Chapter 6 - THE MOTHER WHO HAD BEEN SILENT TOO LONGMargaret did not move.
Samuel caught her.
“Where is he?”
Conrad’s men raised their weapons.
Conrad remained calm.
“Lucas is unharmed.”
Elena stared at the screen.
Her entire body shook.
“Touch my son and I’ll kill you.”
Conrad looked almost amused.
“You’ve threatened me before.”
Elena tried to move forward.
Victoria stopped her.
Conrad lifted the phone.
Lucas looked frightened but conscious.
Someone stood behind his chair.
Detective Trent.
Victoria’s stomach twisted.
“Let him go.”
“Give me the backpack.”
Conrad held out his hand.
Samuel whispered, “Don’t.”
Victoria knew the evidence mattered.
But Lucas was eight years old.
She tossed the backpack across the floor.
Conrad’s man collected it.
“Now release him.”
Conrad opened it.
He searched through the documents.
“Where is the flash drive?”
Victoria said nothing.
Conrad smiled.
“You’re learning.”
“You’ll get it when Lucas is standing beside us.”
“No.”
Elena screamed, “He is a child!”
“And he is also leverage.”
Victoria stared at the man she had once loved.
“How did I never see you?”
Conrad’s smile vanished.
“Because you preferred comfort to questions.”
The words landed painfully because some part of Victoria believed them.
She had enjoyed the mansion.
The travel.
The social status.
She had allowed Conrad to handle paperwork because it was easier.
But shame could wait.
Lucas could not.
“Take me instead.”
Elena turned.
“Victoria, no.”
“He needs my trust authority. He doesn’t need Lucas.”
Conrad’s eyes narrowed.
Victoria continued.
“I’ll sign whatever you want if you let Elena and Lucas leave.”
“Vicky.”
Victoria ignored her sister.
“You married me because you need my legal control. So use me.”
Conrad considered.
Then he nodded.
“Deal.”
Samuel muttered, “He won’t honor it.”
“I know.”
Victoria met Conrad’s eyes.
“But he thinks I will.”
Conrad ordered two men to escort Elena and Samuel outside.
Victoria followed Conrad into the main house.
A helicopter waited beyond the lawn.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere private.”
“Where is Lucas?”
“You’ll see him.”
They flew for forty minutes.
Victoria counted turns.
Roads.
Lights.
Anything she could remember.
Eventually they landed on a private airfield beside an industrial warehouse.
Lucas was inside.
The moment he saw Victoria, he screamed her name.
She ran to him.
Trent blocked her.
Conrad said, “Let her.”
Victoria wrapped Lucas in her arms.
“I’m sorry.”
“You came.”
“I said I would.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“Safe.”
It was a lie.
Victoria had no idea if Elena had escaped.
Conrad placed legal documents on a steel table.
“You will sign a transfer of trustee authority.”
“To whom?”
“Hale Strategic Holdings.”
“Impossible. The trust requires a Mercer.”
Conrad smiled.
“Which is why the second document changes your legal surname back to Mercer for trust purposes and appoints a successor.”
Victoria scanned the pages.
The successor name stunned her.
Margaret Mercer.
Her mother.
“You’re using my mother?”
“She signed preliminary authority years ago.”
“She didn’t know what she was signing.”
“Neither did you.”
Trent laughed.
Victoria looked at him.
“You investigated my sister.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she survived?”
“Eventually.”
“How much did Conrad pay you?”
“Enough.”
Lucas whispered, “He’s bad.”
Trent grabbed the boy’s shoulder.
Victoria reacted instantly.
“Take your hand off him.”
Something in her voice made Trent release him.
Conrad handed her a pen.
“Sign.”
Victoria looked toward Lucas.
Then she signed the first page.
The second.
Third.
Conrad relaxed.
What he did not know was that Samuel had replaced the real trust documents with altered copies.
The signatures were useless.
Victoria signed the final page.
Conrad took the papers.
“Good.”
“Now we leave.”
“No.”
Victoria stared.
“That was the deal.”
“The deal changed.”
Of course.
Trent took Lucas.
The boy fought.
“Victoria!”
She rushed forward.
Two guards restrained her.
Conrad stepped close.
“You’ve created a problem I can’t leave alive.”
Victoria looked directly at him.
“You mean your nephew?”
Conrad froze.
Lucas stopped struggling.
Victoria had guessed.
The resemblance between Lucas and Conrad had bothered her.
The eyes.
The shape of the chin.
Elena watched Conrad differently than she watched other men.
Victoria had found a hidden medical document inside the locker confirming Lucas’s paternal DNA.
The father was listed only as C.H.
“Lucas is your son.”
Trent looked shocked.
Conrad’s expression remained unreadable.
Lucas stared at him.
“No.”
Victoria’s heart broke.
She wished she could take the words back.
But the truth was already in the room.
Conrad whispered, “Elena told you.”
“No. The medical report did.”
Conrad looked away.
Years earlier, before Victoria and Conrad married, Elena and Conrad had secretly been involved.
Elena became pregnant.
Then discovered Conrad’s crimes.
The crash followed weeks later.
Victoria felt sick imagining it.
“You tried to kill the mother of your own child.”
Conrad’s voice hardened.
“Elena used the pregnancy to threaten me.”
“She tried to expose you.”
“She wanted to destroy everything my family built.”
Lucas whispered, “You’re my dad?”
Conrad did not look at him.
That answered enough.
Lucas began crying.
Victoria stepped forward.
“Look at him.”
Conrad remained still.
“Look at your son.”
Finally Conrad turned.
For one second, emotion appeared.
Fear.
Not love.
Fear that the child existed.
Victoria realized Lucas was not merely evidence.
He was a living connection to Elena and the crash.
Conrad spoke to Trent.
“Take them both to the secondary location.”
Trent frowned.
“Both?”
“Yes.”
“What about the kid?”
Conrad looked directly at Lucas.
“No witnesses.”
Even Trent seemed disturbed.
Victoria pulled Lucas against her.
Then the warehouse lights went out.
Darkness.
A gunshot.
Someone shouted.
Another gunshot struck metal.
Victoria dropped over Lucas.
“Stay down!”
Men ran.
A side door exploded inward.
Flashlights swept across the room.
“Federal agents! Drop your weapons!”
Victoria froze.
Conrad shouted something.
Then chaos.
Samuel appeared beside her.
“Move!”
“Where’s Elena?”
“She’s here.”
Elena ran through the darkness.
“Lucas!”
The boy flew into her arms.
Elena collapsed, holding him.
Victoria turned toward Conrad.
He was running toward a rear exit.
A federal agent followed.
Trent dropped his weapon.
For one hopeful second, Victoria believed it was over.
Then a vehicle roared outside.
Samuel cursed.
“He’s escaping.”
Victoria ran to the open door.
Conrad’s SUV sped toward the airfield exit.
But another person stood beside the runway.
An older woman.
Margaret Mercer.
Victoria’s mother.
Conrad slammed on the brakes.
Margaret raised a phone.
“I recorded everything!” she shouted.
Conrad reversed.
A second federal vehicle blocked him.
He was trapped.
Victoria almost smiled.
Then Conrad accelerated straight toward Margaret.
May you like
“Mom!”
Victoria screamed.
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