Chapter 6
Mark ran into the street.
The SUV accelerated and disappeared around the corner.
He memorized part of the license plate and called the police.
I locked the door and pulled the curtains.
Lily watched from the staircase.
“Was Grandma mad?”
Mark came inside.
“No, sweetheart. Grandma is confused.”
“She scares me.”
The words cut through both of us.
Mark walked to her and crouched.
“You never have to be alone with her again.”
“Even if she says you told her to take me?”
His face went pale.
“Has she said that before?”
Lily nodded.
“At the park.”
I stared at Mark.
“What park?”
“When Grandma watched me.”
Diane had babysat Lily twice in the past month.
Both times, she claimed they stayed at her house.
“Who did you see there?” I asked.
“A lady.”
“What lady?”
“She looked like Daddy.”
Mark swallowed.
“Did she tell you her name?”
“Becca.”
Thomas was right.
Diane had met Rebecca.
More than that, she had taken Lily to meet her.
“What happened at the park?” Mark asked.
“Grandma told me to play by the trees. She talked to the lady.”
“Did they argue?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“Becca said she wanted her life back.”
Lily’s lip trembled.
“Grandma said she should have stayed dead.”
Mark stood so quickly that he nearly lost his balance.
I wrapped my arms around Lily.
“Did Grandma hurt her?”
“I don’t know. A man came.”
“The man from the car?”
Lily looked through the window, but the SUV was gone.
“He had a silver ring.”
“What did the ring look like?”
“A bird.”
Thomas arrived ten minutes later.
When we told him what Lily had seen, he sat down heavily.
“Graham.”
“Who is Graham?” Mark asked.
“Rebecca’s adoptive father.”
“We were told he died.”
“That’s what Helen told me.”
“But you saw him?”
“Not since Rebecca was a baby.”
I described the man in the SUV.
Thomas nodded slowly.
“Graham Mercer had dark hair when he was younger, but the face fits.”
“Why would his wife pretend he was dead?” I asked.
“Maybe she didn’t know he was alive.”
Mark paced the living room.
“My mother said the trust was created to buy my silence. What happened in our family?”
Thomas stared at the floor.
“My father owned a medical supply company.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“He made millions selling equipment to hospitals. Then a warehouse employee discovered that some of the equipment had failed safety tests.”
“Your father sold it anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Did people get hurt?”
“At least three patients died.”
Mark stopped pacing.
“And the employee?”
“Graham Mercer.”
Silence settled over the room.
Thomas explained that Graham threatened to expose the company.
Instead, Mark’s grandfather offered him money.
Graham accepted.
But he wanted insurance that the family would never accuse him of extortion.
So he demanded something that would tie him permanently to the Reeds.
A child.
Rebecca.
I felt physically ill.
“You’re saying your father gave away his granddaughter to protect his company?”
“I didn’t know at the time,” Thomas said. “Diane told me Rebecca had died. Years later, I learned my father had signed private adoption documents.”
“And the trust?” Mark asked.
“My mother created it after learning what her husband had done. She couldn’t undo the adoption without risking criminal charges, so she placed company shares into a trust for both children.”
“Why include me?”
“She believed you and Rebecca had both been used.”
Mark sank into a chair.
“My entire childhood was collateral in somebody else’s crime.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“I should have fought harder.”
“Yes,” Mark said.
Thomas accepted the words without defending himself.
“Yes. I should have.”
I appreciated that.
Diane always answered blame with more blame.
Thomas simply carried it.
Mark’s phone rang.
It was the officer from the wedding.
The partial license plate matched a black SUV registered to Mercer Medical Consulting.
The company’s owner was Graham Mercer.
“He’s alive,” Mark said.
The officer confirmed it.
Graham’s reported death had never been registered with the state.
Helen had lied to Thomas.
Police were now trying to locate both Graham and Rebecca.
“Tell them about Grand Central,” I said.
Thomas handed over the key information.
The officer contacted New York authorities.
