Chapter 13 - The Doctor We Trusted
Dr. Samuel Mercer was operating on Matteo when I learned he might be working with Voss.
I stood outside the surgical room with blood on my shirt and the train ticket in my hand.
The name could have been planted.
That was what I wanted to believe.
But every deception began with someone I trusted explaining why the evidence meant nothing.
Mercer had treated my family for twenty years.
He had cared for my father.
He had examined my son.
He knew the location of every safe house we had used since the hospital attack.
I called Claire.
“Search Mercer in the archive.”
Keys clicked on her end.
“There are several references.”
“What kind?”
“Medical consultations. Genetic preservation. Payments from Salvatore.”
“How recent?”
She paused.
“One transfer three weeks ago.”
My son had been declared dead three days earlier.
“What was the payment for?”
“The file only says Continuity Protocol.”
The surgical light above the door remained red.
I wanted to enter.
If Mercer was loyal to Voss, Matteo was helpless beneath his knife.
Natalie stopped me.
“You enter that room, your brother dies whether Mercer is guilty or not.”
“You expect me to wait?”
“I expect you to use evidence.”
I hated her calm because she was right.
Claire opened another file.
“Continuity Protocol involved preserving a medical identity for emergency travel.”
“Whose identity?”
“Mercer’s.”
“Why?”
“Salvatore created duplicate documents in Mercer’s name twelve years ago.”
The year Elena died.
Mercer emerged from surgery forty minutes later.
His gown was stained with blood.
“Matteo survived the operation.”
I stepped in front of him.
“Will he live?”
“The next twenty-four hours will decide.”
I showed him the ticket.
His face changed.
Not guilt.
Recognition.
“Where did you find that?”
“In Voss’s coat.”
Mercer closed his eyes.
“Then he knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That I helped Elena.”
Claire arrived with the microfilm copy.
Mercer looked older when he saw it.
“I thought that bracelet had been destroyed.”
“My wife carried it without knowing what it contained.”
“Elena arranged that.”
“Explain.”
Mercer sat in the waiting room.
Twenty-two years earlier, he had been a young physician at St. Helena. Elena approached him after discovering Salvatore’s infant exchange program.
Mercer helped her copy medical files and preserve DNA samples.
When Salvatore learned of the betrayal, he ordered Voss to imprison Elena.
“Voss was not yet in control,” Mercer said. “He was desperate for Salvatore’s approval.”
“You watched them lock my mother away?”
“I helped her escape once.”
“Once?”
“She returned.”
“Why?”
“To save Valentina.”
Mercer looked toward my wife, who stood with Eva beside the far wall.
“Salvatore’s men had killed Valentina’s biological parents. Elena hid the child inside Ward E. When Voss discovered her, Elena traded her own freedom for the girl’s life.”
Valentina held Eva closer.
“What happened to Elena?”
Mercer’s voice lowered.
“Voss gave her a drug that caused cardiac arrest.”
“You let him.”
“I was not there.”
“You signed her death certificate.”
“Yes.”
I struck him.
He fell against the chair.
Eva flinched.
I saw her fear and stopped.
Mercer wiped blood from his mouth.
“I signed it because Elena asked me to.”
“Dead women do not ask.”
“She knew Voss intended to kill her. She wanted him to believe no investigation would follow.”
“Why create travel documents in your name?”
“To move evidence across the border.”
“The ticket?”
“Voss planned to use my duplicate identity.”
Natalie examined the paper.
“Then the ticket proves he survived the river.”
“Yes,” Mercer said. “He has a medical facility near Montreal.”
Claire searched the archive.
“I found a property connected to the duplicate passport.”
An address appeared.
A fertility laboratory outside the city.
Voss had not been fleeing randomly.
He was going to another archive.
Another collection of samples.
Possibly more children.
Valentina sat beside Mercer.
“Did Elena know who I was?”
“Yes.”
“Why did she care about me?”
“Because your mother saved Dominic.”
I looked at him.
“When?”
“You were seven. Salvatore discovered Elena’s plan to expose him. He intended to kill both of you in the staged car accident.”
My childhood memories shifted.
The night before my mother’s supposed death, a woman had taken me from my bedroom and hidden me in a laundry truck.
I remembered only her red scarf and trembling hands.
“Valentina’s mother was the informant,” Mercer continued. “She warned Elena and moved you before Salvatore’s men arrived.”
Valentina’s family had saved my life.
My mother had later sacrificed herself to save Valentina.
Our marriage had not been arranged by Salvatore.
It had been guided by Elena’s surviving allies.
Mercer looked at us.
“Elena left instructions that you should meet only if both of you were free of Salvatore’s control.”
“He was still alive when we met.”
“Yes. That is why I believed the plan had failed.”
“Who introduced us?”
“Claire’s mother.”
Claire stared at him.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“That is what you were told.”
The room fell silent.
Mercer seemed to understand how cruel the sentence sounded.
“Her name is Margaret Bennett,” he said. “She entered witness protection after helping Elena.”
Claire’s anger rose.
“You knew she was alive?”
“I knew she survived. Not where she went.”
The archive revealed one final address.
Montreal.
The same facility connected to Voss.
Claire’s mother had been watching him for years.
Perhaps she had already infiltrated the laboratory.
Perhaps Voss was going there to kill her.
We prepared to leave before dawn.
Matteo remained unconscious but stable.
Rebecca refused to leave his bedside.
Sophia and Teresa stayed with the rescued infants under federal protection.
Valentina wanted to accompany me.
I looked at Eva and our newborn son.
For once, the choice was simple.
“You stay.”
She started to argue.
I took her hands.
“This is not me hiding the truth from you. This is me asking one parent to remain with our children while the other ends the danger.”
Eva watched our faces.
Valentina signed to her, then looked at me.
“She wants to know whether you are coming back.”
I knelt in front of my daughter.
Slowly, Valentina showed me the signs.
Father. Promise. Return.
Eva studied me.
Then she touched my cheek.
I had spent my life making promises men feared I would keep.
This was the first promise that frightened me.
Because I had something worth returning to.
At the airport, Claire and Natalie joined me.
Mercer insisted on coming.
“You saved Matteo,” I said. “That does not erase Elena.”
“I know.”
“Then why should I trust you?”
“You should not.”
At least he had learned honesty.
He handed me a small vial.
“What is this?”
“Voss’s preferred cardiac agent. The same drug he used on Elena. He carries an antidote because he fears someone will use it on him.”
“You kept a sample?”
“I kept everything that might one day prove what happened.”
We boarded the federal aircraft.
Minutes before takeoff, my phone received a video.
Voss stood inside a bright laboratory.
His clothing was wet from the river, and a bandage covered his hand.
Beside him stood an older woman with Claire’s green eyes.
Margaret Bennett.
A gun was pressed to her head.
Voss smiled at the camera.
“Bring Elena’s microfilm to Montreal.”
May you like
He looked directly at Claire.
“Or your mother dies for the second time.”
