Chapter 8 - THE DOCTOR WHO KNEW VICTOR'S SCAR
Dr. Patel didn't reach for a weapon.
He raised both hands.
“Victor, think.”
Victor’s gun didn't move.
“Who used my phone?”
“I don't know.”
Elena stepped forward.
“You were alone with it while he was being treated.”
The doctor looked at her.
“Yes. And I was trying to contact a surgeon.”
“Through Mercer Medical?”
His expression changed.
There it was.
Recognition.
Then resignation.
Dr. Patel slowly sat down.
“I treated Catherine.”
Victor stopped breathing.
“When?”
“Sixteen years ago.”
Silence.
The doctor continued.
“Your father brought her to me after a staged death.”
Victor’s face became terrifying.
“You let us bury an empty coffin.”
“I was told she was in danger.”
“From whom?”
“Graham Mercer.”
My stomach tightened.
Dr. Patel explained that Catherine discovered Mercer was using Castle Maritime vessels for trafficking and illegal financial transfers.
She intended to expose him.
Instead, Mercer threatened Victor and Elena.
Marcus Castle arranged his wife's disappearance to protect the children.
It was supposed to last months.
Then Catherine vanished from even Marcus.
Victor stared.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“What about my father?”
“He searched for her until he died.”
Victor looked away.
For years, he'd believed his father abandoned Catherine.
Now it appeared Marcus had been trying to find her.
Then Dr. Patel revealed something worse.
Catherine eventually contacted him again.
Years later.
She was no longer asking for protection.
She wanted medical records erased.
Financial files destroyed.
Names removed.
“She joined Mercer,” I said.
The doctor nodded.
“Or she decided survival required becoming useful to him.”
Victor's expression broke.
Then I asked:
“Did she kill my father?”
Dr. Patel closed his eyes.
“I don't know.”
“That isn't good enough.”
“I know.”
He explained that Nathan Brooks had requested a meeting with Catherine shortly before his crash.
He believed she could testify against Mercer.
She never appeared.
Nathan died that night.
I stood.
“So we go to the meeting.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Karen is there because of me.”
“She may already be dead.”
I flinched.
Victor immediately regretted it.
“Hazel—”
“No. You're right. Which is why waiting doesn't help.”
Elena stepped between us.
“We don't go alone.”
I nodded.
Legitimate authorities were contacted through attorneys handling the evidence.
The meeting location was monitored.
No Castle soldiers.
No private revenge.
That was my condition.
Victor agreed.
At 11:58 A.M., we watched from a secure surveillance point as Catherine Castle entered the old gala office.
Karen was alive.
Then another man arrived.
Graham Mercer.
My former employer.
Victor’s mother greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.
Like family.
Then Graham said something captured by the listening device:
“Hazel still has no idea why Nathan chose her.”
Catherine answered:
“She isn't supposed to.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
Graham laughed.
“Then perhaps you should tell her who her real mother is.”
I froze.
My mother was alive.
Safe.
I had spoken to her hours earlier.
Then Catherine said:
“Ruth Brooks raised her. That doesn't make her biological.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Victor looked at me.
May you like
I couldn't breathe.
Because according to Catherine Castle, the woman I called Mom wasn't the woman who gave birth to me.
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