Chapter 8 - MY FATHER’S LAST RECORDING
We reached Riverglen at 3:14 in the morning.
It was not a hospital.
It was a private neurological residence hidden behind stone walls and iron gates two hours north of the city.
The sign outside called it a rehabilitation retreat.
The security system suggested otherwise.
Agent Ortiz obtained emergency authorization to enter.
The federal warrant relating to the fertility investigation suddenly became useful.
The night administrator met us in the lobby wearing slippers and panic.
“There is no Martin Hale here.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“He’s in the east wing.”
The administrator looked at him.
“Sir, I don’t know who you are.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
Ethan pulled out his wallet.
His Mercer Medical identification still worked on fear even if his family was falling apart.
“I know the east wing is funded through Mercer Neurological Charities.”
The administrator’s face changed.
Ortiz stepped forward.
“Take us there.”
No one argued after that.
The east wing contained six rooms.
Five were empty.
The sixth had two security locks.
I stopped outside.
My entire body trembled.
Luka stood beside me.
“You don’t have to go in yet.”
“Yes.”
My voice cracked.
“I do.”
The administrator unlocked the door.
A bedside lamp glowed softly.
An older man slept beneath a gray blanket.
His hair was almost completely white.
His face was thinner than I remembered.
A scar ran from his temple into his hairline.
I knew him immediately.
Not because he looked exactly like my father.
He didn’t.
Twelve years had changed him.
But his left hand rested outside the blanket.
His little finger bent inward.
A childhood injury from baseball.
I had teased him about it every time he tried to play piano.
My knees buckled.
“Dad.”
His eyes opened.
Slowly.
Confused.
I covered my mouth.
He looked at me.
Nothing happened.
No recognition.
My heart shattered.
I moved closer.
“Dad.”
His brow furrowed.
I knelt beside the bed.
“It’s Amelia.”
His eyes searched my face.
I started crying.
“I’m Milly.”
Something changed.
His lips parted.
“Milly?”
The sound destroyed me.
I put my forehead against his hand.
He touched my hair.
Weakly.
“You got tall.”
I laughed and sobbed at the same time.
“I was thirteen.”
He blinked.
“You’re…”
“Twenty-five.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“Yes.”
He looked around.
His breathing quickened.
“No, no, no.”
Luka stepped back.
Ortiz motioned everyone else farther away.
Dad gripped my hand.
“They said you were safe.”
“Who?”
“They said if I stayed dead, you were safe.”
I felt rage like fire.
“Elias?”
His eyes widened.
“You can’t say his name.”
“He knows I’m here.”
Dad panicked.
“No.”
“Dad.”
“No.”
“He’ll take you.”
“Dad, listen to me.”
His gaze moved past me.
Then he saw Ethan.
Everything in his face changed.
Fear.
“Get him out.”
Ethan froze.
“Mr. Hayes.”
“Get him out.”
I stood.
“Ethan, leave.”
He did not argue.
That surprised me.
He walked into the hallway.
Dad relaxed slightly.
Then he saw Luka.
His eyes narrowed.
“Dominic?”
Luka’s expression broke.
“No.”
He stepped forward slowly.
“I’m Luka.”
Dad stared.
“Luka.”
“Yes.”
“You grew up.”
“So did Amelia.”
Dad gave a broken laugh.
Then his face changed again.
“Your father.”
“I know.”
“He tried.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Dad shook his head.
“You don’t.”
Luka moved closer.
“What don’t I know?”
Dad looked at me.
“Milly, where is your baby?”
My entire body froze.
“How do you know about Ava?”
His face changed.
“Ava?”
“Yes.”
“My daughter.”
He started shaking.
“They did it.”
I stared at him.
“Did what?”
“They used M-17.”
Luka stepped closer.
“How could you know?”
Dad looked at him.
“Because that was always the plan.”
My stomach twisted.
“You knew Ethan would marry me?”
“No.”
“Then what plan?”
Dad closed his eyes.
“Elias needed a woman from M-01.”
I went cold.
“My mother’s file.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Margaret’s genetic records were clean.”
“I don’t understand.”
Dad struggled to sit.
I helped him.
“The Moretti Legacy Vault required two verified branches.”
“We know.”
“He needed Ethan’s branch.”
“Yes.”
“And Luka’s.”
“Yes.”
Dad shook his head.
“But there was a problem.”
“What?”
“The trustee did not accept children conceived through disputed donor material unless maternal identity was independently verified through a preexisting file.”
I stared.
“So my mother’s M-01 record…”
“Created a clean maternal chain.”
I felt sick.
“They chose me because my mother had been in the program.”
Dad nodded.
“Yes.”
My whole marriage felt even darker.
Ethan had not met me by chance.
I thought about our first meeting at a gallery opening.
He had bumped into me near the coat check.
He had joked about fate.
It had not been fate.
It had been selection.
“Did Ethan know that?”
Dad looked toward the hallway.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Six years.
Every anniversary.
Every vacation.
Every time he said he loved me.
Built on a plan that began before he met me.
Luka spoke.
“Thomas, what happened the night of the crash?”
Dad stared at him.
“Your father saved me.”
Luka’s eyes filled.
“He pulled me from the car.”
“What happened after?”
“The Mercer ambulance came.”
“Dominic fought them.”
“What?”
“He knew they weren’t taking me to a hospital.”
