Chapter 6 - The Man Who Knew My NameSecurity reacted instantly.
Two guards tackled the first intruder.
Another appeared behind him.
Then another.
The boardroom became chaos.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed.
Claire grabbed Emma.
Daniel pulled me behind the table.
"Stay down!"
Gunfire cracked through the hallway.
Not toward us.
Toward the ceiling.
A warning.
The power returned.
For one second, everything stopped.
Then the fire alarm started.
Sprinklers opened above us.
Water poured from the ceiling.
A masked man grabbed Emma.
Claire screamed.
Daniel lunged.
The man shoved him aside.
I grabbed Emma's red coat.
The fabric stretched.
Then tore.
Emma fell into my arms.
The masked man disappeared through the emergency exit.
Daniel chased him.
I shouted his name.
He disappeared.
Claire grabbed my shoulder.
"Don't follow."
"He's alone."
"No."
She pointed at the floor.
A small black device had been left behind.
A camera.
My stomach dropped.
"They wanted us to see that."
"What?"
"The attack."
I looked at Marcus.
He had gone completely pale.
"Everyone out," he said.
"What?"
"Now."
He grabbed the ledger.
"This wasn't a kidnapping."
"What was it?"
"A message."
We evacuated through the south stairwell.
By 7:28 a.m., police had arrived.
But nobody was arrested.
The masked men were already gone.
The police asked questions.
We gave answers.
They asked why we hadn't called sooner.
I had no good explanation.
At 8:10, a detective named Alvarez took me aside.
"Ms. Mercer, I need to tell you something."
"What?"
He lowered his voice.
"The security footage from outside your house last night is missing."
I stared at him.
"All of it?"
"Forty-three minutes."
"When?"
"Starting at 2:01 a.m."
The exact window before Daniel left.
I felt sick.
"Can you recover it?"
"Maybe."
He handed me a small evidence bag.
Inside was a flash drive.
"We found this near your gate."
I looked at it.
"What's on it?"
"We don't know."
Back at Mercer Tower, we opened it.
The first video started automatically.
My father appeared on screen.
Alive.
Three weeks before his death.
I stopped breathing.
Thomas Mercer sat behind his desk.
He looked directly at the camera.
"Someone will eventually try to separate Hannah from everyone she trusts."
The video cut.
A second one.
My father again.
"Daniel Brooks is not the enemy."
Another cut.
"Neither is Claire Whitmore."
Another.
"Do not trust the people who insist they are protecting you."
Then a final file.
My father leaned closer to the camera.
"If you're watching this, then I've failed."
I stared.
"You need to understand something, Hannah."
He paused.
"There is someone in your life who has lied to you for years."
The screen flickered.
Then my father whispered:
"Your husband isn't the only man who married into this family."
I froze.
Daniel stared at the screen.
"What does that mean?"
Marcus stepped forward.
"I don't know."
My father continued.
"Find the woman who worked in my house the summer before Hannah turned twenty."
I frowned.
"The maid?"
"Her name is Rose."
The video stopped.
I looked at Marcus.
"Who is Rose?"
He didn't answer.
"Marcus."
His face was tense.
"Rose worked for your father for six months."
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know."
"You represented my father."
"I know."
"Then you know where she went."
He looked away.
"She disappeared."
"When?"
"Twenty years ago."
I turned toward Daniel.
"Did you know her?"
"No."
Claire stepped closer.
"I do."
Everyone stared at her.
Claire looked at me.
"My mother knew Rose."
I swallowed.
"Your mother?"
"She told me Rose left Charleston after discovering something."
"What?"
Claire's voice dropped.
"She said your father had another child."
Silence.
I stared at her.
"That's impossible."
"No."
She shook her head.
"Rose was pregnant when she disappeared."
I looked at Marcus.
"Did my father have another daughter?"
Marcus remained silent.
That silence was enough.
My heart pounded.
"Who?"
Marcus finally whispered:
"We never knew."
I turned toward the window.
Charleston stretched beneath us.
My entire life had just shifted under my feet.
The empire.
The wedding.
Emma.
My father.
And now a missing woman who had apparently carried a secret out of our house twenty years ago.
Then the flash drive beeped.
A new file appeared.
Nobody had opened it.
The title was:
ROSE MERCER
I clicked.
The screen showed an old photograph.
Rose standing beside a little girl.
Maybe four years old.
The girl had my father's eyes.
And the same birthmark I had on my wrist.
I stared at the image.
"No."
Marcus whispered my name.
"Hannah."
I looked at him.
The photograph zoomed in.
The little girl's name was written on the back.
Sophie Mercer.
I felt cold all over.
Because Sophie wasn't missing.
She was alive.
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And according to the next line in the file...
She was living inside my house.
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