Chapter 11 - the bride returned with a confession)
Claire came back to the estate that evening.
Not to reconcile.
To confess.
She carried a leather journal.
"I found this in my mother's storage unit."
Daniel opened it.
The handwriting belonged to Claire's mother, Elizabeth Bennett.
Pages described Project Juniper.
Elizabeth had founded it with Robert Mercer.
Their original goal was legitimate.
Rare genetic disorders.
Fertility treatment research.
Early screening.
Then a physician named Dr. Adrian Vale began altering the project.
Wealthy clients paid for confidential genetic selection and unregistered embryo transfers.
Some children were placed with different families.
Others had records erased.
When Elizabeth discovered it, she wanted police involved.
Robert wanted more evidence.
Victor's financial structures were unknowingly used to hide payments.
Thomas Reed discovered them.
Evelyn uncovered the birth records.
Mara found Sophie.
Everyone possessed part of the truth.
Nobody possessed all of it.
At the end of the journal, Elizabeth wrote:
Adrian is not working alone.
Someone inside my family has been protecting him.
If Claire ever learns about this, keep her away from Hollow Creek.
Daniel looked up.
"Adrian Vale. Where is he?"
Claire shook her head.
"Officially dead."
"Officially?"
"He disappeared after a boating accident ten years ago."
Daniel almost laughed.
Of course.
Nobody involved in this story ever seemed to stay properly dead.
Claire turned another page.
A photograph had been taped inside.
Dr. Adrian Vale stood beside a younger woman.
Daniel recognized her.
Rebecca Hayes.
Eli's aunt.
Jonathan's wife.
Rebecca had lied.
Again.
Police brought her in.
This time she broke.
Rebecca had worked as a nurse at Project Juniper.
Jonathan knew.
Their marriage had nearly ended because of it.
Rebecca helped move several children under Dr. Vale's orders.
Including Sophie.
She had regretted it ever since.
Years later, when Mara discovered Sophie, Rebecca helped reunite them.
"Where is Mara now?" Daniel demanded.
Rebecca cried.
"I don't know."
"You received messages from her."
"Through anonymous drops."
"Who coordinates them?"
"I don't know."
"Eli came to my wedding because of you."
"No."
"Because of Mara."
"Yes."
"Then Mara knew I was getting married."
Rebecca nodded.
Daniel felt that pain unexpectedly.
She knew.
She watched his life from somewhere.
Watched him mourn.
Watched him fall in love again.
And remained silent.
"Why wouldn't she come home?"
Rebecca looked terrified.
"Because she thinks someone in this house is still working for Vale."
Daniel looked toward Marcus.
Then Claire.
Then the security cameras.
Someone in this house.
Alvarez immediately locked down the estate.
Every employee was questioned.
Phones searched with consent.
Backgrounds rechecked.
Nothing.
Then Lila spoke.
"Not house."
Daniel turned.
"What?"
Lila sat beside Eli on the sofa.
"She didn't say this house."
Rebecca frowned.
"I said Mara wrote 'someone in the house.'"
Lila looked toward the large portrait above the fireplace.
It showed Daniel's childhood family.
Robert.
His mother Eleanor.
Victor.
Daniel.
"That house," Lila whispered.
Daniel stared.
The Mercer family.
Mara did not mean the physical building.
She meant the House of Mercer.
Someone in the family.
Daniel's mother was eighty years old.
Victor was already involved.
Daniel himself was impossible.
Unless there was another Mercer.
Marcus suddenly stood.
"Your father had a brother."
Daniel looked at him.
"Samuel died before I was born."
"Did he?"
The question landed heavily.
Records said Samuel Mercer died in a military training accident at twenty-seven.
No body was returned.
Closed casket.
Daniel searched old photographs.
Samuel looked remarkably like Daniel's father.
And beside him in one image stood a young medical student.
Adrian Vale.
Alvarez whispered.
"They knew each other."
Daniel turned the photograph over.
A handwritten date.
Thirty-eight years earlier.
Below it:
Samuel and Adrian. The beginning of Juniper.
The project was older than anyone knew.
That night a federal database produced another fact.
Samuel Mercer had not died in the training accident.
Military intelligence records showed he entered a classified witness program after exposing illegal medical experiments overseas.
His identity was changed.
He disappeared.
But fingerprints collected from a hotel room near Westbridge three weeks earlier matched Samuel Mercer.
May you like
Daniel's uncle was alive.
And he was back.
