Chapter 5 - The Father Who Came Back for His Daughter
I hadn't seen Lucas Mercer in three years.
Not since the morning he walked out of our apartment with a suitcase and told me he couldn't do this anymore.
I remembered standing in the doorway with a newborn Mia.
I remembered asking him where he was going.
He never answered.
Now he stood inside a hidden vault beneath an abandoned church.
He looked older.
Harder.
And completely calm.
“Lucas.”
He looked at Mia.
His expression softened.
“She's beautiful.”
I stepped in front of her.
“Don't come closer.”
Alessandro raised his weapon.
Lucas lifted his hands.
“If I wanted her dead, I would have let Meridian take her.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To finish what your mother started.”
“You knew my mother?”
He looked at me.
“Better than you think.”
My stomach twisted.
“What does that mean?”
Lucas glanced at the ledger.
“Open it.”
Alessandro did.
The first page showed names.
The second showed transactions.
The third contained photographs.
And then we saw something that changed everything.
Our names.
Nora Hayes.
Lucas Mercer.
Alessandro Conti.
Mia Mercer.
Every one of us had been listed twenty-three years earlier.
I stared.
“Mia wasn't even born.”
Lucas nodded.
“That's why they needed her.”
“Who are they?”
He looked at Alessandro.
“Meridian was never one organization.”
He pointed to the list.
“It was a coalition.”
“Of criminals?”
“Of powerful people.”
Judges.
Lawyers.
Executives.
Politicians.
Police.
International financiers.
People who didn't need guns because they could make laws work for them.
Lucas explained that his own father had been part of Meridian.
When Lucas discovered what they were doing, he went undercover.
He disappeared from our lives to protect us.
“You could have told me.”
“If I told you, they would have killed you.”
“You left anyway.”
“I left because someone threatened Mia.”
He looked at her.
“I thought distance would save her.”
I hated him.
I hated that part of me still wanted to believe him.
“What about the letter?”
“I sent it.”
My blood ran cold.
“You should not have had the child.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Meridian had been looking for your mother’s heir.”
“And that was me?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“It was always Mia.”
I looked at my daughter.
“She was born into this.”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
Lucas hesitated.
“Because your mother engineered it.”
Alessandro looked toward the ledger.
“What did she do?”
Lucas answered:
“She created the final key.”
The child witness.
The voice lock.
Mia.
But there was something else.
“She knew Meridian would eventually find you.”
Lucas continued.
“So she arranged for the Conti family to protect you if anything happened.”
I looked at Alessandro.
He said nothing.
Lucas turned to me.
“Your mother trusted Alessandro's father.”
“Then why did she leave?”
“Because she discovered someone in the Conti family had betrayed them.”
“Who?”
He pointed to the photograph.
Greta.
My anger returned.
“But Greta was involved from the beginning.”
“Not at first.”
Lucas explained.
Greta had been forced into it.
Her husband had disappeared.
Her daughter was threatened.
She became an unwilling courier.
“But the first betrayal came from someone else.”
My hands shook.
“Who?”
Lucas looked directly at me.
“You.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Not intentionally.”
He opened the ledger.
Inside was a document bearing my signature.
I had never seen it before.
The page stated that I had agreed to transfer control of Hayes Logistics to Meridian.
“I never signed this.”
“You did.”
“When?”
“When you were unconscious after Mia was born.”
I felt sick.
Alessandro looked at Lucas.
“Who forged it?”
Lucas answered:
“Your doctor.”
Dr. Russo.
I stepped backward.
“No.”
Lucas shook his head.
“He was working under orders.”
I looked at Alessandro.
“Do you believe him?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Finally:
“I believe we need proof.”
The church doors slammed upstairs.
Someone had found us.
Lucas looked toward the tunnel.
“We have minutes.”
“What do we do?”
“Split up.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“No.”
Lucas looked at him.
“She's your responsibility.”
Alessandro answered:
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She is my family.”
I froze.
Lucas saw the expression on my face.
Then he smiled faintly.
“Maybe my job is done.”
He reached into his coat.
Pulled out a small flash drive.
“Everything you need is here.”
He handed it to me.
“What are you going to do?”
“Keep them busy.”
Before I could stop him, he walked toward the entrance.
Gunfire erupted.
Alessandro pulled me and Mia behind the wall.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“I won't lose another person.”
He looked at me.
“You won't.”
He kissed my forehead.
Then disappeared into the smoke.
We escaped through the tunnel.
At dawn, Lucas was gone.
No body.
No trace.
Only blood on the church floor.
Mia asked about him.
“Where's Daddy?”
I couldn't answer.
Alessandro crouched beside her.
“He's making sure you're safe.”
Mia smiled.
“He always comes back.”
I looked at Alessandro.
“Does he?”
He didn't answer.
The flash drive contained recordings.
One was from Dr. Russo.
Another from Greta.
Another from my own mother.
And the final file was labeled:
FOR ALessandro.
He opened it.
My mother's voice filled the room.
“Alessandro, if you're hearing this, then you chose love.”
He closed his eyes.
My mother continued.
“Please forgive me for placing my daughter in your hands.”
A pause.
“She will doubt you.”
“She should.”
“She will fear you.”
“She should.”
“But if she gives you her trust, protect it better than I protected mine.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Alessandro.
He looked at me.
Neither spoke.
Then the phone rang.
Dom.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We have Dr. Russo.”
Alessandro stiffened.
“Where?”
“He disappeared.”
“Then how do you have him?”
“We didn't.”
A pause.
“They sent him to us.”
“Who?”
May you like
Dom answered:
“Dr. Russo is dead.”
