CHAPTER 5: THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD WALKED INTO THE ROOM
"...I think it's time everyone learned who your real father is."
The hidden room fell silent.
Vanessa stared at the silver-haired man standing in the doorway.
Her lips trembled.
"Uncle Daniel...?"
The man slowly shook his head.
"No."
A strange sadness crossed his face.
"You've called me that for twenty-seven years."
He took another step forward.
"It's time you knew the truth."
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?"
The man looked at him.
Then at Vanessa.
Then at the old photograph lying on the desk.
Finally, he spoke.
"My name is Daniel Mercer."
Maria gasped.
The name sounded familiar.
Very familiar.
Then she remembered.
Twenty years ago, every newspaper in Charleston had carried the same headline:
BUSINESSMAN DANIEL MERCER DIES IN MYSTERIOUS BOAT ACCIDENT.
She looked at him in horror.
"You... you're dead."
A bitter smile crossed his face.
"Apparently not."
Ethan stared.
"This is impossible."
"No," Daniel replied quietly. "What's impossible is how long the truth has stayed buried."
Vanessa's hands shook.
"You knew my mother."
Daniel nodded.
"I loved your mother."
Silence.
"I loved Claire more than anything."
Tears filled Vanessa's eyes.
"My mother said you were her brother."
"She lied."
"Why?"
Daniel looked down.
"Because she thought it would protect you."
The room seemed to spin.
Little Lily hugged Bunny Button tighter.
Even she sensed something enormous was happening.
Vanessa's voice became a whisper.
"Then... who are you?"
Daniel looked directly at her.
For the first time, his eyes softened.
"I'm your father."
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The words crashed through the room like an explosion.
Vanessa's knees nearly gave out.
"No..."
"It's true."
"No!"
Her voice echoed off the stone walls.
"You can't say something like that!"
Tears rolled down Daniel's face.
"I wanted to tell you every day of your life."
She backed away.
"My mother would have told me."
"I begged her to."
"Stop!"
"She thought I couldn't protect you."
"STOP!"
Vanessa's scream filled the room.
Maria instinctively covered Lily's ears.
The little girl looked frightened.
Daniel's face crumpled.
"I never stopped loving you."
Vanessa shook her head violently.
"No."
"I kept every birthday card."
"No."
"I watched your school graduations from across the street."
"No!"
"I was there when your mother died."
That made her freeze.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"You... were there?"
Daniel nodded.
"She made me promise something."
Silence.
"She made me promise never to tell you who I was."
"Why?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Because she was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with pain.
"Afraid of the people who killed Charles Cole."
Ethan looked up sharply.
"My father?"
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
The room became still again.
"You said in your letter..." Ethan whispered, "...my father was murdered."
"He was."
"Who killed him?"
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at the old photograph.
The one showing Charles, Richard Hartwell, and himself.
"We were partners once."
"Who?"
"Charles, Richard, and I."
Ethan frowned.
"My father never had business partners."
"Because he erased us from history."
The words sent a chill through the room.
Daniel sighed.
"Thirty years ago, your father and I built our first company together. We bought abandoned properties nobody wanted."
He smiled sadly.
"We were poor."
Ethan couldn't imagine his father poor.
"He was my best friend."
"What happened?"
"Money."
Daniel's expression darkened.
"And greed."
He pointed toward the photograph.
"Richard Hartwell changed first."
Vanessa listened through tears.
"He became obsessed with power."
"He was my uncle," she whispered.
"Yes."
"He raised me."
"He also destroyed every life he touched."
Silence.
Daniel continued.
"When our company became successful, Richard discovered something."
"What?"
"There was oil beneath one of our properties."
Everyone stared.
"The land was suddenly worth hundreds of millions."
Ethan's eyes widened.
"My father never mentioned oil."
"Because the land disappeared."
"What do you mean?"
Daniel's face hardened.
"Someone forged documents and stole it."
"Who?"
Daniel looked directly at him.
"Richard."
Silence.
"He stole from both of us."
"Then why wasn't he arrested?"
"Because Charles tried to protect him."
Ethan blinked.
"Why?"
Daniel sighed.
"Because Richard knew a secret."
"What secret?"
Daniel's eyes shifted to Vanessa.
Then back to Ethan.
"The secret about your mother."
The room became deathly quiet.
Ethan's voice dropped.
"What about my mother?"
Daniel hesitated.
For the first time, he seemed afraid.
Then he whispered:
"She didn't die of illness."
The air left Ethan's lungs.
"What?"
"She was poisoned."
Nobody moved.
"No..." Ethan breathed.
"Charles discovered it too late."
The room spun around him.
"My mother..."
Daniel nodded sadly.
"She was murdered."
Ethan's legs nearly gave out.
His mother had died when he was twelve.
Everyone said it was a rare disease.
Everyone.
For twenty-two years.
A lie.
"Who killed her?" he whispered.
Daniel looked away.
The answer seemed to hurt him.
"Tell me."
Silence.
"TELL ME!"
Daniel finally raised his eyes.
And said the one name no one expected.
"Richard Hartwell."
Vanessa gasped.
"No."
"He poisoned her."
"No!"
"He wanted Charles's company."
"NO!"
Tears streamed down her face.
"The man who raised me wouldn't do that!"
Daniel's eyes filled with pity.
"You never knew him."
The room shook with silence.
Then Ethan remembered something.
The letter.
He grabbed it.
"Wait."
Everyone looked at him.
"My father wrote something else."
He unfolded the final page.
At the bottom, beneath all the writing, was one last sentence.
A sentence he hadn't noticed.
His hands began to shake.
"What?" Maria asked.
He looked up slowly.
The color drained from his face.
"He wrote..."
Silence.
"...if anything happens to me, trust only one person."
"Who?"
Ethan swallowed hard.
Then he turned.
Looked directly at Maria.
And whispered:
"You."
The maid froze.
"What?"
"My father wrote your name."
Everyone stared at her.
Maria's face went white.
"That's impossible."
But Ethan was still reading.
Because beneath her name was another sentence.
A sentence that changed everything.
Because Maria Fernandez has been protecting our family for longer than she knows.
The room went completely silent.
Maria shook her head.
"No."
But Ethan's eyes widened.
Because beneath those words was something even more shocking.
A date.
Twenty-eight years ago.
And a hospital name.
The exact hospital where Maria had been born.
She looked at the paper.
Then at Ethan.
Then back at the paper.
Her hands began to tremble.
Because suddenly...
a memory she hadn't thought about in decades came rushing back.
A silver locket.
A fire.
A woman screaming.
And a man carrying her out of the smoke.
The man had only said four words.
"Protect the little girl."
Maria's breathing stopped.
Because for the first time in her life...
she remembered the man's face.
It was Charles Cole.
May you like
Ethan's father.
TO BE CONTINUED…
