Chapter 3 - Blood From a Dead Woman
The second blood type was AB negative.
Emily was O positive.
According to the laboratory report, blood from another woman had been placed beneath Emily’s dressing before Linda entered the room.
The sample contained traces of embalming chemicals.
“Embalming chemicals?” Daniel repeated.
Detective Reyes nodded.
“The blood came from someone who was already dead.”
Emily stared at the report.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It may have been planted as a message,” Reyes said. “Or to contaminate evidence.”
“Can you identify the woman?”
“We’re running DNA comparisons.”
Daniel began pacing.
“Someone entered my wife’s room, placed a drug-delivery device under her bandage, added blood from a corpse, stole her phone, released Natalie’s confession, and then somehow arranged for my mother to attack her.”
Reyes closed the folder.
“That is how it appears.”
“My mother wasn’t arranged,” Daniel said bitterly. “She came willingly.”
Emily remembered Linda’s fury.
“What did she say during questioning?”
“That she received a message from your number claiming Natalie had fled the wedding because Emily threatened to expose her.”
“I never sent it.”
“Linda insists she believed you did.”
“Does she admit attacking me?”
“Yes.”
Emily waited.
“But?”
“She says she struck your abdomen because someone told her your surgery was fake.”
“Who told her?”
“She refuses to say.”
Daniel stopped pacing.
“Then keep her in jail.”
Reyes looked at him steadily.
“That will be decided by prosecutors.”
Daniel turned away.
His anger was understandable, but Emily sensed something beneath it.
Fear.
Not merely fear for her.
Fear of what the investigation might uncover about his family.
The detective’s phone vibrated.
She checked the screen, then walked toward the door.
“I’ll be back.”
After she left, Emily watched Daniel.
“You knew about the sale.”
He remained silent.
“You knew Linda was trying to sell Mercer Medical.”
“I found out last week.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were preparing for surgery.”
“That isn’t the reason.”
Daniel’s shoulders tightened.
Emily had been married to him for seven years. He was gentle, quiet, and loyal to a fault. He hated confrontation, especially with Linda.
Whenever his mother insulted Emily, Daniel defended her privately but rarely challenged Linda in public.
Until the hospital room.
“What did your father leave you besides shares?” Emily asked.
“Nothing relevant.”
“That answer means something relevant.”
He sat beside the window.
“My father created a research division before he died. It developed medical monitoring equipment.”
“What kind?”
“Implantable devices. Drug-delivery systems. Surgical sensors.”
Emily looked toward the evidence bag.
“Like the device found under my bandage?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“Possibly.”
Her anger rose despite the weakness in her body.
“You knew your company could have made it.”
“The design was discontinued.”
“Why?”
“Because one prototype malfunctioned.”
“What happened?”
Daniel did not answer.
Emily’s voice sharpened.
“What happened?”
“A patient died during a clinical trial.”
The words settled heavily between them.
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
One year before their wedding.
“What was the patient’s name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“That isn’t true.”
He looked at her.
Pain filled his face.
“The patient was my first wife.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Daniel’s first wife had supposedly died in a car accident. He had told Emily the story before they became engaged. He said he had not been driving. He said the accident changed his life.
“You told me Rebecca died on the highway.”
“She did.”
“But you just said she died during a clinical trial.”
“She suffered internal bleeding from the device. Mother moved her from the research clinic before authorities arrived. Rebecca died while being transported.”
“In a car.”
“Yes.”
Emily felt betrayed in ways she could not yet name.
“And the official report?”
“Listed the crash as the cause.”
“Your family covered it up.”
“My mother covered it up. My father discovered the truth afterward.”
“What did he do?”
“He shut down the research division. Three weeks later, he died.”
Emily’s gaze moved to the specimen container on the counter.
“Your father died of a heart attack.”
“That’s what the report said.”
“And now you doubt it.”
Daniel’s silence was enough.
Detective Reyes returned ten minutes later with Dr. Wells.
The doctor carried another report.
“The DNA comparison produced a familial match,” Reyes said.
“To whom?” Emily asked.
The detective looked at Daniel.
“The dead woman’s blood came from someone closely related to Natalie and Daniel.”
Daniel’s face lost color.
“Our grandmother?”
“No.”
“Our aunt?”
“No.”
Reyes placed the report on the bed.
“The database comparison suggests the woman was Daniel’s biological mother.”
Daniel laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“My mother is downstairs.”
“Linda Mercer is not your biological mother.”
Emily looked from the detective to her husband.
Daniel stood completely still.
Reyes continued.
“The blood sample is from a woman who died approximately eight years ago.”
Eight years.
The same year Rebecca died.
Daniel gripped the edge of the chair.
“That is impossible.”
“We checked twice,” Dr. Wells said. “The DNA indicates a maternal relationship.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Linda gave birth to me.”
“Do you have proof?” Reyes asked.
“Photographs. Family records. A birth certificate.”
“Documents can be altered.”
Emily remembered something.
A photograph from Daniel’s childhood hung in the Mercer estate library. Linda stood beside a hospital bassinet holding a newborn wrapped in blue.
But Linda’s face was turned away.
Emily had once commented that the baby looked large for a newborn.
Linda immediately removed the photograph from the wall.
“Who was the patient in the clinical trial?” Emily asked.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Rebecca.”
“What was Rebecca’s maiden name?”
“Ellis.”
Dr. Wells exchanged a look with Reyes.
The detective opened her folder.
“The blood sample was matched to remains recovered from a grave registered under the name Rebecca Ellis Mercer.”
Emily’s skin prickled.
Daniel sank into the chair.
“That can’t be right.”
His first wife’s blood had been hidden beneath Emily’s surgical dressing.
But the DNA said Rebecca had also been his mother.
Reyes leaned forward.
“We exhumed the grave after finding inconsistencies in the death record. The woman buried as Rebecca was at least twenty years older than the age listed on her marriage certificate.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
Emily tried to make sense of it.
“Are you saying Daniel married his biological mother?”
“No,” Reyes replied. “We are saying the woman buried under Rebecca’s name was not necessarily the woman Daniel married.”
“Then who was she?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Dr. Wells looked at Emily.
“There is something else.”
He set a scan beside the laboratory report.
“During your second surgery, we found an old incision beneath the scar tissue.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
“How old?”
“Approximately six to seven years.”
“I never had surgery then.”
“That is not all. A fallopian tube had been partially removed.”
Daniel stood again.
“What?”
“And we found evidence that another procedure was performed at the same time.”
Emily’s voice became barely audible.
“What procedure?”
May you like
Dr. Wells took a breath.
“Someone harvested your eggs.”
