Michael looked as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
Anna remained near the door with her hands visible while Ortiz searched her.
No weapon.
No phone.
Only a small leather wallet and a folded photograph.
Ortiz took both.
“Who is Samuel’s other son?”
Anna looked at me.
“His name is David.”
The name meant nothing.
“David what?”
“Mercer.”
Michael flinched.
“Mercer?”
Anna’s eyes moved to him.
“Yes.”
“My mother’s name.”
“Yes.”
“Are you my brother?”
Anna swallowed.
“No.”
Michael stared.
“You told Daniel Samuel had two sons.”
“He did.”
“Then who am I?”
Anna looked at him with so much grief that I suddenly understood before she spoke.
“Harlan’s.”
Michael took a step back.
“No.”
“Michael.”
“No.”
“You were my child.”
He stared at her.
“With Harlan?”
“Yes.”
“But the DNA—”
Anna looked at me.
“The database relationship was manipulated.”
Grace straightened.
“How?”
Anna glanced toward the computers.
“Ask whoever controls these systems.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“My paternity test matched Daniel.”
“Did you see the raw data?”
He said nothing.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“You saw the interpretation.”
“Yes.”
Anna nodded sadly.
“Harlan taught you to trust reports more than people.”
Michael looked like she had struck him.
I stepped in.
“Who is David?”
Anna faced me.
“Samuel’s son.”
“With whom?”
“Me.”
Now I was the one who stopped breathing.
Anna continued.
“I had David five years before Michael.”
“So my father had two children with you.”
“One.”
I frowned.
“You just said Michael—”
“Harlan was Michael’s father.”
I stared.
Anna closed her eyes.
“My life was complicated.”
“That is not the word I would use.”
“No.”
She accepted that.
“Samuel and I were together first.”
“While he was married to my mother.”
“Yes.”
“And David?”
“Samuel’s.”
“Where is he?”
Anna looked toward the corridor.
“Closer than you think.”
Ortiz spoke.
“Full name.”
“David Mercer.”
“Date of birth?”
Anna gave it.
Grace pulled out her phone.
“I know that name.”
Every head turned toward her.
“How?”
“He works here.”
My stomach dropped.
“Department?”
Grace was already searching the staff directory.
She found it.
Her face went pale.
“Pharmacy.”
Michael swore under his breath.
“Oncology pharmacy.”
Grace looked at me.
“He’s a clinical pharmacist.”
The credential access.
Rachel’s medication.
The RV-13 drug.
Everything aligned at once.
Ortiz grabbed her radio.
“Lock down oncology pharmacy. Locate David Mercer. Do not alert him directly.”
Anna stepped forward.
“He’ll run.”
Ortiz looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because he knows I’m alive.”
“When did he learn?”
“Six days ago.”
“The church.”
Anna nodded.
“He was there.”
Elaine had said only she and Harlan were in the traffic image.
But someone could have arrived separately.
I asked, “Did he write Phase II in the ledger?”
“Yes.”
Rachel’s voice came weakly.
“Why?”
Anna looked at her.
“Because he believes Harlan ruined his life.”
Leah laughed.
“So he decided to continue Harlan’s experiment?”
“He wants to prove the research works.”
“Why?”
“To take it from him.”
Michael stared at Anna.
“David is a researcher?”
“Trained as a pharmacist. Studied molecular genetics.”
Michael looked sick.
“I know him.”
Everyone turned.
“You know David?”
“He consults on trial medication protocols.”
Grace whispered, “You work with him.”
“Yes.”
“How closely?”
“Weekly.”
I stared at Michael.
“You worked beside your brother and didn’t know.”
Michael laughed once, hollowly.
“Apparently that’s another family tradition.”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“I tried to keep David away from Harlan.”
Michael looked at her.
“But not me.”
Anna’s face broke.
“Harlan took you.”
Silence.
“He told everyone you died.”
Michael stared at her.
“He raised me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Twice before you were five.”
“What happened?”
“Harlan threatened David.”
Michael’s mouth tightened.
“So you chose him.”
Anna recoiled.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I was trying to protect both of you.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this story protects children by abandoning one.”
Anna began crying.
Michael turned away.
Grace watched him.
For the first time since Anna arrived, some of the suspicion in her face softened.
Not trust.
Recognition.
Ortiz asked Anna, “Tell us exactly what David has done.”
“I don’t know everything.”
Leah groaned.
“Of course.”
Anna looked at her.
