Chapter 3 - My Uncle Ordered My Wife’s Death
The independent laboratory confirmed the truth.
The twins had not developed conventional leukemia.
Their marrow had been chemically disrupted.
The compound M-17 had activated a dormant cellular mechanism months before their symptoms became obvious.
Dr. Yates said there was a chance to reverse it.
A slim chance.
But there was a chance.
Jonah and Blythe were immediately moved onto an emergency protocol.
For forty-eight hours, nothing improved.
Then Blythe's blood counts stopped falling.
It was the first good news we'd had in months.
I sat beside her bed holding her hand.
She opened one eye.
“Daddy?”
“I'm here.”
“Am I dying?”
“No.”
She smiled weakly.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Across the room, Jonah slept.
I wanted to believe my own words.
I still didn't know whether either of them would survive.
Meanwhile, Prescott uncovered financial transfers linking Victor Mercer to the laboratory.
The money had passed through six shell companies.
But one account had never been hidden.
A personal account in my father's name.
I confronted Victor at Mercer Tower.
He was sitting behind the same desk he'd occupied when I was a boy.
He looked almost amused.
“You finally figured it out.”
I closed the door.
“You killed Genevieve.”
“No.”
“You poisoned my children.”
“No.”
“You built a laboratory to experiment on them.”
He smiled.
“You have always been dramatic.”
I put the laboratory photographs on his desk.
His smile vanished.
“Where did you get those?”
“Your basement.”
Victor stood.
“You don't understand the larger picture.”
“My children are dying.”
“Thousands of people die every day.”
I nearly hit him.
Prescott grabbed my arm.
Victor laughed.
“There he is.”
“What?”
“The Mercer I remember.”
I pulled free.
“Why?”
“Because your company was losing its advantage.”
“You had billions.”
“Money isn't power unless people need what you have.”
He pointed at the photographs.
“Imagine a disease that can be controlled.”
I stared.
“You wanted to sell the cure.”
“Yes.”
“And you tested it on my children.”
“They were ideal.”
My entire body went cold.
“You're insane.”
“No. I'm efficient.”
Then Victor revealed the part that destroyed me.
Genevieve had discovered everything.
She had tried to expose him.
Victor had intercepted her.
He gave her two choices.
Leave Chicago and disappear.
Or watch her children become permanent research subjects.
“She refused.”
“So you killed her.”
Victor shrugged.
“The crash was unfortunate.”
I lunged.
Prescott stopped me again.
“If I go to prison,” Victor said, “the Mercer family loses everything.”
I stared at him.
“You think I care?”
“No.”
He smiled.
“You care about the children.”
He pressed a button.
A video appeared on the screen.
Jonah and Blythe's hospital room.
Someone had planted a camera.
I felt sick.
“Get out of my life.”
Victor smiled.
“You don't get to decide that.”
Before leaving, I looked at him.
“This empire ends with me.”
His expression changed.
“Be careful what you destroy.”
That afternoon, the hospital security system was breached.
Someone tried to access the twins' room.
Prescott caught them.
The intruder was a physician from the hospital.
He claimed he had been following orders.
“Whose orders?”
He refused to answer.
Prescott found a phone in his pocket.
One message remained on the screen.
TRANSFER THEM TONIGHT.
I understood the plan.
If M-17 could be moved, the research could continue.
But the children were no longer safe at the hospital.
I made a decision.
We moved them to my estate's secure medical wing.
Dr. Yates objected.
Then he saw the surveillance footage.
He came with us.
Elena moved into a guest room.
She insisted it wasn't necessary.
I insisted it was.
One night, I found her sitting alone in the kitchen.
“Can't sleep?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
She looked at me.
“Your wife used to do this.”
“What?”
“Sit here at two in the morning.”
I stared at her.
“You knew her well.”
“She was kind to me when nobody else was.”
Elena told me Genevieve had once found her crying in a laboratory stairwell.
She sat beside her for an hour.
No questions.
No judgment.
Just company.
“She told me something,” Elena said.
“What?”
“Everybody thinks powerful people are strong. But sometimes they are simply better at hiding how frightened they are.”
I laughed sadly.
“That sounds like her.”
“She loved you.”
I looked away.
“I loved her.”
Elena reached across the table.
“You still do.”
I nodded.
Then she said something that stopped me.
“She told me to find you only if you had finally learned to trust someone besides yourself.”
I looked at her.
“Did she think I couldn't?”
“She said you could.”
“When?”
“After she died.”
Elena stood.
“She knew you would need someone when the truth came out.”
For a moment, we simply looked at one another.
Something shifted.
Not love.
Not yet.
Something quieter.
Trust.
The next morning, Jonah woke up laughing.
It was the first time I'd heard that sound in months.
“Daddy!”
I ran upstairs.
He pointed at Blythe.
“She snored.”
Blythe threw a pillow.
“She did not!”
I laughed.
Then I cried.
Dr. Yates checked their numbers.
His expression softened.
“They're responding.”
“Both?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
For the first time, I allowed myself to believe they might live.
But at that exact moment, Victor Mercer sent me a message.
YOU CAN'T SAVE THEM WITHOUT DESTROYING YOURSELF.
Attached was a photograph of a courthouse.
And a legal notice.
The Mercer board had voted to remove me as chairman.
May you like
Victor intended to take control of the company.
And he planned to use my own empire to bury the truth forever.
