Chapter 6 - The Truth Buried Under Mercer Estate
"Alexander, if you are watching this, it means Richard has already found you..."
The voice on the screen froze every person in the room.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it thousands of times when I was a child.
I had heard it when my father taught me how to run my first company meeting.
I had heard it when he told me that the Mercer name was built on trust.
My father.
Edward Mercer.
A man who had been dead for nine years.
I stared at the phone in my hand.
Nobody spoke.
Not Elizabeth.
Not Clara.
Not Marcus.
Even my children remained silent.
The video continued.
My father's face appeared on the screen.
Older than I remembered.
Tired.
Different.
This wasn't the confident businessman I grew up watching.
This was a man who looked like he had been running from something.
"Alexander, I don't know when you will see this."
His voice was low.
"But if this message reaches you, it means I failed."
My breathing became heavier.
Failed?
My father had never admitted failure.
Not once.
"You need to understand something."
The camera shook slightly.
"I didn't create the research to hurt people."
My eyes moved toward Elizabeth.
She looked down.
She already knew.
"I created it because I was trying to stop something that had already begun."
The screen flickered.
A document appeared behind him.
A file.
A name.
Mercer Genetic Initiative.
My stomach tightened.
"I discovered that someone inside our company was using my research for something else."
My father's expression became darker.
"Richard."
The name hit the room like a weapon.
Even after everything we knew, hearing my father say it made it real.
"I confronted him."
The video paused for a second.
Then continued.
"And that was my mistake."
My hands tightened around the phone.
"Richard was no longer interested in business."
My father looked directly into the camera.
"He wanted control."
The video suddenly changed.
A series of documents appeared.
Medical records.
Financial transactions.
Private laboratory reports.
Then I saw something that made my blood run cold.
A file with Emma and Ethan's names.
My children.
"No..."
The word escaped my mouth.
Elizabeth moved closer.
"Alexander..."
I looked at her.
"You knew."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I knew parts of it."
"Parts?"
My voice broke.
"My children were used in some experiment, and you only knew parts?"
"I was trying to protect them."
"You left me."
The pain came back instantly.
Six years.
Six years of anger.
Six years of unanswered questions.
"I buried you."
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
My voice became louder.
"I stood beside your grave."
The room went silent.
"I watched people tell me you were gone."
A tear fell from her face.
"I watched our children grow up without you."
"I know."
"Then why?"
She looked at me.
"Because Richard gave me a choice."
I stopped.
"What choice?"
She took a deep breath.
"Disappear or watch our children die."
The words destroyed something inside me.
Because suddenly her disappearance wasn't betrayal.
It was sacrifice.
"What did he do?"
Elizabeth looked at the phone.
"Richard discovered the genetic marker in Emma and Ethan before they were born."
I stared at my children.
"He believed they could unlock your father's research."
"What research?"
"The original research wasn't about creating something."
She paused.
"It was about reversing damage caused by a specific genetic condition."
I frowned.
"Then why are my children sick?"
Elizabeth looked at Clara.
Clara answered.
"Because Richard changed the formula."
I turned.
"What?"
Clara stepped forward.
"He modified the treatment."
My face changed.
"He poisoned them?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"Not exactly."
I hated those words.
Not exactly.
Every secret came with those words.
"He created a condition that would slowly activate the genetic marker."
My hands started shaking.
"And the cure?"
Elizabeth looked away.
"He kept it."
Silence.
The kind of silence that came before violence.
I walked away from them.
I needed space.
I needed air.
Because every person I trusted had been connected to a nightmare I never saw coming.
My wife.
My uncle.
My father.
Everyone knew something.
Everyone except me.
The billionaire who thought he controlled everything.
The father who couldn't save his own children.
The husband who couldn't see his wife was fighting alone.
Marcus stepped closer.
"Sir."
I looked at him.
"We found something."
He held a tablet.
"The man who left the phone."
"What about him?"
"We identified him."
I took the tablet.
A picture appeared.
A man in his late sixties.
Gray hair.
Scar across his face.
I didn't recognize him.
"Who is he?"
Marcus looked at Elizabeth.
Then answered.
"His name is Daniel Cross."
Elizabeth froze.
"Daniel?"
The way she said it made me notice.
"You know him."
She nodded slowly.
"He worked with your father."
"Why would he help us?"
Elizabeth looked terrified.
"Because he was the only person your father trusted."
I stared at the screen.
"Where is he now?"
Marcus hesitated.
"That's the problem."
"What?"
"He disappeared nine years ago."
The same year my father died.
The same year everything began.
Before I could respond, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at it.
Nobody moved.
Then the message arrived.
One sentence.
"Come to Mercer Estate alone if you want the cure."
My heart stopped.
Elizabeth immediately stepped forward.
"No."
I looked at her.
"You know this place?"
Her face changed.
"Yes."
"What is it?"
She whispered:
"The place where Richard started everything."
I looked at the message again.
A location appeared underneath.
The old Mercer Estate.
The property my father abandoned before his death.
The property nobody had entered for nearly a decade.
Marcus shook his head.
"Sir, it's a trap."
"I know."
"Then don't go."
I looked toward Emma and Ethan.
My children were still fighting.
Every second mattered.
If there was even a chance...
I had to take it.
Elizabeth grabbed my arm.
"Alexander."
I looked at her.
"If you go there, you need to understand something."
"What?"
Her eyes filled with fear.
"Richard won't be waiting for you."
I frowned.
"Then who will?"
She looked at the phone.
At the message.
Then whispered:
"The person who has been controlling Richard from the beginning."
The drive to the old Mercer Estate felt longer than any journey I had ever taken.
Marcus followed in a separate vehicle.
Elizabeth insisted on coming.
I wanted to argue.
But after everything I learned, I knew one thing.
She had survived six years for a reason.
The gates of the old estate appeared through the darkness.
The same gates I remembered from childhood.
The same place where my father built his empire.
But now it looked abandoned.
Dead.
Like a place that was hiding something.
We stepped out.
The front door was already open.
That was impossible.
Nobody had lived here for years.
Marcus raised his hand.
The security team stopped.
I walked closer.
Inside the house, everything was covered in dust.
Except one thing.
A fresh trail of footprints.
Someone had been there recently.
Elizabeth grabbed my arm.
"Alexander."
I looked at her.
She pointed toward the hallway.
At the end of it was my father's old private laboratory.
The door was closed.
But light was coming from underneath.
Someone was inside.
Marcus moved beside me.
"Sir."
I reached for the handle.
The door unlocked before I touched it.
May you like
And from inside the room...
someone whispered my name.
