Chapter 5 - The Father in the Shadows
Daniel stepped toward William.
“You died three years ago.”
William held an old silver watch in one hand.
The clasp was still broken.
On the back, Daniel’s childhood initials had been scratched into the metal.
D.M., age nine.
There was no mistake.
His father had been alive the entire time.
Daniel did not hug him.
He did not move closer.
He simply stared.
William Mercer looked thinner.
His once-black hair was almost entirely gray.
A scar ran beneath his left ear.
He leaned on a cane Daniel had never seen before.
“Daniel.”
“Don’t say my name.”
William stopped.
Vivian stood behind him.
Her face was unreadable.
Marcus remained near Richard’s car, already recording notes.
Daniel pointed at Vivian.
“You knew he was alive.”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of the answer hurt more than denial.
“For three years.”
“Yes.”
“I buried him.”
“I know.”
“I stood over an empty coffin?”
William said quietly, “There was a body.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
“Whose body?”
“A man whose family was compensated.”
Marcus spoke from behind Daniel.
“That sentence creates several questions you may want legal counsel present for.”
William looked at him.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who enjoys paperwork.”
Daniel turned back to his parents.
“Start talking.”
Vivian said, “Not outside.”
They entered Northbridge through the rear door.
The clinic was smaller than Daniel expected.
White walls.
Locked laboratories.
A waiting area without magazines or advertisements.
Nothing invited people to stay.
William led them into a conference room.
Richard followed reluctantly.
Marcus remained beside Daniel.
Vivian stood rather than sit.
William lowered himself into a chair.
“Three years ago,” he began, “I discovered irregularities in Mercer Development’s medical investments.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Northbridge had been conducting unauthorized genetic matching research using stored fertility samples.”
Marcus frowned.
“Without patient consent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s criminal.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at his father.
“What does this have to do with us?”
William rubbed the watch between his fingers.
“I discovered my own samples had been accessed.”
“Why were your samples here?”
“Your mother and I used fertility treatment before you were born.”
Daniel turned toward Vivian.
She stared at the wall.
William continued.
“We never told you.”
“So you are my father?”
William’s face tightened.
“Biologically?”
Daniel immediately understood the hesitation.
“You don’t know.”
“No.”
Vivian finally spoke.
“He is your father.”
“You just said—”
“The man who raised you is your father.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
William looked tired.
“Daniel, this is not the part that matters most.”
“Maybe not to you.”
“Your life was in danger.”
Daniel laughed sharply.
“Apparently everyone in this family gets to decide what information I can handle.”
William absorbed the accusation.
Fairly.
“After I discovered Northbridge’s research, someone attempted to kill me during a business trip. Brake lines were cut. My driver died.”
Daniel remembered the report.
A vehicle accident.
His father supposedly suffered a fatal cardiac event afterward.
“We believed whoever was responsible would try again,” William said. “Richard arranged the false death.”
“And Mom?”
“She knew.”
“Why didn’t I?”
“Because we suspected someone close to the family.”
Daniel looked at Vivian.
“Did you suspect Elena?”
Vivian said, “At first.”
He almost overturned the table.
“Of course you did.”
“She had access to the house.”
“She was my wife.”
“She asked questions.”
“That is what people do when everyone around them lies.”
William raised his hand.
“Enough.”
Daniel turned on him.
“No. You don’t get to say enough.”
William lowered his hand.
Daniel continued.
“Elena found your records. She discovered my medical reports were changed. Tonight your wife shoved her down a staircase. Elena lost our child. And now she’s gone.”
William’s face changed.
“Pregnant?”
“Yes.”
William looked at Vivian.
“You told me nothing about that.”
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel saw something pass between them.
Fear.
William turned back.
“Daniel, if Elena became pregnant naturally, we have a serious problem.”
“I’m aware of my fertility results.”
“It isn’t only that.”
William stood despite the pain.
“The condition shown in your original test wasn’t merely infertility. It was a genetic marker.”
Daniel went cold.
“What marker?”
“One connected to the irregularity that started this investigation.”
Richard interrupted.
“William.”