An hour later, he called back.
Locker 417 existed.
But it had been emptied that morning.
Security footage showed a woman using the key.
Diane.
“She had another copy,” Thomas said.
“What did she take?” Mark asked.
“The station doesn’t know.”
Mark hit the kitchen counter with his palm.
“She is always one step ahead.”
“Not always,” I said.
They looked at me.
“She didn’t know Rebecca spoke to Lily.”
Lily sat at the table drawing.
I crouched beside her.
“Sweetheart, did Becca give you anything?”
Lily looked up.
“A sticker.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Grandma took it.”
“Anything else?”
She thought carefully.
Then she reached into the pocket of the small sweater she had worn during Diane’s babysitting visit.
It was hanging on the back of a chair because I had planned to wash it.
Lily pulled out a pink plastic ring.
“Becca said princesses keep secrets inside castles.”
The ring opened at the center.
A tiny piece of paper was folded inside.
Mark opened it.
Three words were written in blue ink.
BLUE HOUSE. CELLAR.
Thomas leaned closer.
“Rebecca’s house is blue.”
“The police searched it,” I said.
“They may not know it has a cellar.”
Mark called the officer again.
Local police returned to Rebecca’s property.
They found the cellar door hidden beneath an outdoor rug behind the house.
But Rebecca was not inside.
The cellar contained a desk, a battery-powered lamp, and dozens of copied documents.
The most recent page was a handwritten list of license plates and dates.
Diane’s car appeared on the list seven times.
Graham’s SUV appeared eleven times.
There was also a recording device.
The officer sent us an audio file from it.
Rebecca’s voice filled our kitchen.
“If you’re hearing this, Graham found me. He told me my entire life belonged to him because he paid for it.”
A man shouted in the background.
Rebecca continued quickly.
“Diane knew. She met me three weeks ago and offered money if I disappeared. When I refused, she called Graham.”
Mark closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“I don’t know whether Thomas is telling the truth, but I know Diane is lying. She said Mark would never choose me over the life he already has. I don’t want his money. I want my name.”
There was a crash.
Rebecca gasped.
Then the recording ended.
Thomas covered his face.
Mark replayed it.
At the very end, beneath the crash, another sound could be heard.
A train horn.
Thomas looked up.
“There are no train tracks near Rebecca’s house.”
“Then she recorded it somewhere else,” I said.
Mark searched a map.
There were three properties connected to Graham Mercer near train tracks.
One was an abandoned medical warehouse two counties away.
Thomas recognized the address.
“That belonged to my father’s company.”
The police warned us again not to go.
This time, Mark listened.
Officers surrounded the warehouse that afternoon.
They found Graham’s SUV behind the building.
The front office was empty.
The main storage area contained old hospital beds and broken equipment.
In the basement, they found a room secured from the outside.
Rebecca was inside.
Alive.
She was dehydrated and weak, but conscious.
Graham was not there.
Neither was Diane.
The relief lasted less than a minute.
Then the officer told us what Rebecca had said after being rescued.
Graham and Diane had left together that morning.
They were going to “fix the trust problem.”
“What does that mean?” Mark asked.
The officer hesitated.
“Rebecca says the trust requires both beneficiaries to submit DNA samples before the money can be released.”
Mark glanced toward Lily.
I understood immediately.
Diane had been asking about our wills.
She had taken Lily to meet Rebecca.
She had threatened our family if Mark searched for the truth.
“What happens if Mark refuses the test?” I asked.
Thomas answered.
“The trust remains frozen.”
“And if his DNA doesn’t match yours?”
Thomas went silent.
Mark stared at him.
“You are my father. I remember you.”
“Biology may not agree.”
The front window shattered.
I screamed and pulled Lily to the floor.
A brick landed in the living room.
A piece of paper was tied around it.
Mark opened the note.
May you like
One sentence had been printed in large black letters.
TAKE THE DNA TEST, AND YOUR DAUGHTER PAYS THE PRICE.
