Chapter 8 - The Doctor Who Signed TwiceThe name was Dr. Malcolm Reese.
No body had been recovered.
Sebastian remembered the memorial.
Daniel had cried beside the empty casket.
Arthur had delivered the eulogy.
Now investigators believed Charles Mercer had staged his death.
Daniel confirmed it after surgery.
“My father never disappeared,” he said weakly.
Sebastian stood beside the hospital bed.
“Where has he been?”
“Everywhere.”
Charles had maintained residences through corporations in Canada, Switzerland, the Bahamas, and New England.
He continued controlling pieces of the Mercer financial network through Daniel.
“You helped him?”
“At first.”
“For fourteen years?”
“I was twenty-seven when he disappeared.”
“You were not a child.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“He had documents that could destroy Arthur. Destroy Whitmore Global. Thousands of employees would lose pensions. Contracts would collapse.”
“So you became his criminal partner?”
“I told myself I was containing him.”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“We all tell ourselves beautiful lies.”
Daniel looked away.
“Charlotte figured it out.”
“What did Charles want with my daughters?”
“Control.”
“Of what?”
“The voting shares.”
Daniel explained.
If the quintuplets inherited Charlotte’s shares, a trust would control them until adulthood.
Charles believed Arthur had hidden evidence inside foundation accounts.
If the trust reverted after the girls’ deaths, Daniel—as investment administrator—could maneuver assets.
“He wanted leverage over your company,” Daniel said.
“By murdering five infants?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I didn’t know that part.”
“You hired Victoria.”
“To manipulate medical expenses. Yes.”
“You knew she was neglecting them.”
“I knew she was changing reports.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“My daughter stopped breathing.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I swear.”
“You threatened Charlotte.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You said she was putting the babies in danger.”
“Because my father was watching her.”
Sebastian stared.
“He told me if Charlotte continued, he’d make her regret it.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I was afraid.”
“So was she.”
Daniel had no answer.
Naomi waited outside.
When Sebastian emerged, she asked, “Do you believe him?”
“Partly.”
“That’s dangerous.”
“So is believing nobody.”
They worked with federal agents.
Daniel gave them a location.
An estate in the Berkshire Mountains.
Charles Mercer had reportedly stayed there for months.
The property was raided before dawn.
Empty.
But investigators found a room filled with files.
Photographs of Sebastian.
Charlotte.
Arthur.
The babies.
Naomi.
One photograph showed Naomi at Maya’s funeral twelve years earlier.
She stared at it.
“My God.”
Charles had been watching her long before the Whitmore household.
Why?
The answer was hidden in Evelyn Brooks’s old payments.
Charles had managed Arthur’s hush-money arrangement.
He knew Sebastian’s biological mother.
He knew Naomi existed.
And because Naomi shared blood with Sebastian, she represented something Charles could use.
Another potential scandal.
Another secret.
Another piece of leverage.
Inside the Berkshire house, investigators also discovered a schedule.
Friday.
The day the babies’ trusts finalized.
Beside it were three words.
Winter generator test.
Sebastian’s estate had an automated backup generator.
A failure could shut down nursery equipment.
Monitors.
Heating.
Medical devices.
An “accident.”
Except Naomi had already disrupted the plan by exposing Victoria.
Charles needed another method.
Sebastian immediately ordered his estate evacuated.
Staff were relocated.
Arthur went under federal protection.
The babies remained at St. Catherine’s.
Naomi stayed with them.
Friday morning arrived.
Nothing happened.
By noon, the trusts finalized.
Five girls became legal owners of Charlotte’s shares.
Sebastian finally allowed himself to exhale.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
St. Catherine’s Hospital erupted into flashing lights.
Nurses rushed through corridors.
Sebastian stood.
“What happened?”
“Smoke on the fourth floor.”
The neonatal suite was on the fifth.
Naomi’s eyes met his.
“This isn’t an accident.”
Security began evacuation.
Each infant required a transport bassinet.
Five babies.
Five teams.
Sebastian took Lily.
Naomi carried Grace.
Nurses moved Rebecca, Sophie, and Claire.
Smoke entered the stairwell.
Sebastian coughed.
Somewhere below, alarms screamed.
Then the lights went out.
Backup power returned seconds later.
But in those seconds, someone wearing hospital scrubs stepped from a side corridor.
He grabbed Rebecca’s bassinet.
Naomi saw him.
“Stop!”
The man ran.
Sebastian turned.
“Rebecca!”
He handed Lily to a nurse and pursued.
The man shoved through a fire door.
Sebastian followed down two flights.
Smoke thickened.
The stranger abandoned the bassinet near a service elevator and fled.
Sebastian reached Rebecca.
She was crying.
Alive.
He lifted her.
Then heard footsteps.
An older man emerged through smoke.
Silver hair.
Lean frame.
Scar across one cheek.
Sebastian had seen him only in old photographs.
Charles Mercer.
Charles smiled.
“You look like your mother.”
Sebastian held Rebecca tighter.
“You stay away from my family.”
Charles laughed.
“You don’t have a family. You have assets.”
Sebastian stepped backward.
Charles raised a pistol.
“You’ve spent your entire life thinking money means power.”
He aimed.
“Your father taught you badly.”
A fire extinguisher struck Charles from behind.
He collapsed.
Naomi stood there, breathing hard.
Sebastian stared.
“What are you doing here?”
“Saving your stubborn billionaire ass.”
Despite everything, he almost laughed.
Charles rolled.
The pistol fired.
Naomi cried out.
She fell.
Sebastian’s world stopped.
“Naomi!”
Security rushed in.
Charles was tackled.
Sebastian dropped beside Naomi while keeping Rebecca against his chest.
Blood spread across Naomi’s sleeve.
She looked at the baby.
“Is she okay?”
“Yes.”
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
Naomi exhaled.
Only then did she look at her own wound.
Sebastian pressed his hand against it.
“You’re going to be okay.”
She grimaced.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
“Because I’ve already lost one woman in this family.”
His voice broke.
“I’m not losing another.”
Naomi stared at him.
For the first time, he said the word.
“Stay with me, sister.”
Her eyes filled.
Then she smiled faintly.
“You’re very dramatic.”
“You got shot.”
“I noticed.”
Sirens grew louder.
Sebastian laughed through tears.
Naomi survived.
The bullet passed through her upper arm without striking bone.
Charles Mercer was arrested.
The hospital fire had been intentionally set in a storage room by one of his paid contractors.
Within twenty-four hours, federal prosecutors charged Charles with attempted murder, conspiracy, fraud, arson, and multiple financial crimes.
The nightmare should have been over.
But three days later, Sebastian received Charlotte’s full autopsy review.
And discovered that Charles Mercer had not administered the drug that killed her.
Someone inside the operating room had.
May you like
Someone who still worked at St. Catherine’s.
Someone who had been standing near the babies during the fire.
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