“I know enough.”
“Start there.”
Anna sat in one of the metal chairs.
“David grew up knowing Samuel was his father.”
I stiffened.
“My father knew him?”
“Yes.”
“How involved?”
“Occasional visits. Money.”
“Did my mother know?”
“No.”
“Harlan?”
“Yes.”
“Did David know Michael existed?”
“Not until he was seventeen.”
Michael turned.
“What happened then?”
“David found old correspondence between Samuel and me.”
“Did he contact Harlan?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He wanted to meet you.”
Michael stared.
“He never did.”
“Harlan refused.”
“Why?”
“Because by then Harlan had built his research around keeping certain subjects separate.”
Grace whispered, “Even his own son.”
Anna nodded.
Michael sat down.
The cruelty of Harlan’s system was becoming clearer.
He did not merely observe separated families.
He created separation because separation generated data.
“What did David do?”
“He became obsessed.”
“With Michael?”
“With all of it.”
Anna looked at Grace and Leah.
“He believed Harlan had discovered something scientifically important and wasted it through greed.”
Leah stared.
“He thinks the problem with trafficking babies was poor research management.”
Anna said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Grace folded her arms.
“How did he get access to us?”
“Through Michael.”
Michael looked up.
“I never gave him access.”
“Not knowingly.”
“What does that mean?”
“You trusted him.”
Michael’s face changed.
“I shared trial systems.”
“Yes.”
“I gave him database permissions.”
“Yes.”
Grace whispered, “He used your credentials.”
Anna nodded.
“He built an administrator layer under your accounts.”
Michael stood.
“That’s how he created Grace’s authorization.”
“Yes.”
“And signed M.V.”
“Yes.”
I asked, “Why frame Michael?”
“Insurance.”
“Against what?”
“If Phase II caused harm, the evidence would lead to Michael.”
Michael turned toward the terminal.
“Can we prove this?”
Ortiz said, “We’ll try.”
Anna looked at me.
“David has spent years preparing.”
“How many?”
“At least four.”
Rachel whispered, “Since my recurrence.”
“Yes.”
“He knew I was sick?”
“He knew before you did.”
Rachel stared.
“How?”
“Your labs.”
Michael looked at Anna sharply.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Her recurrence was identified from imaging.”
“The imaging confirmed it. The markers appeared earlier.”
Michael’s face tightened.
“David had access to pathology.”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked sick.
“He watched it begin.”
Anna nodded.
“And did nothing.”
“He needed the natural progression.”
Grace’s disgust was immediate.
“You’re saying he let her cancer grow because it was useful.”
“Yes.”
I moved toward the door.
Ortiz stopped me.
“Where are you going?”
“To find him.”
“No.”
“He is in this building.”
“So are hundreds of patients.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
I stared at her.
She lowered her voice.
“If David has access to controlled substances and thinks we’re closing in, you charging around helps nobody.”
My hands shook.
Rachel said softly, “Danny.”
I looked at her.
“Stay.”
The word was simple.
I stayed.
Ortiz’s radio crackled.
An officer reported that David Mercer was not in oncology pharmacy.
His badge had last been used seventeen minutes ago.
Location: pediatric research wing.
Anna stood.
“No.”
“What?”
“He won’t stay there.”
“How do you know?”
“He used pediatric access as a route to pathology.”
Michael nodded.
“There’s a service corridor.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Specimen storage.”
Grace’s face changed.
“My blood samples.”
Michael looked at her.
“Yes.”
Ortiz ordered officers toward pathology.
Then Leah asked, “Why would he go there now?”
Anna stared at the floor.
“To destroy evidence.”
“Or take it,” Michael said.
“What evidence?”
Michael looked at the refrigerated cabinets.
“Samples.”
He turned to Grace.
“If David dosed you and Leah, he needs post-exposure comparison material.”
“Why?”
“To measure the effect.”
Rachel whispered, “He needs their blood.”
Michael nodded.
I looked at Leah.
She had gone very still.
Then Grace’s phone buzzed.
She read the notification.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“My employee health portal.”
“What about it?”
“A new blood draw order.”
Michael moved beside her.
“Who ordered it?”
Grace opened the record.
David Mercer.
Location: pathology collection room three.
Appointment time:
Now.
Leah laughed in disbelief.
“He invited you.”
Grace looked at Michael.
“No.”
Her face tightened.
“He’s telling us where he is.”
Ortiz’s radio crackled again.
An officer’s voice.
