Chapter 14 - The TestThe room filled with white light.
Mercer had prepared everything.
Three chairs.
Three blood-drawing machines.
Three names on a screen.
AVA.
CLAIRE.
JUNE.
"You don't have to do this," I shouted.
Mercer laughed.
"I already know the result."
He looked directly at June.
"You just don't."
June stood still.
I moved in front of her.
"You're not touching her."
"You misunderstand, Noah."
He pressed another button.
The screen changed.
PATERNITY CONFIRMATION.
My name appeared beside all three girls.
Ava.
Claire.
June.
All three were biologically mine.
Mercer smiled.
"So the mutation is not the issue."
I stared.
"Then what do you want?"
"Proof."
"Proof of what?"
"That your family was manufactured."
My blood ran cold.
He showed us a file.
The fertility experiment.
The stolen genetic material.
The falsified records.
The illegal transfers.
And one final document.
A list of buyers.
Celebrities.
Politicians.
Billionaires.
Doctors.
Judges.
People whose names could destroy the entire system.
Mercer didn't care about the girls.
He cared about the ledger.
"The girls' mother hid the evidence inside their genetic records," he said.
"She knew they couldn't be destroyed."
"She created a biological key."
I looked at June.
Then Ava.
Then Claire.
"You're saying their DNA unlocks the ledger?"
Mercer nodded.
"Only the three together."
That was why he needed all of them.
Not one.
All three.
Because their combined genetic markers formed the encryption key.
He had spent twenty-two years waiting.
Then graduation day had given him the opportunity.
The dean.
The stage.
The letter.
Everything had been orchestrated.
"You sent the letter."
Mercer smiled.
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Because I needed you to open 217."
My stomach turned.
"The entire mystery..."
"Was bait."
Lucas stepped forward.
"You've been caught."
Mercer looked at him.
"You."
Lucas raised a gun.
Mercer didn't flinch.
"You won't shoot."
"Try me."
Then the lights went out.
A gunshot echoed.
Someone screamed.
Emergency lights flashed.
Security alarms blared.
I grabbed the girls.
"Move!"
We ran.
Lucas shouted directions.
Mercer chased us.
We reached a vault.
Inside was a safe.
Lucas pointed.
"That's it."
I opened it.
Inside was a black notebook.
The ledger.
I grabbed it.
But there was one more thing.
A photograph.
Their mother.
Martin.
My mother.
All four together.
Taken twenty-two years ago.
On the back was a sentence.
NOAH MUST NEVER KNOW THE FINAL TRUTH.
I stared.
"What final truth?"
Lucas went pale.
He looked at me.
"That photograph was taken three days before the girls were born."
I frowned.
"What?"
Lucas turned the picture over again.
There was a date.
And beneath it:
Noah was not the biological donor.
My entire body went cold.
"But the records say..."
"They were falsified."
"Then who is their biological father?"
Lucas looked toward the hallway.
Mercer's voice echoed from the darkness.
"You."
I turned.
Mercer stood there.
"But not the Noah you think."
He raised a photograph.
A younger man.
My face.
Exactly my face.
But the photograph was dated five years before I was born.
I couldn't breathe.
May you like
Mercer smiled.
"Your father had a twin."
