Chapter 10 - THE MAN IN THE PENTHOUSE
Rosa screamed.
Security rushed from the elevator hall.
The man raised both hands.
“Margaret, tell them not to shoot.”
His voice was Daniel’s.
Older.
Rougher.
But unmistakable.
Margaret could not move.
Noah stood between the man and Eli.
“Dad?”
The stranger looked at him.
Pain crossed his face.
“Noah.”
The security officers forced him against the wall.
He did not resist.
One searched him while another secured his wrists.
They found no weapon.
Margaret approached slowly.
The scar across his neck matched the second man in the surveillance footage.
“You aren’t Daniel,” she said.
His eyes remained on Noah.
“No.”
Noah’s face collapsed.
He recovered almost instantly, anger sealing the fracture.
“Who are you?”
The man looked at Margaret.
“My name is Michael Mercer.”
Daniel had no brother named Michael.
At least, none Margaret had ever known.
“You’re lying,” she said.
“I’m Daniel’s twin.”
Margaret almost laughed.
“Daniel was an only child.”
“That’s what Samuel Voss told the adoption agency.”
The room went still.
Michael lowered his hands as much as the restraints allowed.
“Daniel and I were separated at birth. He learned about me eighteen years ago when he began investigating Voss.”
“Before our sons disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he suspected someone close to you was involved.”
His gaze moved toward Evelyn.
Margaret saw the attorney’s expression sharpen.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“You broke into a secured residence.”
“I used Daniel’s access code.”
“How did he have one?”
“He installed the building’s backup security network.”
Margaret felt another piece shift.
Daniel had been inside her properties for years.
Perhaps inside this building.
Watching.
Preparing.
Hiding.
Noah moved closer.
“Where is my dad?”
Michael looked at him with real affection.
“Alive when I last saw him.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Rebecca had him in the basement.”
“No. Rebecca had me.”
Margaret stared at the scar.
The man in the chair.
The bruises.
The recording.
“You were the hostage.”
“Yes.”
“Then where was Daniel?”
“Trying to move you boys before Rebecca discovered the plan.”
Noah shook his head.
“We saw Dad this morning.”
“You saw me.”
Eli woke and lifted his head from the island.
He stared at Michael.
“You sound wrong.”
Michael’s expression broke.
“I know.”
Eli started crying.
Not loudly.
His shoulders simply folded inward.
Noah wrapped both arms around him.
Margaret wanted to cross the room.
She did not know whether the boys would accept her.
Michael looked at the key in her hand.
“You have 417.”
“What does it open?”
“A vault box.”
“Owen said it contains an embryo-transfer record.”
“Owen knows only part of it.”
A security officer’s phone rang.
He listened, then whispered to Margaret.
Police had found Owen Price wounded in his office.
Alive.
The bullet had missed his heart.
The shooter had escaped.
Evelyn asked, “Did he identify the attacker?”
The officer shook his head.
Michael looked at her.
“You seem disappointed.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
Margaret stepped between them.
“Explain the vault.”
Michael nodded toward the boys.
“Not in front of them.”
Noah bristled.
“It’s about us.”
“It’s about what was done before you were born.”
“Then we hear it.”
Michael studied him.
“You’re like Daniel.”
Noah’s voice sharpened.
“You don’t know me.”
“I held you the day you were born.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Margaret looked at Michael.
“You said the embryos were transferred eight years after my twins vanished.”
“One was.”
“One?”
“The second embryo was transferred two years earlier to another woman.”
Margaret’s eyes moved to Noah.
His age fit.
“Noah is mine?”
Michael hesitated.
“Biologically, possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“Voss altered records.”
“And Eli?”
“Eli may be the second embryo.”
Noah pulled Eli closer.
Margaret could not feel her hands.
“Then neither of them is one of my missing twins.”
“No.”
“What happened to my twins?”
Michael’s expression darkened.
“One survived.”
Margaret stopped breathing.
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he?”
“Rebecca knows.”
Evelyn’s phone lit up on the counter.
A message preview appeared before she snatched it away.
May you like
Margaret saw only one line.
The surviving twin is in position.
