Chapter 9 - The Lawyer's Last Confession
The hospital smelled of antiseptic and burned coffee.
I followed Julian through the private surgical wing while two federal agents walked ahead of us.
Special Agent Price had insisted on additional security.
Samuel Mercer was being treated for severe injuries after a car struck him outside his Manhattan office.
Police were investigating whether the collision had been deliberate.
He had regained consciousness twice.
Both times, he had asked for Julian.
And both times, he had asked whether I was alive.
By the time we reached his room, I was trembling.
Mercer lay beneath a white blanket.
His face was bruised.
A monitor beeped beside his bed.
He looked much older than his photograph.
Julian stopped at the doorway.
"Samuel."
Mercer's eyes opened.
He tried to sit.
"Julian."
His voice was little more than a rasp.
Price approached the bed.
"Mr. Mercer, I'm Special Agent Owen Price."
"We need to ask you some questions."
Mercer shook his head.
"Not until I speak to them."
He pointed weakly toward Julian and me.
Price studied him.
Then he nodded to the nurse.
A recorder was placed beside the bed.
Mercer's eyes moved toward me.
"Daniel's daughter."
I stepped closer.
"You knew my father."
"Better than most."
"Then you know what happened to him."
Mercer closed his eyes.
"Yes."
For a moment, I thought I might be sick.
"Tell me."
He looked at Julian.
"Your father tried to stop it."
Julian frowned.
"Stop what?"
"Richard."
"Victoria."
"The money."
Mercer coughed.
A nurse checked the monitor.
He waved her away.
"Twenty-four years ago, Edward discovered that his wife had been hiding something."
Julian stared.
"What?"
Mercer took a shallow breath.
"She had adopted you privately."
Julian gripped the bedrail.
"Adopted?"
Mercer nodded.
"Eleanor couldn't carry a pregnancy."
"Edward wanted children."
"So Eleanor arranged an adoption through a private attorney."
"Who was my mother?" Julian whispered.
Mercer's gaze shifted toward me.
My chest tightened.
"No."
He looked away.
I felt my heart pounding.
"Mr. Mercer, don't look at me like that."
He swallowed.
"Julian's biological mother was a woman named Isabel Cruz."
I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
I didn't recognize the name.
Then Mercer continued.
"She worked for the Ashford family."
"She was Daniel Morales's older sister."
The room seemed to tilt.
My father's sister.
My Aunt Isabel.
The woman who had supposedly died before I was born.
Julian looked at me.
Neither of us spoke.
Mercer continued.
"Isabel was nineteen."
"She was unmarried."
"She had no money."
"Eleanor offered to adopt the baby."
"Daniel opposed the arrangement at first."
"But Isabel believed Julian would have a better life."
I stepped backward.
I remembered my father's old photo albums.
A young woman with dark eyes.
A bright smile.
A silver bracelet around her wrist.
My father always became quiet when I asked about her.
"Where is Isabel now?" I whispered.
Mercer opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
His eyes filled with tears.
"She disappeared after the adoption."
"Daniel believed someone had forced her to leave."
Julian leaned forward.
"Did Edward know?"
"Not at first."
"He learned the truth years later."
"By then, Eleanor was already dead."
Julian closed his eyes.
"How did she die?"
Mercer looked frightened.
"Richard."
Julian's eyes opened.
"What?"
"Richard found out about the adoption when he was seventeen."
"He realized you weren't Edward's biological child."
"But he didn't understand the law."
"He believed that if your birth became public, he could remove you from the family."
Julian shook his head.
"Richard was fifteen when my mother died."
"Yes."
Mercer's voice shook.
"And he'd already learned how to make people afraid."
Price stepped closer.
"Are you saying Richard killed Eleanor?"
Mercer swallowed.
"I'm saying Eleanor discovered someone had been changing the trust records."
"She confronted Richard."
"Three days later, she was dead."
Julian leaned against the wall.
I looked at the agent.
"Did anyone investigate?"
Mercer answered before Price could.
"Edward demanded an investigation."
"But the family physician certified a sudden cardiac event."
"Edward believed it for years."
"Until Daniel found evidence that records had been altered."
I thought about my father.
The old financial controller.
The man who had given up his own safety to uncover the truth.
"Why did my father die?" I asked.
Mercer looked at me.
"Because he found the original trust."
"What was in it?"
Mercer began crying.
"Daniel knew the Ashford fortune wasn't meant to belong to either son outright."
Julian stared.
"Then who?"
"Edward and Eleanor created a charitable trust after the adoption."
"It was designed to protect the company and fund schools, hospitals, and housing programs."
"The sons would receive income and participate in management."
"But neither could simply take all the assets."
Julian shook his head.
"That's not the trust Victoria showed me."
"No."
Mercer looked ashamed.
"Because I helped replace it."
Price leaned forward.
"You forged the trust?"
Mercer nodded weakly.
"Richard threatened me."
"He had evidence of crimes I'd committed years earlier."
"Victoria promised to protect me if I cooperated."
Julian stared at him.
"You helped them steal from my father's foundation?"
"Yes."
"And you allowed me to believe I inherited everything?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Mercer looked at the ceiling.
"Because the larger the inheritance appeared, the more valuable your death became to Victoria."
Nobody spoke.
Mercer's breathing became shallow.
He reached beneath his blanket.
Then he stopped.
"There's a key," he whispered.
"A locker."
Price leaned closer.
"What locker?"
"Grand Central."
"Number two-eighteen."
He looked directly at me.
"Daniel left something there."
"Something that explains what really happened to him."
I bent toward the bed.
"What is it?"
Mercer tried to answer.
But the monitor began sounding an alarm.
The nurse rushed forward.
"Everyone out!"
Julian stepped backward.
Medical staff surrounded the bed.
Price pulled me toward the door.
Mercer reached out.
His eyes were wide.
He managed one final sentence before the doctors pushed us into the corridor.
"Don't let Elena meet Isabel alone."
The doors closed.
Julian stood beside me, pale and silent.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Samuel finally told you.
Now ask Julian how much he knew before you entered his house.
Attached was an old photograph.
Julian stood beside Victoria and Richard.
May you like
All three were smiling.
The date printed beneath it was two years after Richard's supposed death.
