Chapter 6 - The Daughter My Enemy Called His Own
Rose Mercer lived in a white house in Evanston.
A normal house.
Yellow curtains.
Plastic toys in the yard.
A wooden sign beside the front door that said HOME.
I hated it immediately.
Because my daughter had lived there.
Without me.
We watched from across the street.
A woman emerged carrying a baby.
My heart stopped.
Rose had my hair.
My mouth.
Even from fifty yards away, I knew.
Mothers know.
“That’s her.”
Stellan squeezed my shoulder.
Rafe’s wife, Anna, was not part of his criminal life.
That became obvious when we approached.
She nearly fainted when she saw Stellan.
Then I told her who I was.
She looked at Rose.
“No.”
I showed her the DNA report.
Anna began crying.
“Rafe told me her mother died.”
My knees almost failed.
“He stole her.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
And I did.
Her devastation looked too much like mine to be fake.
Rose reached toward me.
I touched her hand.
My daughter.
My biological daughter.
But when I tried to hold her, she cried and reached for Anna.
That hurt.
More than I expected.
I stepped back.
Anna hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
I wiped my tears.
“Don’t be.”
Stellan watched silently.
Later, Anna revealed Rafe had visited the previous night.
He left a key.
A storage locker.
Inside we found Cassandra’s journals.
The truth filled hundreds of pages.
Cassandra had discovered Victor’s trafficking in identities.
Children used as leverage.
Babies hidden.
Birth records changed.
Families manipulated for decades.
She had planned to expose him.
Rafe initially helped her.
Then Victor bought him.
One journal entry changed everything.
If Stellan ever finds Selene, tell him the night at the gala was not an accident.
I looked at Stellan.
“What does that mean?”
He looked equally confused.
We read further.
Cassandra had deliberately arranged for Stellan and me to meet.
Why?
Because my father had been investigating Victor Cross.
I stared at the page.
“My father died when I was twelve.”
Stellan looked at me.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Neither of us needed to say it.
Another convenient death.
The journal explained that my father, Daniel Ward, had copied part of the Cradle Ledger years earlier.
Before dying, he hid it somewhere only his daughter might someday discover.
Me.
Victor had watched me ever since.
Suddenly my entire life felt staged.
The charity invitation.
Adrian.
My pregnancy.
Everything.
Except one thing.
Stellan took my hand.
“What happened between us that night wasn’t planned.”
I looked at him.
“How can I know that?”
“You can’t.”
His answer surprised me.
“But I can spend the rest of my life proving it.”
Before I could respond, Anna screamed from upstairs.
We ran.
Rose’s crib was empty.
The window was open.
Rafe stood in the backyard holding her.
“Rafe!”
He looked at Stellan.
Then at me.
“I’m sorry.”
He climbed into a waiting car.
I ran after him.
The vehicle sped away.
Stellan’s men followed.
Then my phone rang.
Rafe.
I answered.
“If you want Rose alive,” he said, “bring Fern to the old Cross estate tonight.”
My blood turned cold.
“No.”
“Victor wants both girls.”
“Why?”
“Because one of them opens Cassandra’s vault.”
“What does that mean?”
Rafe laughed bitterly.
“You still think this is about DNA?”
The line went quiet.
Then he said:
“Cassandra didn’t hide the ledger behind a password.”
“What did she use?”
“Her daughters.”
The call ended.
Stellan looked at me.
“Daughters?”
Plural.
Cassandra had Fern.
And Lily.
Two daughters.
May you like
Somehow, together, they held the key to destroying Victor Cross.
And Victor was willing to kill every child between him and that secret.
