Chapter 3
I called hospital security from my cell phone.
Rebecca heard me.
Her footsteps moved quickly down the hallway.
By the time two guards arrived, she was gone.
Security video showed her entering through a staff door.
She wore blue scrubs beneath her coat.
Someone had given her an employee badge.
The name printed on it was Rachel Mercer.
Police reached the hospital twenty minutes later.
Detective Maria Alvarez listened while Lily described the fall.
Rebecca had grabbed Lily’s injured arm.
She had chased her.
She had threatened to separate us.
That was enough for Alvarez to open an investigation.
But it was not enough to find Rebecca.
Her car remained at our house.
Her phone was switched off.
The hospital badge belonged to a nurse named Erin Mercer.
Erin had reported it missing that afternoon.
“Is she related to Rebecca?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Alvarez said.
She studied the photograph from the security camera.
“Your wife’s legal records say she has no siblings.”
“My mother believed her records were false.”
“Do you have the notebook?”
“At home.”
“Then we need to secure it before she returns.”
Lily refused to stay without me.
A pediatric social worker named Hannah Pierce sat with her while I returned home with Alvarez and two officers.
The bookcase had been moved again.
The hidden door stood open.
Every photograph had been removed.
The desk drawers were empty.
My mother’s notebook was gone.
Someone had also taken the blue box from beneath the desk.
I had been away for less than two hours.
Alvarez examined the room.
“No forced entry.”
“Rebecca has keys.”
“Anyone else?”
“My father. My brother. Our housekeeper.”
Our housekeeper had been visiting family in Florida for two weeks.
My father lived in Connecticut.
Michael lived ten minutes away.
I called him.
He answered immediately.
“Daniel, I heard about Lily. Is she okay?”
“How did you hear?”
“Dad called me.”
“I haven’t told Dad.”
Michael hesitated.
“Rebecca called him.”
“Rebecca is missing.”
“What do you mean, missing?”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“I’m coming over.”
“Daniel, wait.”
I ended the call.
Alvarez told me not to confront him alone.
I agreed.
Then I drove directly to Michael’s house.
I had spent my entire life trusting my older brother.
He had held me at Claire’s funeral.
He became Lily’s godfather.
He gave a speech at my wedding to Rebecca.
If he knew who she really was, I needed to see his face before he prepared another lie.
Michael opened the door wearing sweatpants and a gray shirt.
He looked tired.
Not surprised.
“You brought police?” he asked.
“Should that bother you?”
“It bothers me that my brother thinks I hurt his family.”
Alvarez stepped past him.
“We need to ask you some questions.”
Michael looked at me.
“About Rebecca?”
“About Claire.”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
We entered his living room.
My father, Robert Carter, was sitting near the fireplace.
He held a glass of whiskey.
I stopped.
“You said you were home alone.”
Michael closed the door.
“I said I was at home.”
My father stood.
He was seventy-two, but age had not softened him.
He still carried himself like the president of Carter Biomedical.
He had retired on paper.
In reality, he controlled every major decision through Michael.
“Lily needs her family to remain calm,” he said.
“Did Rebecca call you?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew her before I did.”
My father’s expression remained flat.
“What makes you think that?”
“She watched me for two years before we met.”
“That sounds absurd.”
“Her real name is Rachel Mercer.”
The glass in Michael’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth.
My father noticed.
So did Alvarez.
“You recognize the name,” I said.
Michael placed the glass down.
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because this is insane.”
“Who was Claire Mercer?”
My father turned sharply toward me.
I had guessed.
Rebecca’s false hospital badge carried the surname Mercer.
My first wife, Claire, had used her mother’s surname, Sullivan.
But I remembered seeing Mercer on an old document in my mother’s hidden room.
Now I tested it.
Michael’s face confirmed everything.
“Claire was related to Rebecca,” I said.
My father moved closer.
“Daniel, you are exhausted.”
“Stop telling me what I am.”
“Your daughter is injured. Your wife is missing. This is not the time to invent conspiracies.”
“My mother already discovered them.”
At the mention of my mother, his control slipped.
“Evelyn should have destroyed that room.”
The words hung between us.
Alvarez took one step forward.
“You knew about it?”
My father stared at her.
“I knew my late wife had become obsessed with privacy.”
“Why did she hide photographs of Rachel Mercer?”
“I never saw them.”
“But you knew about the room.”
“It was built before we bought the house.”
That was a lie.
I helped my mother renovate the upstairs hallway after Claire’s death.
There had been no door behind the bookcase then.
She built the room later.
“Did you kill my mother?” I asked.
