Chapter 9 - THE BOY WITH NO FATHER
They moved to a safe house outside Kansas City before sunset.
It belonged to Alan Reed through a shell company Daniel had created years earlier.
Claire hated that even Daniel’s hiding places had secrets.
The house looked ordinary.
Three bedrooms.
Brown carpet.
A kitchen that smelled faintly of dust.
Yet steel shutters could cover every window.
There were independent cameras.
A generator.
No internet connection.
Nothing about Daniel’s life had been ordinary.
Margaret placed the Whitmore file on the dining table.
Claire held Oliver while Emma sat beside her.
“You said Daniel is your brother.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he ever mention you?”
“Because I was supposed to be dead.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Margaret accepted the insult.
“Our family specializes in funerals without bodies.”
She explained.
Their father, Thomas Mercer, had created Northstar as a government contractor.
Margaret discovered the truth before Daniel.
She tried to expose him.
Thomas retaliated by destroying her identity.
Margaret Mercer died in a boating accident twenty years earlier.
Margaret Collins appeared eighteen months later.
“Daniel thought I was dead until six years ago.”
Claire stared.
“That was after we were married.”
“Yes.”
“He never told me.”
“He was protecting you.”
“Everyone keeps calling lies protection.”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
“You’re right.”
That surprised Claire.
Margaret continued.
“Daniel eventually learned our father was preparing Continuity to survive his own death.”
“Thomas Mercer is dead?”
“Officially.”
Claire laughed without humor.
Margaret almost smiled.
“Exactly.”
Alan opened another file.
Inside was Oliver’s fertility clinic record.
The embryo identification number matched Claire’s paperwork.
But the genetic source code had been altered.
Claire’s chest tightened.
“Whose DNA?”
“We don’t know.”
“Daniel said Oliver wasn’t his.”
“He discovered the substitution after his staged death.”
Claire looked down at her baby.
“Why would Northstar replace our embryo?”
Margaret answered carefully.
“Because of your family.”
“My family?”
Until that moment Claire had assumed everything came from Daniel.
Margaret pushed a photograph across the table.
Claire’s mother.
Eleanor Hayes.
Claire had not seen her in twelve years.
Their relationship ended after Eleanor’s second marriage.
“How does she fit into this?”
“Your mother wasn’t born Eleanor Hayes.”
Claire stared.
“No.”
“She was born Eleanor Vale.”
The name meant nothing.
Margaret continued.
“Her father, Jonathan Vale, controlled one of the largest private industrial trusts in the country. He disappeared in 1987.”
“So?”
“The Vale trust contains a bloodline succession clause.”
Claire shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”
“If no recognized direct descendant claims control by the trust’s eightieth anniversary, management passes permanently to a consortium.”
“When?”
“Six months from now.”
Claire felt dread.
“Oliver.”
Margaret nodded.
“A verified male descendant would have extraordinary leverage.”
“But I’m a descendant.”
“Yes.”
“Emma too.”
“Yes.”
“Then why Oliver?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Because the original trust document gives priority to the first verified male heir born through Eleanor’s line.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“Someone engineered my son to claim money?”
“Not just money.”
Alan spoke for the first time.
“The Vale holdings include defense patents, satellite infrastructure, energy facilities, land, and several companies that technically no longer exist.”
Claire looked at Oliver.
“He is six weeks old.”
“To Northstar,” Margaret said, “he is a signature waiting eighteen years.”
Emma spoke quietly.
“What happens if they get him?”
No adult answered.
Emma looked around.
“What happens?”
Margaret finally said, “They raise him as theirs.”
Claire pulled Oliver closer.
“No.”
“And they erase everyone who can challenge the story.”
Claire went cold.
“Erase?”
Margaret looked at Emma.
May you like
Then Claire.
“You two.”
