presented the baby as her own months later.
But Charles revealed something else.
Something even Vanessa had never told Adrian.
“She planned to get rid of Elena permanently.”
Adrian stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Charles swallowed.
“She paid someone to cause Elena’s car accident.”
Elena froze.
Six years earlier, three weeks after leaving the hospital, her car had been forced off a rural road.
She had always believed it was an accident.
She survived because a passing truck driver pulled her from the wreckage.
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Adrian slowly turned toward Vanessa.
For the first time, she looked genuinely afraid.
