Chapter 5 - THE SECRET INSIDE MY MOTHER'S LOCKET
Nathan insisted on driving me to the hospital.
I refused to get into his car until he promised that I could leave whenever I wanted.
He agreed.
No argument.
No conditions.
For the first time, I began to suspect that the man everyone feared might be trying to change how he treated people.
But I wasn't ready to trust him.
Not yet.
At St. Augustine Medical Center, Dr. Reed met us near the records department.
She handed me a small evidence envelope.
Inside was my mother's silver locket.
I opened it carefully.
The familiar photograph was still there.
My mother.
A smiling young man.
And a baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
Me.
I'd seen that photograph hundreds of times.
But when Nathan leaned closer, his expression changed.
“That's not your father.”
I looked at him sharply.
“What?”
He pointed toward the man.
“That's Julian Mercer.”
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Nathan's voice was quiet.
“I knew him for fifteen years, Bella. That's Julian.”
I looked back at the photograph.
My mother had always told me that the man was my father.
Could she have lied?
Dr. Reed cleared her throat.
“There's something else.”
She handed me a small folded paper.
It had been hidden behind the photograph.
The writing was faded.
Bella, if you're reading this, I couldn't tell you the truth while I was alive.
My vision blurred.
It was my mother's handwriting.
I kept reading.
The man in the photograph isn't your father. He helped me escape when the Drakes discovered what I knew.
Nathan stepped back.
I swallowed hard.
Your real father was never allowed to know you existed.
My hands trembled.
I looked toward Nathan.
He was studying the note.
Something in his expression frightened me.
Not because he looked angry.
Because he looked devastated.
“Bella,” he whispered, “how old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“What month were you born?”
“November.”
He closed his eyes.
“Why?”
Nathan stepped toward the window.
For several seconds, he didn't speak.
Then he turned back.
“Twenty-five years ago, before I married Victoria, I was involved with a woman named Hannah.”
The world seemed to stop.
I shook my head.
“No.”
Nathan looked at the photograph again.
“She disappeared without telling me why.”
I took a step backward.
“No, Nathan.”
He stared at me.
May you like
And then he asked the question that shattered everything.
“Bella, is it possible that Hannah Carter was your mother—and I was your father?”
