Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN I THOUGHT I BURIED
My mother.
Eleanor Carter.
The woman I had cried over at seventeen.
The woman whose grave I had visited for years.
The woman whose death had shaped every decision I made.
Alive.
I didn't believe him.
Then Daniel sent me a location.
A private clinic two hours outside the city.
Marcus verified it.
The clinic existed.
The patient did too.
Eleanor Carter.
Age sixty-seven.
I drove there alone.
She was sitting beside a window when I entered.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably my mother.
She looked up.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Andrew.”
I couldn't move.
“You died.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
She stood.
“Because your father wanted me dead.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He wanted everyone dead.”
She nodded.
“He started the Mercer operation twenty-five years ago.”
“What operation?”
“The program.”
She explained that my father had built an illegal influence network.
He bought judges.
Controlled businesses.
Manipulated police investigations.
Used violent families to enforce his will.
Thomas Mercer had been one of his strongest allies.
Then my mother discovered everything.
She tried to expose him.
My father staged her death.
“She made me believe you were dead.”
My mother cried.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You left me alone.”
“I watched you from a distance.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
“I know.”
She handed me a folder.
Inside was a letter from Clara.
I stared at it.
“She wrote this before the attack?”
My mother nodded.
“Your wife came to me.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
The letter contained only one sentence.
I know who your father really is.
Under it was another line.
And I know what he intends to do to Andrew.
I looked at my mother.
“What does he intend?”
She whispered:
May you like
“He wants you to become him.”
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