Chapter 5 - THE CHILD MERCER ERASED
Adrian laughed.
A single disbelieving sound.
“My father had two sons. Me and Lucas.”
“Not a son,” Vanessa said.
“A daughter.”
The room went silent.
Adrian’s father, Richard Mercer, had fathered a child before marrying Adrian’s mother.
Her name was Celeste Mercer.
Only she had never used Mercer publicly.
“She was born Celeste Ward,” Vanessa explained.
Adrian stared.
“How do you know this?”
“My father represented Richard years ago.”
“Where is she?”
Vanessa’s answer came quietly.
“Dead.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?”
“Officially? Overdose.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Unofficially?”
“She threatened to claim part of Patrick Mercer’s estate.”
There it was.
Inheritance again.
Money.
Control.
Family turning blood into paperwork.
Vanessa said Celeste had a son.
A boy who would now be twenty-eight.
If Patrick’s trust recognized descendants through Richard, that child might have a claim senior to Ethan and Emma.
“Name?” Daniel asked.
“Caleb Ward.”
Adrian went completely still.
Daniel did too.
I noticed.
“You know him.”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
“Tell her.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Caleb Ward works for Mercer Consolidated.”
My chest tightened.
“Doing what?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Internal cyber security.”
The same department that had discovered the breach in the twins’ medical files.
I stared.
“You’re telling me the man who found out someone accessed my children’s records might be Adrian’s hidden nephew?”
“Yes.”
“Does Caleb know?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where is he?”
Daniel called.
No answer.
They checked his badge access.
Caleb had entered Mercer Tower at 2:14 a.m. the previous night.
He never badged out.
Adrian ordered the building searched.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel got the call.
They found Caleb inside an unused records floor.
Alive.
Unconscious.
Drugged.
His laptop missing.
When he woke in a private clinic hours later, the first thing he asked was:
“Did they get the twins?”
I stood beside Adrian.
“What do you know about my children?”
Caleb stared at me.
He had Richard Mercer’s eyes.
Adrian’s eyes.
Ethan’s eyes.
Impossible to miss once I knew.
“I found the breach,” Caleb said.
“You reported it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever accessed their records used my credentials.”
Daniel cursed under his breath.
Framed.
Again.
“Who has access to your credentials?” Adrian asked.
Caleb looked at him.
“One person.”
“Name.”
“My supervisor.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Robert Kane.”
Daniel looked stunned.
Kane had served the Mercer family for twenty years.
He ran corporate intelligence.
He had been at Adrian’s wedding.
At his father’s funeral.
At the divorce hearing.
“He works for Malcolm?” I asked.
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been investigating Malcolm for six months.”
He looked toward Vanessa.
“And Hale.”
Vanessa went rigid.
Caleb continued.
“The payments that drove Evelyn out of Chicago didn’t originate with Malcolm.”
Adrian frowned.
“But Hale’s records—”
“Were altered.”
Caleb looked at all of us.
“The person behind the divorce threat used Malcolm’s accounts to make it look like him.”
“Then who?”
Caleb swallowed.
“Robert Kane.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
But Caleb wasn’t finished.
“And Kane wasn’t trying to help Julian inherit.”
May you like
He looked toward the twins’ room.
“He was trying to make sure no legitimate Mercer heir survived long enough to control the company.”
