Chapter 3 - Unit 314
St. Matthew Storage stood behind the old hospital district in a converted warehouse surrounded by chain-link fencing.
Daniel remembered the neighborhood differently.
Twenty years earlier, St. Matthew's Hospital had been one of the city's largest private medical centers.
Now half the original building had been replaced by apartments.
The maternity wing had closed.
Several administrative departments had relocated.
And the hospital's paper archives had been outsourced to a private storage company.
Marcus drove.
Daniel sat beside him.
Noah was in the rear seat.
Daniel had eventually allowed him to come under one condition.
He stayed with Marcus unless Daniel said otherwise.
Noah accepted.
Barely.
The brass key opened Unit 314.
The roll-up door rattled loudly.
Inside were four cardboard boxes.
One metal lockbox.
And an old leather suitcase.
Nothing else.
Daniel felt disappointed and terrified at the same time.
Marcus opened the first box.
Medical bills.
Emily's.
Some recent.
Some more than a decade old.
The second contained newspaper clippings about Daniel.
Mercer Holdings acquisitions.
Foundation events.
Interviews.
A photograph of Daniel standing beside Richard at his father's memorial service.
Noah picked it up.
"That's the man."
Daniel turned.
"What man?"
Noah pointed at Richard.
"The man Mom argued with."
Daniel felt the room tighten.
"When?"
"Two weeks ago."
"Where?"
"Outside our building."
"What did he say?"
"I couldn't hear all of it."
Noah frowned, trying to remember.
"But Mom said, 'You already took one child from me.'"
Daniel slowly looked at Marcus.
Marcus did not speak.
The third box held letters.
Dozens.
Most were addressed to Daniel.
None had been mailed.
Daniel opened the oldest.
September 14, 2007.
Daniel,
Your father told me you left the country and wanted nothing more to do with me.
I don't believe him.
I can't believe him.
Our daughter was alive when they took her from my room.
I heard her crying.
The nurse told me there had been complications, but nobody would let me see her again.
Your father said I was confused because of the medication.
I know what I heard.
I know my baby was alive.
Daniel stopped reading.
His vision blurred.
Noah watched him.
"You okay?"
Daniel swallowed.
"No."
It was the first honest answer he had given anyone that day.
He opened another letter.
October 2, 2007.
Daniel,
They made me sign papers.
Your father said they were hospital release forms.
Later I learned they were adoption documents.
The names of the adoptive parents were sealed.
I went back to St. Matthew's, but the records were gone.
Please come home.
Please ask questions.
I can't do this alone.
Daniel gripped the paper.
"I never saw these."
Marcus believed him.
Noah did too.
But believing himself was harder.
Where had he been?
London.
His father had sent him overseas after the funeral.
Daniel had spent six months drinking too much and speaking to almost no one.
His father controlled his phone.
His mail.
His accounts.
At twenty-one, Daniel had been wealthy on paper but powerless in every way that mattered.
He had eventually returned.
Emily had disappeared.
His father said she had accepted money and moved west.
Daniel had hated her for leaving.
Apparently Emily had believed he had abandoned her.
Two people grieving the same child.
Separated by one powerful man.
Marcus opened the metal lockbox.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
A bundle of legal documents.
And another photograph.
Daniel recognized his father immediately.
Thomas Mercer stood outside a hospital office beside Richard.
Between them was a woman wearing a nurse's uniform.
Written on the back:
RUTH CALDER.
Ask her why she lied.
Marcus examined the adoption papers.
"These are copies."
Daniel scanned them.
The signature beneath Emily's name looked wrong.
Too smooth.
Too deliberate.
He remembered the way Emily signed birthday cards.
The long upward stroke at the end of her surname.
This signature did not have it.
"Forgery?" Marcus asked.
"Maybe."
Noah had moved toward the suitcase.
"Don't touch anything," Daniel said.
Noah stopped.
Then pointed.
"It's Mom's."
Daniel looked.
"You're sure?"
"She kept it in her closet."
Marcus photographed it before opening it.
Inside were clothes.
A toothbrush.
Cash.
A prepaid phone.
And a sealed envelope addressed to Noah.
The boy reached for it.
Daniel handed it to him.
Noah opened it carefully.
Inside was a short note.
Baby,
If you're reading this, then something went wrong.
None of this is your responsibility.
Find Daniel Mercer.
Give him the photograph.
Trust him only after he tells you what happened the morning his daughter was born.
I love you more than every star you can see and all the ones you can't.
Mom.
Noah wiped his face quickly.
Daniel felt an unfamiliar ache in his chest.
He had negotiated billion-dollar contracts without emotion.
Now he wanted to find Emily with an urgency that frightened him.
Marcus turned on the prepaid phone.
One saved contact.
Ruth.
He called.
A woman's voice answered after four rings.
"Emily?"
Marcus put the call on speaker.
"No."
Silence.
"My name is Marcus Hale."
The woman immediately hung up.
Daniel looked at the photograph of Ruth Calder.
"Find her address."
Marcus began searching.
Noah looked toward the back of the storage unit.
"What's that?"
A small envelope had fallen from the suitcase lining.
Daniel picked it up.
Inside was a train ticket.
Purchased three days earlier.
Destination: Bellhaven.
Marcus found Ruth's current address.
He turned the screen toward Daniel.
Ruth Calder lived in Bellhaven.
Daniel looked at Noah.
"Your mother wasn't running away."
"No."
Daniel folded the ticket.
"She was trying to finish something."
His phone rang.
Richard Mercer.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Then answered.
"Daniel."
His uncle sounded relaxed.
Too relaxed.
"I heard your vehicle was damaged."
Daniel's eyes went to Noah.
News traveled fast inside the Mercer organization.
"Who told you?"
"Security."
"What do you want, Richard?"
A pause.
"Nothing."
Then Richard added quietly, "I only wanted to make sure the boy didn't give you anything dangerous."
Daniel's blood went cold.
May you like
He had never told Richard there was a boy.
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