I almost laughed.
“That’s impossible.”
Thomas nodded toward the boxes in the hidden room.
“Find the 2012 transfer authorization.”
Dr. Vale did.
The document carried a signature.
Ryan Mercer.
Mine.
Except I had never seen it.
Then I noticed the date.
September 14, 2012.
The day my father died.
I had spent that entire day at the hospital.
Thomas smiled.
“Nathan changed his will three days before his death. He transferred controlling authority over several dormant Mercer Medical entities to you.”
“I never knew.”
“Exactly.”
“Then who used my signature?”
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
“A woman who knew you wouldn’t ask questions.”
I turned slowly toward the only woman who had access to every financial document I had ever signed.
Caroline.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Thomas said, “Tell him.”
“I didn’t sign that.”
“Tell him who did.”
Caroline’s face changed.
Then she looked toward the elderly woman.
Evelyn Ross.
My supposed grandmother.
Evelyn stood.
Far too easily for a fragile stroke survivor.
Her drooping expression vanished.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
A performance discarded.
I felt cold all over.
Dr. Vale whispered, “Evelyn?”
She smiled.
“That was Daniel’s mother’s name.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“There it is.”
The woman reached behind the cot and pulled out a small revolver.
Dr. Vale turned his gun toward her.
She fired first.
The shot exploded inside the tiny room.
Dr. Vale collapsed, clutching his shoulder.
Caroline screamed.
I threw Maya and Lily behind the table.
The woman pointed the gun at me.
“Your father was always so difficult.”
“Daniel?”
She laughed.
“Nathan.”
Everything I believed shattered again.
She wasn’t Daniel’s mother.
She had been Nathan Mercer’s partner.
Dr. Evelyn Cross.
One of the founders of the psychiatric network.
The woman whose name appeared on half the documents in the boxes.
She had created the false commitment program.
She had helped imprison Daniel.
She had supervised Emily.
And when Caroline began investigating years later, Evelyn approached her pretending to be Daniel’s elderly mother.
She gave Caroline just enough truth to become trusted.
Then waited.
“You lived in my house?” I whispered.
“Inside it occasionally.”
Lily’s night visitor.
The boxes.
The whispers.
Caroline hadn’t been bringing someone in.
Evelyn had been entering through a forgotten exterior access hatch connected to the original servants’ corridor.
Searching for the recording.
Thomas said quietly, “She’s been using all of us.”
Evelyn pointed the gun at Maya.
“She knows where her mother put it.”
Maya began shaking.
I stepped in front of her.
“She’s five.”
“Children remember surprising things.”
“That tape is gone,” Dr. Vale groaned.
Evelyn smiled.
“No. Emily was clever.”
She looked at Maya.
“What song did Mama sing when she sewed your rabbit?”
Maya’s eyes widened.
I looked toward the stuffed rabbit Lily had been holding earlier.
No.
Maya suddenly ran.
