Chapter 12 - The Father Beneath the Lie
I could not speak.
Mom watched me carefully.
“I wanted to tell you differently.”
“Then tell me now.”
She closed her eyes.
“Before I met Michael, I was engaged.”
“To who?”
“A man named David Mercer.”
I had never heard the name.
“We were young.”
Mom explained.
David worked with Dad and Victor.
The three men had been friends.
Then David disappeared during a construction accident.
His body was never recovered.
Mom learned she was pregnant two weeks later.
With me.
“Dad knew?”
“Yes.”
“He married you anyway?”
“Yes.”
I felt tears rising.
“He raised me.”
“He loved you.”
The answer came instantly.
“More than anything.”
Then why hide it?
Because David Mercer had not simply disappeared.
He had discovered the same financial network that later trapped Evelyn Carter, Harris, Victor, and Dad.
“Was he murdered?”
Mom whispered.
“I believe so.”
“By who?”
“I never knew.”
Then she told me why Noah mattered.
Six months before Dad died, Noah contacted him.
Noah claimed David Mercer was alive.
My heart stopped again.
“What?”
“Noah said he had proof.”
“Did Dad believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Noah showed him a photograph.”
Mom looked toward me.
“Your biological father was standing in it.”
“Recent?”
“At the time.”
My hands shook.
“Where is the photo?”
“Michael hid it.”
“Where?”
“He never told me.”
Then Mom remembered something.
“Actually…”
She frowned.
“The night before he died, Michael gave Ethan a stuffed bear.”
I stared.
Ethan had carried a brown bear for years after Dad’s death.
We still had it.
At home.
Rebecca and I drove there immediately after the visit.
The bear sat inside a storage bin in Ethan’s closet.
Its left side had been restitched.
I cut the seam.
Inside was a small plastic sleeve.
A photograph.
Three men stood outside a shipping warehouse.
One was Noah.
Younger.
One was Dad.
The third man looked strangely familiar.
Same eyes as mine.
Same nose.
On the back, Dad had written.
DAVID IS ALIVE.
DO NOT TRUST NOAH UNTIL I KNOW WHY HE FOUND HIM.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Where was this taken?”
A company sign appeared in the background.
MERCER ATLANTIC SHIPPING.
I searched the name.
The company still existed.
Its registered owner was listed as Daniel Mercer.
My chest tightened.
Then I opened the executive page.
A photograph appeared.
The man was older now.
Gray-haired.
But it was him.
The man from Dad’s photograph.
May you like
My biological father.
Alive.
