Chapter 9 - THE RECKONING
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of blue lights and sirens.
Elias had mobilized the state police and the FBI.
With the evidence from Elena’s recorder and my video,
the case was ironclad.
Cedar Vale was raided at dawn.
The doctors and board members were taken into custody.
Margaret Mercer was arrested at her breakfast table,
still wearing her silk robe and pearls.
She didn't say a word as they led her away.
She just stared at me with a look of pure,
undiluted hatred.
Daniel was found in the boathouse.
He tried to claim he was a victim of kidnapping,
but the DNA evidence from the drifter's body,
which was exhumed that afternoon,
proved otherwise.
The murder charges were filed by nightfall.
I sat in the police station,
a cup of cold coffee in my hands.
Elena was in the next room,
giving her final statement.
The baby—the boy who had my name on his ankle—was in the care of social services.
Elias sat down beside me.
“It’s over,
Natalie.”
“The trust is being returned to your control.”
“The insurance money is being clawed back.”
“Margaret and Daniel are going away for a long time.”
I looked at my hands.
They were steady now.
“And Elena?”
“She’s being granted immunity for her testimony,”
Elias said.
“She was a victim of Margaret’s coercion.”
“She’ll get her life back.”
“And the baby?”
Elias hesitated.
“Legally,
he’s yours,
Natalie.”
“But biologically,
he’s hers.”
“The courts will have a mess to untangle.”
I thought about the five years I had lost.
I thought about the child who was born into a web of lies.
I stood up and walked to the window.
The sun was rising over the city.
It was a new day.
A real day.
I didn't feel like a widow anymore.
I didn't feel like a victim.
I felt like a woman who had reclaimed her own name.
“I want to help her,”
I said.
“Elena?”
“The baby,”
I said.
“He shouldn't grow up with the Mercer name.”
“He should grow up with the truth.”
I walked out of the station and into the light.
May you like
The ghosts were gone.
The silence was finally broken.
