CHAPTER 10 The Woman Who Never Stopped Looking
The white corridor fell silent.
Only the faint hum of fluorescent lights filled the air.
William... or the man Mercer had just called Daniel Hayes... stood motionless.
"My name..."
He swallowed.
"...is William Sterling."
Mercer smiled sadly.
"No."
"It is the name I gave you."
Detective Brooks stepped in front of William.
"Enough."
He raised his pistol.
"Hands where I can see them."
Mercer calmly lifted both hands.
"I have no intention of resisting."
Brooks didn't lower the weapon.
"Then start talking."
The Photograph
Mercer slowly reached into the pocket of his white coat.
Several officers tensed.
Instead of a weapon...
He removed an old, worn photograph.
The edges had yellowed with age.
He placed it gently on the floor.
Then stepped backward.
"No tricks."
William picked it up.
The image showed a young woman sitting in a hospital bed.
She held a newborn baby wrapped in a blue blanket.
The woman smiled through tears.
On the back of the photograph, written in faded ink:
Daniel Hayes
Born: April 12
My miracle.
Love, Mom.
William stared at the baby's face.
His pulse quickened.
The infant had the same tiny birthmark beneath his left ear.
Instinctively, William reached up and touched his own neck.
The birthmark was still there.
His breathing became ragged.
The Birthmark
Brooks looked at Mercer.
"You expect us to believe a photograph?"
Mercer nodded toward William.
"Ask him."
William frowned.
"Ask me what?"
"Has anyone ever questioned the birthmark?"
William thought back.
As a child...
His father had once touched it.
A strange sadness crossing his face.
Jonathan had whispered something William never understood.
"I'm sorry."
At the time...
William had assumed it meant nothing.
Now...
The memory landed differently.
A Mother's Voice
Mercer walked slowly toward a cabinet.
"Don't move!" Brooks barked.
Mercer stopped immediately.
"Second drawer."
"There is a cassette recorder."
One officer retrieved it.
An old tape was already inside.
Mercer nodded.
"Play it."
The room filled with static.
Then...
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Gentle.
Broken by tears.
"Daniel..."
William's heart lurched.
The voice continued.
"If anyone ever lets you hear this..."
"...it means I failed to bring you home."
William closed his eyes.
He didn't know this woman.
Yet...
Something inside him stirred.
Not a memory.
A feeling.
The recording continued.
"You loved sleeping with your tiny fist around my finger."
"You always cried when I sang."
She laughed quietly through tears.
"Except for one song."
Then she began humming.
A simple lullaby.
Halfway through the melody...
William's lips moved.
Without thinking...
He softly sang the next line.
The room froze.
He stopped immediately.
Confused.
"I..."
"I don't know that song."
Mercer whispered,
"You do."
"You've known it all your life."
Jonathan's Truth
Brooks folded his arms.
"If Jonathan Sterling knew the child wasn't his..."
"...why didn't he return him?"
Mercer's expression changed.
For the first time...
Regret.
"Because by then..."
"...it was too late."
He opened another file.
Inside was a newspaper clipping from twenty-eight years earlier.
LOCAL COUPLE KILLED IN HIGHWAY ACCIDENT
Below the headline was a photograph.
William's hands shook.
The woman from the cassette.
Standing beside a smiling man.
Mercer quietly said,
"They weren't your parents."
William looked up.
"What?"
"They were your aunt and uncle."
William stared.
"Then..."
"My mother survived."
Mercer nodded.
"She never stopped looking."
The Search
Mercer opened a locked cabinet.
Hundreds of envelopes spilled onto the floor.
Each one addressed to a different police department.
Different cities.
Different states.
Missing-person organizations.
Private investigators.
Brooks picked one up.
It had never been opened.
Another.
Another.
The dates stretched back twenty-eight years.
Every year...
Without fail.
Someone had mailed new information.
New age-progression sketches.
New DNA requests.
New pleas for help.
Mercer looked directly at William.
"Every birthday..."
"...she sent another letter."
William's throat tightened.
"She..."
"...thought I was alive?"
Mercer answered quietly.
"She never believed you were dead."
Lucas Interrupts
A loud alarm suddenly echoed through the underground level.
Red emergency lights flashed.
Lucas's voice burst through the intercom.
"Mercer!"
The old doctor looked upward.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Lucas answered,
"I didn't."
Everyone frowned.
Then...
Footsteps echoed behind them.
From the operating wing.
Not one person.
Several.
A tactical officer turned the corner.
"Detective!"
Brooks rushed forward.
"What happened?"
"We searched every operating room."
"And?"
"No Lucas."
"What?"
"We found restraints."
Fresh blood.
Medical equipment.
But no patient.
Mercer slowly smiled.
"I told you..."
"...you're late."
William grabbed him by the coat.
"WHERE IS HE?"
Mercer looked him directly in the eyes.
"I've never lied to you."
William's grip tightened.
"Answer me!"
Mercer pointed upward.
"Not below."
"Above."
The entire team looked toward the ceiling.
Mercer continued calmly.
"You've spent the whole night searching underground..."
"...while Lucas has been inside your mansion."
William's face drained of color.
"The mansion..."
Mercer nodded.
"He's exactly where he planned to be."
Brooks frowned.
"Why would he go back?"
Mercer's smile disappeared.
"To open the final room."
"What final room?"
Mercer whispered four chilling words.
The Chairman's Vault.
Before anyone could ask another question...
Every monitor in the facility flickered on simultaneously.
A live security feed appeared.
The Sterling mansion.
Third floor.
A corridor that did not exist on any official blueprint.
Lucas stood before an enormous steel vault door.
He placed his hand on a biometric scanner.
The screen flashed green.
ACCESS GRANTED
As the vault slowly opened...
Lucas looked directly into the hidden camera.
Then spoke one sentence.
Not to Mercer.
Not to Brooks.
To William.
"Dad lied about one thing."
The vault door finished opening.
Lucas stared inside...
And the color vanished from his face.
He whispered,
May you like
"...They're all still alive."
END OF CHAPTER 10