Michael stood.
“That’s enough.”
I turned on him.
“Rebecca said you caused Claire’s crash.”
“She is trying to turn you against us.”
“Then you admit you know who she is.”
Michael realized his mistake.
My father closed his eyes.
For the first time, Robert Carter looked disappointed in his chosen son.
Alvarez raised a hand.
“No one leaves.”
My father laughed.
“Are we being detained?”
“Not yet.”
“Then this conversation is over.”
He walked toward the door.
I blocked him.
“Lily almost died.”
“That has nothing to do with me.”
“You knew Rebecca was using a false name.”
“I knew she was Claire’s half-sister.”
The admission stole my breath.
Michael looked furious.
“Dad.”
Robert ignored him.
“Claire’s mother had another daughter before she married Claire’s father. That daughter was Rachel Mercer.”
“Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Rachel blamed our family for Claire’s death.”
“Why?”
My father looked at Michael.
Michael turned away.
The truth was standing between them.
I grabbed my brother’s shoulder.
“What did you do?”
Michael knocked my hand away.
“It was an accident.”
Alvarez immediately asked, “What was an accident?”
Michael stared at the floor.
My father answered for him.
“Claire discovered financial irregularities inside Carter Biomedical.”
I felt as if someone had opened the ground beneath me.
“She was a research chemist.”
“She was also intelligent,” Robert said. “She noticed that several patents had been transferred to a private holding company.”
“Whose company?”
“Mine.”
“You stole them?”
“I protected them from a hostile takeover.”
“Claire threatened to report you.”
“She misunderstood.”
“You always call the truth a misunderstanding.”
Michael stepped closer.
“Claire called me the night she died.”
“What did she want?”
“To meet.”
“Why?”
“She said she had proof.”
His voice became quieter.
“I followed her.”
“In the truck?”
“No. I was driving a black SUV.”
“The police report mentioned black paint on her car.”
Michael’s face crumpled.
“She saw me and panicked.”
“Why would she panic?”
“Because we argued at a gas station.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her to give me the files.”
“And when she refused?”
“I followed her onto the highway.”
My hands began shaking.
“You forced her off the road.”
“No.”
“She died.”
“A truck crossed into her lane. Claire swerved. I tried to stop.”
“You left her there.”
“I called Dad.”
“You called him instead of an ambulance?”
Michael looked at Robert.
My father did not deny it.
Claire might have survived if they had called immediately.
The official report said she remained alive for at least fifteen minutes after impact.
I imagined her trapped.
Waiting.
Trusting me to come.
My knees weakened.
Alvarez ordered Michael to sit.
He refused.
“I need a lawyer.”
“You certainly do.”
My father’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
Then he looked at me.
“Rachel.”
“Answer it.”
He did.
Rebecca’s voice came through the speaker.
“Do you have the key?”
Robert’s eyes sharpened.
“Daniel has it.”
Rebecca went silent.
I stepped closer.
“Where are you?”
She laughed softly.
“So you finally asked your father about Claire.”
“Lily told me what happened.”
“I never meant for her to fall.”
“You grabbed her.”
“I was afraid.”
“You threatened her.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From what?”
“From the people standing in that room.”
Michael grabbed the phone.
“Where is the blue box?”
Rebecca’s voice became cold.
“You should know. Your man took it.”
“What man?”
“The one you sent to Daniel’s house.”
Michael looked at my father.
Robert shook his head.
Neither of them had taken it.
Rebecca continued.
“Someone else is playing all of us.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Find Erin Mercer.”
“The nurse?”
“She isn’t a nurse.”
The call ended.
Alvarez immediately contacted the hospital.
Erin Mercer had returned to work.
She had entered Lily’s room ten minutes earlier.
I ran.
Alvarez shouted after me, but I was already outside.
The hospital was fourteen minutes away.
I reached it in nine.
Two security officers were unconscious near the service elevator.
Lily’s room was empty.
Her blanket lay on the floor.
The window was open.
Hannah, the social worker, sat against the wall holding her head.
“She took her,” Hannah whispered.
“Who?”
“The nurse.”
I ran to the window.
A white medical van sped from the rear parking lot.
Then my phone rang.
Lily’s voice came through.
“Daddy?”
“I’m coming.”
A woman pulled the phone away.
It was not Rebecca.
“I have your daughter,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Erin.”
“What do you want?”
“The brass key.”
“Let Lily go.”
“Bring the key to Saint Agnes Cemetery.”
“Why there?”
“Because that is where your family buried the wrong woman.”
May you like
The call ended.
Claire was buried at Saint Agnes.
