Chapter 8 - THE FATHER WHO WAS NEVER DEAD
Robert Mercer was alive.
For five years, he had lived under another name.
He had been controlling the trust remotely.
And now he knew we had discovered the truth.
That night, Daniel received a text.
Bring Claire to the old harbor. Alone.
He showed it to me.
I shook my head.
“No.”
“I have to go.”
“We go together.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“This started because of me.”
“It started because of your family.”
“And I'm going to end it.”
I refused to let him go alone.
We went to the harbor with police nearby.
Robert was waiting inside an abandoned warehouse.
He looked older.
Smaller.
But his eyes were exactly as I remembered.
Cold.
Calculating.
“You ruined everything,” he said to me.
I stepped forward.
“No. You did.”
He smiled.
“You think this is about money?”
“Isn't it?”
“No.”
He pointed toward Emma.
“This family was built to survive.”
“At the expense of children?”
“At the expense of weakness.”
I felt sick.
Robert admitted that Eleanor had followed his orders.
Rebecca had rebelled.
My mother had discovered the truth.
And Daniel had been manipulated from childhood.
But there was one final secret.
Robert had not taken Emma for her inheritance.
He had taken her because she was proof.
“Proof of what?”
He smiled.
“Your mother wasn't the first woman to discover us.”
He handed me a file.
Inside were records showing dozens of families had been victims.
The Mercer operation had existed for decades.
But Robert's final page shocked me.
There was a signature.
Mine.
I stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
“You did.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“You were unconscious.”
The document transferred temporary guardianship of Emma.
Forged.
But convincing.
Robert had planned to use it in court.
Then the police stormed the warehouse.
Robert tried to run.
Daniel tackled him.
The struggle lasted only seconds.
Handcuffs snapped around Robert's wrists.
For the first time, the Mercer dynasty looked fragile.
But as Robert was led away, he leaned toward me.
“You still don't know where Rebecca is.”
I froze.
May you like
He whispered:
“She never left.”
