Chapter 10 - The Man Without a Grave
The anonymous sender finally requested a meeting.
Midnight. Union Station. Platform 9. Come alone if you want the complete trust records.
Marcus rejected the idea immediately.
Dana was equally opposed.
Clara went anyway, but not alone.
Federal agents positioned themselves throughout the station while Marcus monitored from a vehicle outside.
Platform 9 had been closed for renovations.
Plastic sheeting covered the walls. Construction lights cast long shadows over the empty tracks.
Clara stood beneath the old clock.
At twelve ten, a man appeared at the far end.
He was tall, silver-haired, and walked with a slight limp.
As he approached, Clara recognized Sebastian Mercer from the photographs.
Age had sharpened his face, but the resemblance to Arthur remained startling.
“You look disappointed,” he said.
“I expected someone less theatrical.”
He smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
“My mother is nothing like Evelyn.”
“I meant Margaret Bennett.”
Clara’s body went still.
“You knew my mother?”
“Very well.”
Margaret had died when Clara was nineteen.
She had worked as an accountant before opening the bakery Clara later expanded.
“What did she have to do with the Mercers?”
“Everything.”
Sebastian handed Clara a small encrypted drive.
“Complete trust records. Original Lake Ashford ledgers. Medical files.”
“Why give them to me?”
“Because Arthur designed the wife clause for you.”
Clara stared at him.
“I was twenty when Arthur died. I had never met Julian.”
“Arthur knew Margaret’s daughter existed.”
“Why?”
Sebastian looked toward the tracks.
“Your mother discovered the Mercer financial network.”
Clara struggled to process the words.
“She was an accountant for a regional construction supplier.”
“A supplier Arthur used to move money.”
“My mother never mentioned him.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From whom?”
“Arthur at first. Evelyn later.”
Clara held the drive tightly.
“Why would Arthur leave me the trust?”
“He didn’t leave it to you personally. He created conditions that only someone like you could satisfy.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
She stepped closer.
“Are you Julian’s biological father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you donate the material used for Chloe’s pregnancy?”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
“No.”
“Arthur?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Before he answered, a construction light shattered.
Darkness covered the platform.
An agent shouted.
A gunshot echoed.
Sebastian pulled Clara behind a concrete pillar.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Agents moved through the station.
Sebastian pressed a key into Clara’s hand.
“Locker 417.”
“You arranged this attack?”
“If I had, you would already be dead.”
He moved toward the service tunnel.
Clara grabbed his sleeve.
“You haven’t answered me.”
He looked back.
“The child is not descended from Julian, Arthur, or me.”
“Then why does Evelyn believe it is a Mercer heir?”
“Because the clinic replaced the records.”
“Who is the biological father?”
Footsteps approached rapidly.
Sebastian pulled away.
“Ask your husband where he was born.”
Then he disappeared into the tunnel.
Agents reached Clara seconds later.
No shooter was found.
Locker 417 contained a single videotape and a birth certificate.
The birth certificate belonged to Julian Mercer.
The hospital listed on it had closed thirty-five years earlier.
The mother was Evelyn Mercer.
The father’s name was blank.
A handwritten note had been attached.
Julian was not the first child Evelyn brought home.
At Dana’s office, technicians converted the videotape.
The recording showed Arthur Mercer seated behind a desk.
The date was four days before the plane crash.
“If this recording is being viewed,” Arthur said, “Evelyn has likely continued the succession project.”
Clara watched with Marcus, Dana, and Nina.
Arthur continued.
“My wife believes blood creates legitimacy. She is wrong. Control must pass to someone capable of breaking the machinery our family built.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Margaret Bennett has agreed to preserve evidence until her daughter is old enough to understand it.”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
Arthur placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed Margaret holding a newborn baby.
The child was not Clara.
“Evelyn believes Julian was conceived using Sebastian’s donation,” Arthur said. “Sebastian believes the same.”
He paused.
“Neither knows the truth.”
The recording suddenly distorted.
Several seconds were missing.
When the picture returned, Arthur was saying, “The original child survived.”
Clara leaned toward the screen.
“What original child?”
Arthur’s final words were clear.
May you like
“If Evelyn completes the succession pregnancy, she may unknowingly restore the bloodline of the person she tried to erase.”
The screen went black.
