Chapter 10 - The Chapel Confession
The chapel stood abandoned behind a cemetery, its stained-glass windows cracked and its bell tower leaning toward the road. Rain swept across the graves as Mara’s team surrounded the property.
Daniel entered with Mara and two agents. The address from Hale’s note had included a time: midnight.
Linda waited inside.
She wore the same cream suit from the day she burned the records, now stained at the hem with mud. Her electronic monitor was gone. A small pistol rested on the pew beside her, beyond immediate reach. She looked older than she had three days earlier.
Daniel stopped at the end of the aisle. “Where is Adelaide?”
Linda looked toward the altar. “Not hello. Not why. Your wife has changed you.”
“She showed me what you are.”
Linda’s mouth tightened. “I spent my life keeping this family from being torn apart by weak people and old promises.”
“You sterilized my wife.”
“I prevented a legal catastrophe.”
“You poisoned her.”
“I did not enter that hospital room.”
“You put anticoagulants in our house.”
“To delay her long enough to move the trust before she discovered who she was. I calculated a safe dose.”
Emma, listening through Daniel’s concealed microphone, closed her eyes. Linda spoke about her body as if it had been a locked account.
Mara said, “Where is Adelaide Mercer?”
Linda studied her. “Evelyn will kill her once she no longer needs proof of lineage. Victor will sell her to whichever side pays more. Thomas will tell you he is innocent, though he built the first cage.”
Daniel stepped closer. “My father tried to expose Briarwood.”
“After he profited from it for years.” Linda’s voice sharpened. “He loved being righteous once the money was secure.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
The word broke through Daniel’s anger. He gripped the pew.
Linda described how Thomas survived Hale’s drug protocol. At Greenhaven, he pretended to have severe cognitive damage while secretly communicating with Nora Bell. Evelyn moved him to Saint Orison after Adelaide escaped, believing Thomas knew where the original Mercer agreement was hidden.
“Why didn’t you bring him home?” Daniel asked.
Linda looked almost offended. “Because he planned to send me to prison and hand everything to Adelaide’s child.”
“My wife.”
“Your wife was not supposed to marry you.”
“How did we meet?” Daniel asked. “Was that arranged too?”
For the first time, Linda looked uncertain. Daniel and Emma met during a delayed flight, when Emma challenged him for taking the last power outlet and then shared it anyway. No family introduction. No business connection. No plan.
“That,” Linda said quietly, “was the one accident none of us anticipated.”
Mara moved the conversation back to Adelaide. Linda said she was held at a private medical lodge called North Pines, hidden within a conservation property owned by Halcyon. The lodge had no public road. Access required coordinates stored on a drive in the chapel crypt.
“Why tell us?” Mara asked.
“Because Evelyn is on her way there, and Victor is helping her.”
A gunshot cracked through the chapel.
One of the stained-glass windows exploded. Linda dropped behind the pew. Agents returned fire toward the cemetery wall. Daniel crawled to Linda and pulled her away from the aisle before another shot struck the stone floor.
Mara’s team pursued the shooter but found only a rifle mounted on a remote platform. The attack had been triggered by camera.
In the crypt beneath the altar, they recovered the drive. It contained coordinates, patient logs, and live surveillance from North Pines.
One camera showed Adelaide Mercer in a bed, thin and motionless but alive.
Another showed Victor Hale entering the lodge with Evelyn.
A third showed a man in a wheelchair near the window.
Thomas Mercer turned toward the camera as if he knew Daniel was watching.
Then Victor disabled the feed.
Linda stood behind Daniel, her face reflected in the monitor.
“He has both of them now,” she said.
Daniel turned. “You’re coming with us.”
Mara placed handcuffs on Linda.
For once, Linda did not resist.
May you like
As agents moved toward the exit, she leaned close to Daniel.
“Do not let Thomas speak to Emma alone,” she whispered. “He knows why she was really created.”
