Chapter 16 - The Doctor’s Real Program
Before Mercer spoke, I made him sit across from me instead of beside Stellan.
That mattered.
For most of the day, everyone had treated Stellan as the person who deserved the truth first.
I was done with that.
“You answer me,” I told Mercer.
He looked at Stellan.
Stellan said, “She asked you.”
Mercer swallowed.
“Fine.”
I put Fern’s hospital file on the table between us.
“My daughter is not a program. She is not a trust. She is not leverage. If you use another clinical word to avoid saying what you did to actual people, I’m leaving with that laptop and every file on it.”
Mercer looked ashamed.
“Understood.”
“Good. Start with the first lie.”
Mercer’s confession started in 2009.
Not with the mafia.
With insurance companies.
That somehow made it worse.
He had developed a private genetics platform designed to identify hereditary disease risks for wealthy families who paid for complete secrecy.
Then Cross Holdings bought the lab.
Gideon saw other uses.
Secret children.
Paternity disputes.
Bloodline claims.
Who could donate a kidney to whom.
Who could inherit.
Who could be threatened.
Mercer said, “I told myself information prevented violence.”
I stared at him.
“Did it?”
“No.”
“At least you learned something.”
Stellan asked, “Who took control of the platform?”
“I never knew the real names. They used an investment group called Northstar.”
Roman swore.
I looked at him.
“What?”
“Northstar has been buying Cross debt for two years.”
Stellan’s expression changed.
“They weren’t gathering leverage on families.”
Roman nodded.
“They were preparing to own them.”
The room became very quiet.
Darius pulled corporate records.
Northstar owned pieces of logistics companies, private-security firms, two hospitals, several casino vendors, and debt connected to Cross Holdings.
Not enough to control Stellan.
Yet.
Mercer pointed at Fern’s records.
“A living direct heir changes the Cross trust.”
Stellan looked at him.
“How?”
“Twenty-two percent of the voting shares leave Gideon’s control and become locked for Fern under an independent guardian structure.”
I frowned.
“Guardian?”
Roman answered.
“Her biological parents.”
I stared at Stellan.
He stared back.
Roman continued.
“If Ava is dead, those shares return to the senior family trust. Northstar can buy debt against them.”
Now I understood.
The fake death protected Fern physically.
But someone later turned it into a financial weapon.
They needed Fern alive enough to verify her bloodline.
And dead enough that she could not legally own anything.
I felt sick.
“So they kept checking her blood because if she died for real—”
“They would lose the leverage,” Mercer said.
“They made my child sick to confirm she was still alive.”
“Yes.”
Stellan’s hand closed around a paperweight.
I took it from him.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You cannot murder a corporation.”
“Watch me.”
“Stellan.”
He exhaled hard.
Darius’s phone buzzed.
“Northstar just filed an emergency claim against Cross Holdings.”
Roman stepped forward.
“On what basis?”
“Fraud involving the Ava Cross trust.”
Of course.
They were moving before we could expose them.
Then the mansion alarm sounded.
A security voice came over the speaker.
“Medical emergency, nursery level.”
I ran.
Stellan was behind me.
Fern had been upstairs with a nurse.
I hit the nursery door so hard it bounced off the wall.
The nurse lay unconscious on the carpet.
Fern was gone.
Her cream blanket was on the floor.
On the crib mattress sat a phone.
It rang.
I answered with shaking hands.
A woman said, “Selene, your daughter is safe.”
I knew the voice.
“Mom.”
Rose Hart breathed out.
“Listen to me carefully.”
“Bring her back.”
“I can’t.”
“I swear to God—”
“Northstar has a kill team two minutes from that house.”
Stellan grabbed the phone.
“Where is Fern?”
Rose answered him calmly.
“With the only person Northstar still believes is dead.”
Me.
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