Chapter 19 - Beatrice Mercer Was Raised Beside the Children She Experimented OnFather Ansel had served at Saint Agnes Church near the original Mercer clinic.
As a young priest, he heard confessions from nurses who worked for Bernadette Mercer. Most spoke vaguely about falsified adoptions and sedated children.
One nurse brought evidence.
Before she could testify, she disappeared.
“Bernadette had three girls living in the First House,” Father Ansel said. “Lucinda Vale, Eleanor Vale, and her own daughter, Beatrice.”
Bernadette did not raise Beatrice as family.
She raised her as an observer.
Beatrice ate better food and slept in a separate room, but she underwent the same memory tests. She learned how fear altered recall, how songs preserved sequences, and how children could be taught to accept invented histories.
“She was both prisoner and apprentice,” Mara said.
Father Ansel nodded. “Until she chose which one she wanted to become.”
At sixteen, Beatrice helped Bernadette move Lucy and Elena into Saint Orison custody.
Years later, she killed her mother.
At least, that was what Father Ansel had believed.
The silver key opened a compartment beneath the wooden box. Inside was a narrow roll of film.
Mara developed it in Belladonna’s unused office.
The photographs showed a concrete building surrounded by woods. A bell tower rose behind it, though no church appeared on modern maps.
One image showed Bernadette Mercer alive only five years earlier.
Samuel lowered himself into a chair.
“If Bernadette is alive, Beatrice may not control the First House.”
Lily remembered the elderly woman’s voice on the phone.
They had assumed it was Beatrice.
It could have been Bernadette.
Tomas examined the bell tower against satellite images. An abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium stood twelve miles north of Ashcombe. Its original chapel had collapsed, but the bell tower remained.
Gabriel prepared vehicles.
Lily refused to stay behind.
“This concerns my birth, my mother, and a child wearing my face.”
“It may be a trap,” Gabriel said.
“It is definitely a trap.”
That ended the argument.
Before departure, Father Ansel gave Elena the burned shoe.
“Lucy carried you out of the fire. This belonged to you.”
Inside the sole, Elena found a strip of paper protected by wax.
Three words appeared in a child’s handwriting.
BEATRICE STARTED FIRE.
Elena closed her fist around the message.
For the first time, her fear became anger.
Across the city, an unseen camera transmitted their departure.
Inside the First House, an elderly woman watched the convoy leave Belladonna.
Beside her, Beatrice Mercer stood with blood on her white sleeve.
“You promised they would bring Lily willingly,” Bernadette said.
Beatrice looked at Lucy chained to a chair.
“They are coming.”
“And the girl?”
May you like
Beatrice glanced toward Lillian.
“The girl is beginning to remember that she is not Lily.”
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