Chapter 8 - the dead doctor)
Nathan Vale had died in a boating accident off Cape Cod.
At least that was what the official record said.
His body had never been recovered.
Ava sat inside the villa library while Detective Walsh read the old report.
"Boat found drifting. Blood on deck. Personal belongings inside. Coast Guard search lasted six days."
"No body," Ava said.
"No."
"And nobody questioned it?"
"He was presumed dead after the statutory process."
Julian paced beside the fireplace.
"Northstar shut down the same year."
Marcus nodded.
"Three months later."
Ava looked at the image of the tattoo again.
"Could the video be old?"
"No," Walsh said.
"The file metadata can be manipulated, but Owen is clearly his current age."
"So Nathan Vale is alive."
"Likely."
Julian stopped pacing.
"And helping Sebastian."
"Or trying to limit what Sebastian does."
Ava remembered the video.
Enough.
His temperature is dropping too fast.
That did not make Nathan good.
He had still stood inside a room where a child was being terrorized.
But perhaps he was not operating from the same motive.
Marcus brought another stack of documents.
"I found the connection between Richard Mercer and Northstar."
Ava leaned forward.
"What?"
"Julian was tested."
Julian stared.
"When?"
"Without your knowledge. Seven years ago."
"How?"
"Blood sample from an executive physical."
Ava felt sick.
Julian looked furious.
"My father stole my DNA?"
"It appears so."
"What was he looking for?"
Marcus placed a page on the table.
Most of the report was technical.
Ava understood only a few phrases.
Hereditary marker.
Autosomal sequence.
Paternal match exclusion.
Julian read longer.
Then his face went blank.
"What?"
Ava asked.
He handed her the page.
At the bottom was one sentence.
SUBJECT JULIAN MERCER IS NOT THE BIOLOGICAL SON OF RICHARD MERCER.
Ava stared.
Julian sat down.
Nobody spoke.
He read it again.
Then again.
"My father wasn't my father."
Ava watched the man she had known for eleven years lose an entire piece of his identity in less than ten seconds.
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
"There may be more."
Julian laughed once.
"Of course there is."
"The test also included Sebastian."
Julian lifted his head.
"And?"
"Sebastian was Richard's biological son."
Ava understood the trust differently now.
"Then Richard discovered one son was biologically his and the other wasn't."
"Yes."
"And he still left the controlling shares to your child."
Julian looked at her.
"Which would make Sebastian hate Owen even more."
Marcus nodded.
"But it doesn't explain why."
Ava examined the report.
"Maybe Richard didn't care about biology."
Julian looked bitter.
"You didn't know my father."
"Maybe he cared about something else more."
Walsh raised her eyes.
"Such as?"
Ava remembered Celeste's words.
Richard knew something about Owen.
"Northstar did reproductive genetics."
Marcus nodded.
"Among other things."
"What if Richard wasn't only testing Julian?"
He looked at her.
Ava continued.
"What if he was trying to identify Julian's biological father?"
Silence.
Julian slowly turned toward Marcus.
"Can we?"
"We may be able to compare the sequence."
"Do it."
Walsh stepped in.
"With Julian's consent."
"You have it."
Marcus made the call.
Two days later the result came back.
There was a familial match in a private ancestry database.
Not a direct parent.
A cousin.
The family name was Bennett.
Ava stared at the screen.
"Bennett?"
Her own surname.
Julian looked at her.
"That's your family name."
"I know."
Marcus opened the family tree.
The match traced through Ava's maternal grandfather.
Then to his older brother.
Thomas Bennett.
A man Ava remembered only from stories.
Thomas had died before she was born.
He had worked as a young engineer at Mercer Aerospace, Richard Mercer's first company.
Ava looked at Julian.
"No."
Marcus said nothing.
Ava stood.
"My great-uncle cannot be Julian's father."
"He could be."
"He died forty years ago."
"Julian is thirty-nine."
The dates fit.
Ava felt dizzy.
Julian stared at the family tree.
"If Thomas Bennett was my biological father..."
He looked toward Ava.
"What does that make us?"
Marcus quickly checked.
"Distant relatives by marriage line only. Thomas was your maternal grandfather's half-brother. There is no close genetic relationship between you and Ava."
Ava let out a breath she had not realized she was holding.
But the emotional shock remained.
Julian had spent his life believing he was a Mercer.
Biologically, he was partly tied to Ava's family.
Walsh looked at the report.
"Why would Richard raise another man's son?"
Marcus answered.
"Maybe because Thomas Bennett saved his life."
Everyone turned.
He opened an old newspaper archive.
A factory fire.
1986.
A young Richard Mercer had been trapped inside a research building.
Engineer Thomas Bennett entered the building and pulled him out.
Thomas died from smoke inhalation three months later.
Ava stared at the photograph.
Richard and Thomas had been friends.
More than friends.
Almost brothers.
Julian whispered, "My mother."
Marcus nodded.
"Apparently she and Thomas had an affair shortly before his death."
Julian leaned back.
"And Richard knew."
"Eventually."
Ava looked at the trust documents.
Suddenly the decision to leave the company to Julian's first child did not seem like an insult to Sebastian.
It seemed like a debt.
Richard had not given Owen the company because Owen carried Mercer blood.
He had given it to him because Owen carried Thomas Bennett's.
A legacy returned to the descendant of the man who saved him.
Ava felt tears sting her eyes.
Then Walsh's phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
"Where?"
Everyone watched.
She ended the call.
"We found Nathan Vale."
Ava stood.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Walsh looked toward the window.
"In your old family cabin."
Ava went cold.
The Bennett cabin.
A property almost nobody knew existed.
Except Ava.
Julian.
And her mother.
May you like
Nathan Vale was hiding inside a house belonging to the family whose blood had secretly changed the Mercer empire.
That could not be coincidence.