“Pathology corridor clear. No Mercer.”
Then static.
Another voice broke through.
“Detective, we found a staff member unconscious.”
Ortiz lifted the radio.
“Condition?”
“Alive. Sedated.”
“Location?”
“Freight elevator.”
Michael went pale.
“That elevator goes to the roof.”
We all looked upward instinctively.
The hospital had a helipad.
Ortiz ran.
Officers followed.
I pushed Rachel’s wheelchair behind them until Grace took over.
At the service elevator, the indicator was moving.
Level seven.
Eight.
Roof.
Ortiz hit the call button.
Nothing.
Michael turned toward the stairwell.
“Faster.”
We climbed.
Rachel stayed behind with Grace and a guard.
Leah came with us despite Ortiz shouting at her to stop.
By the time we reached the roof access door, my lungs burned.
Ortiz opened it carefully.
Wind hit us.
The helipad lights were on.
No helicopter.
David Mercer stood near the edge in a white pharmacy coat.
He was holding a black insulated specimen case.
I recognized him immediately.
Not because I had seen his photograph.
Because he looked like my father.
Not exactly.
But enough.
The same shoulders.
Same narrow eyes.
Same habit of standing with his weight slightly forward.
David looked at me.
“So you finally know.”
I stepped out.
“You’re Samuel’s son.”
“Unfortunately.”
Anna came through the door behind us.
“David.”
His face changed.
Not fear.
Pain.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Michael stopped beside her.
David looked at him.
Then laughed.
“There he is.”
Michael stared.
“You knew.”
“Of course.”
“All these years.”
“Yes.”
“You worked with me.”
“Yes.”
“You used my credentials.”
“Yes.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Harlan trusted you.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“More than me.”
David glanced at Anna.
“He got the son she abandoned.”
Anna flinched.
Michael stepped forward.
“She didn’t abandon me.”
David smiled.
“You’ve known that for ten minutes.”
Ortiz raised her weapon.
“Put the case down.”
David ignored her.
I asked, “What’s inside?”
He looked at me.
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
“That Harlan was right.”
Grace appeared in the doorway behind us.
She had left Rachel with the guard.
“About what?”
David’s eyes lit up.
“That the mutation can be triggered predictably.”
My chest tightened.
“You dosed her.”
“Yes.”
Grace stared at him.
“And Leah.”
“Yes.”
“You could have killed us.”
“No.”
Michael snapped, “You had no idea what the dose would do.”
David smiled.
“I had a model.”
“A model is not a patient.”
“Harlan used to say that.”
Michael looked sick.
David lifted the case.
“Grace showed significant repair disruption. Leah didn’t.”
Grace frowned.
“We’re identical.”
“Exactly.”
Leah’s face changed.
“Environment.”
David nodded.
“Different stress loads. Diet. exposure history. endocrine profile. It’s beautiful.”
Grace whispered, “You’re insane.”
“No.”
He looked almost offended.
“I’m the first person who finished what everyone else was too afraid to finish.”
Anna stepped forward.
“David, give me the case.”
He laughed.
“You always choose badly.”
Her face crumpled.
“I chose survival.”
“You chose Michael.”
“No.”
“You protected him from Harlan.”
“I tried to protect you too.”
“You hid me.”
“I raised you.”
“You raised me afraid.”
Anna’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
David’s eyes hardened.
“Then don’t call it love.”
The sentence echoed Leah’s words to Elaine.
Different children.
Same wound.
Ortiz stepped closer.
“Case down.”
David looked at the edge of the roof.
Then at us.
“If I drop this, the last four years disappear.”
Michael said, “Do it.”
Everyone looked at him.
David frowned.
“What?”
“Drop it.”
“You know what’s in here.”
“Yes.”
“You helped build the platform.”
“I was wrong.”
David laughed.
“No, Michael. You got scared.”
“I got human.”
David’s expression changed.
“That’s why Harlan never respected you.”
Michael took another step.
“He never respected either of us.”
David’s hand tightened around the case.
“And Samuel?”
I asked.
He looked at me.
“What about him?”
“Did you know him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you help him?”
David smiled faintly.
“No.”
Then his expression darkened.
“I killed him.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: David Confessed to Killing Samuel, Then Claimed Daniel’s Father Had Ordered Rachel and the Twins Eliminated Years Earlier
Three Years After Our Divorce, Rachel Left Her Wedding Ring on My Pillow and Vanished Before I Woke
Part 14 of 43
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