Chapter 5 - The Enemy Wearing A Friendly Face
The revelation changed everything.
Grant was not the only person hiding secrets.
Someone close to him had been feeding information back to my father’s protection network.
Someone who had spent years pretending to help Grant destroy me.
But secretly…
They had been waiting.
Watching.
Collecting evidence.
Because my father knew Grant was dangerous long before I did.
The person protecting Ellie was revealed through one final message.
A video recorded by Alexander Kingsley before his death.
My father appeared on the screen.
Older.
Tired.
But still powerful.
“Mara.”
I froze.
Hearing his voice again nearly broke me.
“If you are watching this, then the person I feared has finally shown their true face.”
My eyes filled with tears.
My father continued.
“Grant Mercer is intelligent. Charming. Patient.”
A pause.
“But he has one weakness.”
The screen zoomed closer.
“He believes everyone has a price.”
I looked at Ellie sleeping beside me.
My father’s voice softened.
“He will try to take what belongs to her.”
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“But he does not know the person closest to him has already chosen Ellie.”
The video ended.
The file revealed the protector’s identity.
And when I saw the name…
I could barely breathe.
Because the person who had been secretly protecting my daughter for years…
Was the same person Grant trusted most.
His own mother.
Evelyn Mercer.
The woman who always defended him.
The woman who appeared to hate me.
The woman everyone believed was my enemy.
But hidden beneath decades of silence was a secret.
Evelyn knew exactly what her son was capable of.
And she had been collecting proof.
Proof that could destroy Grant forever.
The war was no longer about a marriage.
It was about an empire.
A child.
And a family secret that had been buried for decades.
I closed the folder.
Tomorrow, I would meet Evelyn Mercer.
May you like
And I would finally learn why the woman who raised my enemy…
had secretly chosen me.