“No more secrets.”
William opened a locked cabinet and removed a thin file.
He placed it before Daniel.
Three genetic profiles.
William Mercer.
Daniel Mercer.
Unknown male contributor.
Daniel looked up.
“What is this?”
“The unknown profile appeared in samples stored under my identity and later under yours.”
Daniel frowned.
“Someone switched samples?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s what Elena discovered.”
Daniel stared at the papers.
William continued.
“She came here nine months ago with evidence. She believed someone had been manipulating fertility treatment records for years.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Vivian gave a bitter laugh.
“Because she knew you would tell me.”
Daniel looked at her.
That landed.
Elena had stopped trusting him because anything she told Daniel eventually reached Vivian.
Daniel wanted to deny it.
He couldn’t.
William said, “Elena intended to gather proof first.”
“Did you help her?”
“Yes.”
“You met my wife behind my back while pretending to be dead.”
“I had no other safe option.”
“You had three years to invent one.”
William looked down.
“I failed you.”
Daniel did not respond.
The phrase was too small.
“What does this have to do with Elena’s pregnancy?”
William opened another page.
“Your condition makes natural conception extraordinarily unlikely.”
“Unlikely isn’t impossible.”
“No.”
Daniel seized that word.
“So the baby could have been mine.”
“Yes.”
Relief and grief hit simultaneously.
Could have been.
Past tense.
William continued.
“But Elena’s pregnancy may also have proved something else.”
“What?”
“That your medical condition had been intentionally induced.”
Daniel stared.
“Induced?”
“Certain experimental treatments can damage fertility.”
“I never had experimental treatment.”
William looked at Vivian.
Daniel followed his gaze.
Vivian went pale.
“Mom?”
She did not answer.
Daniel remembered being twenty-two.
A sports injury.
Private treatment arranged by Vivian.
Injections.
Physical therapy.
A specialist whose name he could not remember.
“What did you give me?”
Vivian whispered, “It was supposed to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From becoming like him.”
She pointed at William.
William’s face hardened.
Daniel stepped backward.
“What does that mean?”
Vivian’s hands trembled.
“You were young.”
“What did you do?”
“I was told the treatment was temporary.”
Daniel felt sick.
“You had me sterilized?”
“No!”
The scream echoed.
“I would never—”
“Then what?”
Vivian covered her mouth.
For the first time that night, she cried.
Not elegantly.
Not strategically.
She simply broke.
“The doctors told me you carried a hereditary condition.”
“What condition?”
“I thought if you had children, they could die.”
Daniel stared.
William closed his eyes.
“You believed Northbridge?”
“They showed me results.”
“Results they manipulated.”
“I didn’t know!”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“And instead of telling me, you decided I shouldn’t have children.”
Vivian sobbed.
“I thought I was saving them.”
Daniel thought of Elena.
The medications.
The injections.
The monthly grief.
His unborn baby.
His knees nearly failed.
Marcus pulled out a chair.
Daniel sat.
Nobody spoke.
Then William’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?”
A voice spoke too quietly for Daniel to hear.
William stood.
“When?”
Another pause.
His eyes moved to Daniel.
“Elena was here.”
Daniel shot up.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where is she?”
William listened.
Then his face drained of color.
“She accessed the lower archive.”
Richard whispered, “That room is restricted.”
William ended the call.
Daniel grabbed his coat.
“Take me there.”
They moved quickly through two secured doors.
At the end of a corridor was an archive room.
The lock had been broken.
Inside, drawers stood open.
Documents covered the floor.
A chair had been knocked over.
On the desk sat Elena’s ultrasound photograph.
Daniel stopped.
His hands shook as he picked it up.
Behind the photograph was a handwritten note.
Daniel,
If you found this, your mother finally told you something.
But she still hasn’t told you everything.
Daniel turned the page.
There was one final line.
Ask her who Claire really is.
Daniel slowly looked toward Vivian.
Vivian’s face went completely white.
Behind them, the archive door clicked shut.
May you like
And Claire’s voice came through the intercom.
“I think it’s time you met my mother.”
