CHAPTER 5: THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
My father’s words remained suspended in the air between us.
Not because I didn’t understand them.
Because I understood them too well.
“Vanessa’s child belongs to someone else?”
My voice sounded distant.
Almost like someone else was asking the question.
Charles Whitmore nodded slowly.
His expression was no longer the face of the billionaire everyone feared.
It was the face of a father who had just discovered the past had returned to destroy his daughter.
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
My father did not answer immediately.
That hesitation frightened me.
Because Charles Whitmore had negotiated billion-dollar mergers without blinking.
He had faced hostile takeovers.
Political pressure.
Corporate wars.
But now…
A simple name seemed difficult for him to say.
“Dad.”
My voice became sharper.
“Who is the father?”
He walked back to the desk.
He opened another file.
This one was thinner.
Older.
The edges were damaged.
Like someone had tried to destroy it.
“This man was officially declared dead twenty years ago.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
I looked down.
And my entire body froze.
Because the face staring back at me was familiar.
Not because I had met him.
Because I had seen him before.
In Adrian’s eyes.
The same sharp features.
The same cold expression.
The same arrogant confidence.
“No…”
I whispered.
My father nodded.
“Andrew Mercer.”
Adrian’s father.
The man who had supposedly disappeared from history.
The man Adrian claimed had ruined his childhood.
The man who had built his own empire through fear and manipulation.
I looked at the photograph.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian told me his father died.”
My father’s expression remained serious.
“He did.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“Andrew Mercer died.”
A pause.
“Officially.”
The word sent a chill through me.
“Officially?”
My father sat down.
“Evelyn, powerful people rarely disappear by accident.”
I slowly understood.
“You think he faked his death?”
“I know he did.”
The certainty in his voice was terrifying.
“How?”
My father opened another document.
“Because I was one of the people who helped create that illusion.”
I stared at him.
My father.
The man who had always taught me honesty.
The man who had built his reputation on integrity.
“You helped him?”
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
“I helped hide the truth from Adrian.”
I became silent.
My father continued.
“Twenty years ago, Andrew Mercer was involved in illegal financial operations.”
He placed several reports on the table.
Money laundering.
Fraud.
Corporate sabotage.
The names of companies I recognized.
Huge companies.
Companies that had disappeared overnight.
“Your mother discovered what he was doing.”
My fingers tightened.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“She worked with Adrian?”
My father nodded.
“Adrian was seventeen years old.”
I looked at him.
“Seventeen?”
“He hated his father.”
My father’s voice softened.
“He wanted to escape him.”
I remembered Adrian’s words.
I promised myself I would never become like him.
For the first time…
I wondered if that had been true.
“Then what happened?”
My father looked at the window.
“Your mother believed Adrian could become a good man.”
A bitter smile crossed his face.
“She believed people could change.”
“And Andrew?”
“He found out.”
The room became colder.
“He discovered his son had betrayed him.”
I swallowed.
“What did he do?”
My father’s silence was the answer.
“He attacked everyone involved.”
I looked at the documents.
“Everyone?”
“Yes.”
“Including my mother?”
My father looked away.
And I knew.
Before he even spoke.
“Yes.”
The word broke something inside me.
My mother had not died in a simple accident.
She had been running from something.
Something dangerous.
Something my father had hidden from me my entire life.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
My voice cracked.
“Because you were young.”
“I’m not young anymore.”
“I know.”
He looked at me.
“And that is why I’m telling you now.”
I picked up another document.
At the bottom was a signature.
A name.
Andrew Mercer.
Then another name.
My mother’s.
And beside it…
Adrian’s.
My heart stopped.
“Why is Adrian’s name here?”
My father became quiet.
“That is the part I never understood.”
“What?”
“Your mother made one final deal before she died.”
I looked at him.
“With Adrian.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of deal?”
My father leaned back.
“She asked me to protect him.”
I laughed softly.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“You protected the man who destroyed me?”
My father looked down.
“I protected the boy your mother believed still existed inside him.”
Those words hurt.
Because part of me remembered that boy.
The Adrian who held my hand.
The Adrian who cried when he told me he had lost his mother.
The Adrian who promised he would never hurt me.
But then I remembered the man who stood above me with a weapon.
The man who chose Vanessa.
The man who said I was dead weight.
“I don’t understand.”
My father pushed another file toward me.
“Neither did I.”
Inside was a recent report.
My eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
A DNA test.
My heart started racing.
“What is this?”
My father’s expression darkened.
“A DNA confirmation.”
“Between who?”
He looked at me.
“Vanessa and Andrew Mercer.”
My hands went cold.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
My father shook his head.
“That’s the truth.”
I looked at the date.
The test had been completed two months ago.
Two months.
Before Adrian attacked me.
Before Vanessa revealed her pregnancy.
Before they planned to replace me.
They had been hiding this.
“Vanessa knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
My father’s face became hard.
“Because Andrew Mercer never died.”
I stood up.
“Where is he?”
My father hesitated.
Then said:
“Closer than you think.”
My heartbeat increased.
“What does that mean?”
He opened another photograph.
A recent one.
A man standing outside a building.
Older.
Gray hair.
But unmistakable.
Andrew Mercer.
Alive.
And beside him…
Was Vanessa.
My blood turned cold.
Because suddenly everything changed.
Vanessa was not just a mistress.
She was not just a woman chasing Adrian’s money.
She was connected to Adrian’s past.
To his father.
To the secret my mother died protecting.
I looked at my father.
“Why would Vanessa work with him?”
My father’s answer was quiet.
“Because she was never trying to steal Adrian from you.”
A pause.
“She was trying to destroy Adrian.”
I stared at him.
“But why?”
My father looked at the photograph.
“Because Andrew Mercer wants his son back.”
I felt a terrible realization forming.
“And Adrian?”
My father’s eyes met mine.
“He was never the final target.”
The room went silent.
“Then who is?”
My father whispered:
“You.”
At that exact moment…
My phone began ringing.
The screen showed one name.
Adrian.
I looked at my father.
He nodded.
“Answer it.”
I hesitated.
Then picked up.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then Adrian spoke.
But his voice was different.
Broken.
Terrified.
“Evelyn…”
I closed my eyes.
“What happened?”
A shaky breath came through the phone.
Then he said the words I never expected to hear from him:
“I think my father is alive.”
Silence.
Then Adrian whispered:
“And he just sent me proof that he was never gone.”
I looked at my father.
Because both of us knew.
The war had not started tonight.
May you like
It started twenty years ago.
And we had just discovered we were standing in the middle of it:
