Chapter 7 - MY MOTHER'S LAST MESSAGE
The key to everything was hidden in an old storage unit registered under my mother's maiden name.
We found it outside Charleston.
Inside were boxes of documents.
My mother's journals.
Photographs.
Letters.
And a small cassette recorder.
I pressed PLAY.
Her voice filled the room.
“Claire, if you're hearing this, I'm probably gone.”
I covered my mouth.
She continued.
“The Mercer family will tell you that I betrayed them.”
“They will say I stole money.”
“They will say I was unstable.”
“Don't believe them.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
My mother explained that she had discovered the Mercer family's scheme years earlier.
They had been falsifying medical records to redirect inheritances.
Children from wealthy families were being declared dead, then secretly placed under controlled identities.
The children grew up unaware of their true legal status.
When they became adults, their estates could be manipulated.
But my mother had discovered the pattern.
Then she discovered me.
My inheritance was the largest one.
And when Emma was born, the Mercers realized she would eventually control everything.
My mother had tried to expose them.
She failed.
Her voice became quieter.
“I couldn't save myself.”
A pause.
“But I can save Emma.”
I began crying.
“She will be taken from you.”
My mother continued.
“So I made a decision I will regret for the rest of my life.”
“I arranged for someone I trusted to hide her.”
My heart stopped.
“Her name is Rebecca.”
Daniel looked at me.
Rebecca wasn't the villain.
She had been protecting Emma.
But why had she later disappeared?
The recording answered that too.
“Rebecca will fake her death.”
“She will keep Emma hidden until the Mercers lose control.”
“But if they find her…”
The recording clicked.
Then my mother's voice returned.
“…she will need to trust the one person they underestimated.”
Me.
The recording ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Emma walked into the room.
She was holding another photograph.
“Mommy.”
I looked at her.
“Where did you get that?”
She handed it to me.
It showed Rebecca holding her as a baby.
On the back were four words:
WAIT FOR CLAIRE.
I started crying.
But then I noticed something else.
Rebecca wasn't looking at the camera.
She was looking behind it.
At someone standing there.
A man.
Daniel recognized him immediately.
“My father.”
And beneath the photograph was a date.
May you like
The day Robert Mercer supposedly died.
He hadn't.
