Chapter 13 - The Man Behind Curtis Wynn
Thomas Mercer sat behind Adrian's desk.
A gun rested beside his hand.
Mara stopped.
Adrian moved in front of her.
Mercer smiled.
"Predictable."
"You're surrounded," Adrian said.
"So are you."
He lifted a small transmitter.
"Your security staff are alive. For now."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
Mercer had placed explosives beneath the estate years earlier during renovations funded through a Mercer contractor.
He had prepared for this possibility long before Mara knew he existed.
"You knew Lantern would surface," Mara said.
"I knew Vivienne would eventually lose control."
"So you planned to kill everyone?"
"I planned options."
Adrian almost smiled.
"That's where we differ."
Mercer looked amused.
"People call you the Architect."
"They do."
"Then appreciate good planning."
"I appreciate plans that work."
Mercer's smile faded.
Outside, sirens approached.
He looked toward the window.
Adrian continued.
"The transmitter doesn't control explosives."
Mercer stared.
"It controls nothing."
Marcus stepped from the side corridor.
He held an identical device.
"We found the receivers thirty minutes ago."
Mercer's face changed.
Adrian had noticed a discrepancy in the renovation blueprints days earlier.
He had let Mercer believe the trap remained intact.
The Architect had not walked into Mercer's plan.
Mercer had walked into his.
Mercer grabbed the gun.
Mara moved instinctively.
Adrian was faster.
The weapon skidded across the floor.
Marcus restrained Mercer.
Federal agents entered.
Mercer looked at Mara with hatred.
"Your mother should have let Vivienne keep you."
Mara approached.
"No."
Her voice was calm.
"My mother should have been allowed to keep me."
Mercer was taken away.
No revenge.
No execution.
No mysterious disappearance.
Adrian made certain he reached the courthouse alive.
Because a public trial would destroy more of Lantern than a corpse ever could.
Curtis Wynn testified.
Hale testified.
Daniel testified.
Evelyn testified.
Celeste testified.
Then Elaine Porter appeared.
Alive.
She had been hiding in Canada under another identity.
Her testimony completed the chain.
The criminal network collapsed.
But consequences remained.
St. Arden faced lawsuits and federal oversight.
The Mercer Foundation dissolved.
Its assets were placed into a victim compensation trust.
Adrian voluntarily opened the Vale Foundation's records.
It cost him millions.
He did it anyway.
One evening Mara found him staring at Gabriel's photograph.
"Would he approve?"
"No."
She smiled.
"Why not?"
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"He'd say I waited too
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