Chapter 10 - The Man in the PhotographThe photograph was old enough to crack when I bent it.
There was Mama.
There was Wayne.
And behind them stood another man.
Tall.
Dark hair.
A hospital badge clipped to his coat.
I stared at him.
“I don't know him.”
Samuel took the photograph.
Then he swore under his breath.
“You do.”
“What?”
He turned it over.
The hospital badge had a name.
Dr. Daniel Mercer.
Emily stared.
“Who is he?”
Samuel looked at me.
“Your biological father.”
I thought I might faint.
“My father was Michael Hale.”
Samuel shook his head.
“Michael believed he was.”
I sat down.
“What are you saying?”
“Wayne wasn't the only man who lied to your mother.”
My voice broke.
“Was Mama cheating?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Samuel placed the photograph on the table.
“Before your mother married Wayne, she was working at the hospital where you were born.”
“What does that have to do with Dr. Mercer?”
“Everything.”
Emily leaned forward.
“Tell us.”
Samuel exhaled.
“Dr. Mercer was investigating a group inside the hospital.”
“The trafficking network.”
“Yes.”
“Were Mama and he working together?”
“Yes.”
“Were they in love?”
Samuel paused.
“I don't know.”
I stared at the photograph.
Then I noticed Mama’s hand.
She wasn't touching Wayne.
She was holding Dr. Mercer's wrist.
My stomach twisted.
“What happened to him?”
“He vanished.”
“When?”
“Two days after your birth.”
“Did he die?”
“No one knows.”
I looked at Samuel.
“You said my biological father was Daniel Mercer.”
“I said he may have been.”
I picked up the photograph.
Then I saw the baby blanket.
It had a stitched blue flower.
I remembered Mama keeping that blanket in a wooden trunk.
She had told me it belonged to me.
Emily was watching me.
“What?”
“I have something.”
She reached into her bag and removed a DNA report.
My hands shook as I read it.
Subject A:
Linda Hale Carter.
Subject B:
Emily Carter.
Probability of biological parent-child relationship:
99.99%.
My knees weakened.
“I don't need proof anymore.”
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
“Neither do I.”
I looked at the bottom of the report.
A third name appeared.
Potential paternal match: Daniel Mercer.
“No.”
Samuel nodded.
“The DNA database found a partial match.”
“Is he alive?”
Samuel looked at me.
“We don't know.”
Emily asked:
“Then why is the record dated yesterday?”
Nobody spoke.
I looked at the report again.
Yesterday's date.
Someone had submitted DNA.
Recently.
Someone alive.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
“Linda.”
I froze.
“Who is this?”
“You've been digging where you shouldn't.”
“Who are you?”
A pause.
“Ask your mother why she lied about Daniel.”
The call ended.
Emily stared at me.
“That voice.”
“You know him?”
She nodded.
Her face went pale.
“It's him.”
“Who?”
May you like
She whispered:
“The man who bought me.”