Luka’s jaw tightened.
“Then?”
“They threatened you.”
“Me?”
“Elias told Dominic they had access to your preserved sample.”
Dad looked at him.
“He said if Dominic interfered, they would use it everywhere.”
Luka looked sick.
“So my father backed down.”
“No.”
Dad smiled faintly.
“Dominic Moretti never backed down.”
“What did he do?”
“He let them take me.”
Luka’s face hardened.
Dad continued.
“Then he spent years looking for where.”
“That’s why he became paranoid.”
“Yes.”
“He was searching for you.”
“Yes.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Dad had been alive.
Dominic had known.
Luka had not.
Every family in this story had been split by secrets disguised as protection.
I took Dad’s hand.
“Why didn’t you escape?”
“I tried.”
“Many times.”
“What happened?”
“They moved me.”
“Drugged me.”
“Changed my name.”
His voice became quiet.
“Then my memory got worse.”
I squeezed his hand.
“But you remember me.”
He smiled.
“Not every day.”
The honesty hurt.
“Some mornings I wake up and think you’re thirteen.”
“I’ll take that.”
He touched my cheek.
“Your mother would be proud.”
I cried again.
Luka turned away to give us privacy.
After a few minutes, Dad looked at him.
“There’s a recording.”
“What recording?”
“My last one.”
“We found the cassette.”
“No.”
Dad shook his head.
“The real one.”
My skin prickled.
“Where?”
He pointed weakly toward the nightstand.
Inside was an old hearing-aid case.
I opened it.
A microSD card rested inside.
Dad smiled faintly.
“They never checked.”
Luka inserted it into a secure phone.
One audio file.
Dated three months earlier.
Dad’s own voice.
Stronger than now.
We played it.
“If Amelia finds this, then Elias has probably restarted the program.”
I held my breath.
“The most important thing I learned at Riverglen is that the Mercer trust fraud was only the visible crime.”
I looked at Luka.
The recording continued.
“Elias used fertility patients to create genetic claims across multiple private trusts.”
“Not only Moretti.”
“Families with disputed heirs.”
“Old estates.”
“Private companies.”
“Patent royalties.”
My stomach turned.
This was bigger than us.
“He built children on paper for people who wanted control of wealth.”
The recording crackled.
“And he kept copies.”
“Where?”
Luka whispered.
Dad’s recorded voice answered.
“In the original Mercer fertility archive beneath St. Catherine.”
Dr. Sloan had mentioned restricted files.
Maybe there was a physical archive.
“The access phrase is Margaret’s date of birth.”
I knew it.
April 9.
The recording continued.
“But there is one file Amelia must see before any DNA result is opened.”
My pulse quickened.
“File E-22.”
Ethan.
Age twenty-two.
The night Dad crashed.
The recording paused.
“Ethan was not only protecting his inheritance.”
“He was protecting Amelia.”
I stared at the speaker.
“What?”
“Ethan learned Elias intended to arrange a marriage years later between Amelia and another Mercer relative if Ethan refused.”
My blood ran cold.
“He chose to enter her life himself.”
Dad’s voice continued.
“That does not excuse what he did.”
“He deceived her.”
“He participated in the insemination fraud.”
“But the first time Ethan met Amelia was not because Elias introduced them.”
“He sought her out first.”
I stared toward the hallway where Ethan waited.
The truth had just changed shape again.
The recording continued.
“He believed that if Amelia married him, he could keep Elias from pairing her with someone worse.”
My eyes filled with anger.
“He became the cage so she wouldn’t be put in another one.”
Dad’s voice went quiet.
“Do not confuse that with love.”
“But do not confuse it with simple greed either.”
The file ended.
I sat motionless.
Luka looked at me.
“Do you want to talk to him?”
I did not know.
Part of me wanted Ethan gone forever.
Another part needed to understand how a man could convince himself that deception was protection.
Before I decided, Agent Ortiz entered quickly.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
She looked at Dad.
“Riverglen’s records show a transfer order was issued forty minutes ago.”
“For him?”
“Yes.”
“By who?”
“Elias Mercer.”
My pulse jumped.
“He knows.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Someone inside the facility alerted him.”
Luka immediately moved toward the hall.
“We’re leaving.”
Dad grabbed my wrist.
“No.”
“What?”
He looked terrified.
“Not before you find Samuel.”
I froze.
“My uncle?”
Dad stared at me.
“He’s here.”
“What?”
“Samuel Reed is in this building.”
I looked at Ortiz.
She turned toward the administrator.
Dad pointed down the hall.
“Room E-3.”
We had passed it.
It was one of the rooms marked empty.
Luka went first.
The door was locked.
Ortiz ordered it opened.
Inside, the bed was neatly made.
No patient.
No belongings.
Only one thing rested on the pillow.
A photograph.
Samuel Reed.
Older than my mother.
Standing beside Celeste Pike.
Taken recently.
On the back was a handwritten message.
SHE IS NOT WORKING FOR ELIAS.
I stared at it.
Then another line.
SHE IS WORKING AGAINST HIM.
Before I could process that, the building’s security alarm began screaming.
A nurse ran into the hall.
“Someone entered through the service wing.”
Luka grabbed my arm.
“Get Thomas out.”
May you like
Then every light in the east wing shut off.
And from somewhere in the darkness, Celeste’s voice called my name.
