Chapter 17 - The Name He Refused to Finish
No one spoke for several seconds.
Mia studied the young woman’s frozen face on the phone.
Eva had Evelyn’s jaw, Evelyn’s eyes, and Evelyn’s careful way of holding herself. Yet now that Mia looked more closely, she saw something else.
The woman also looked like Mia.
“What kind of sister?” Reed asked.
Jonathan did not look away from Mia.
“Her twin.”
Nora shook her head.
“Mia’s birth certificate records one child.”
“Because Rachel controlled the hospital records.”
Jonathan opened the folder he had brought. Inside was a copy of a delivery-room log dated twenty-six years earlier.
Two female infants had been recorded.
Infant A.
Infant B.
Both lines had been crossed out and replaced with a single name.
Mia Evelyn Mercer.
“Which one was me?” Mia asked.
Jonathan’s answer came too slowly.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re claiming to be my father, but you don’t know which child I was?”
“Evelyn switched the identification bracelets before she disappeared from the hospital.”
“Why?”
“To prevent anyone from knowing which daughter inherited the Northbridge title.”
Reed placed the old dealership transfer beside the hospital record.
“What exactly is this title?”
Jonathan looked at the partly concealed signature.
“Twenty-six years ago, Northbridge transported an archive disguised as medical cargo. The archive contained the original ownership records for hundreds of companies, protected identities, offshore assets, and witness programs.”
“And Evelyn placed it in her unborn daughter’s name?” Mia asked.
“In her daughters’ names.”
Jonathan pointed to the digital restriction hiding the rest of the document.
“The complete signature reads Jonathan Morrow, custodian for the unborn heirs of Evelyn Mercer.”
“Then why did Evelyn warn me not to let anyone complete your name?”
Jonathan’s expression hardened.
“Because she stopped trusting me.”
“Should she have?”
He did not answer.
Mia folded her arms.
“Kyle said you paid the Mercers to raise me.”
“I paid Lorraine to keep you hidden and protected.”
“She kept me financially trapped.”
“I did not know what she was doing.”
“You watched me for years.”
“I received reports.”
“Then you knew enough.”
The laboratory team arrived to collect Jonathan’s DNA sample. Reed ordered him placed under temporary guard until his identity could be confirmed.
Before officers escorted him away, Jonathan turned toward Mia.
“Your birthday is in nine days. On that date, the custodial restriction ends.”
“And then?”
“One daughter will become the legal controller of the archive.”
“What happens to the other?”
Jonathan lowered his voice.
“She becomes the only person capable of challenging the first.”
Nora’s laptop sounded an alert.
The restriction covering the second signature was being removed remotely.
Letters slowly appeared after Jonathan’s name.
Not custodian for the unborn heir.
Custodian for the unborn heirs.
May you like
Below it, a countdown appeared.
EIGHT DAYS, TWENTY-THREE HOURS, FIFTY-NINE MINUTES.
