Chapter 36 - The Investigator
We found him two hours later.
His name was Daniel Mercer.
He was sixty-three.
He had spent twenty years investigating the founder's network and ten years pretending he had stopped.
He was waiting in a closed diner outside the city.
When I walked in, he looked at me for a long time.
Then at Noah.
Then at Gabriel.
“You're late.”
Jonathan frowned.
“We didn't know where you were.”
“I wasn't talking about you.”
Daniel pointed at me.
“I was talking about Thomas.”
I sat across from him.
“What do you know?”
“More than I should.”
“Then tell me.”
He studied my face.
“You have his eyes.”
I looked down.
“Everyone keeps comparing me to someone else.”
“Because your family spent years hiding who you were.”
Noah sat beside me.
“And me?”
Daniel looked at him.
“You have Elise's eyes.”
Noah smiled sadly.
“Everyone says that too.”
Daniel opened a folder.
Inside were bank statements, photographs, court filings, old corporate records.
He spread them across the table.
“The network wasn't one company.”
I looked over the papers.
“It was hundreds.”
“Correct.”
“Owned by different people.”
“On paper.”
He slid a document toward me.
“Beneficial control was centralized.”
By whom?
Daniel looked at Gabriel.
“Your father.”
Gabriel froze.
“My father?”
Daniel nodded.
“Victor Voss.”
Gabriel stared at the papers.
“My father died twenty years ago.”
“He disappeared twenty years ago.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“That distinction matters.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Is Victor still alive?”
“I don't know.”
Eleanor's voice came back to me.
The people who built it.
I asked:
“Was my grandmother one of them?”
“Yes.”
“Was Elise?”
“No.”
“Was Thomas?”
“No.”
“Was Gabriel?”
“No.”
“Elias?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
Elias had been telling me he was protecting me.
But his name was in the archive.
Daniel pointed to it.
“He was an access intermediary.”
Elias nodded.
“I know.”
I stared at him.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because once I did, you would ask the next question.”
“What question?”
“Whether I ever had a choice.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Not after Victor threatened Elise.”
My heart stopped.
“You knew Victor.”
Elias nodded.
“I worked for him.”
Gabriel stood.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“You disappeared.”
“You could have warned me.”
“I tried.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You didn't.”
Daniel pushed a photograph across the table.
It showed Elias meeting Victor.
A younger Eleanor stood nearby.
So did Thomas.
And Elise.
And one more person.
I recognized him immediately.
Noah.
No.
Not Noah.
A little boy who looked like Noah.
I stared.
“This isn't possible.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It was taken nineteen years ago.”
Noah's face went pale.
“That isn't me.”
Daniel nodded.
“No.”
He turned the photograph over.
Written on the back were two names.
HANNAH VALE.
NOAH CARTER.
My stomach dropped.
“But I was born eighteen years ago.”
“That's what the records say.”
Daniel placed another page beside it.
The date was wrong.
A full year earlier.
He looked at me.
“You and Noah were born closer together than the records claim.”
Gabriel went pale.
Elise had told him nothing.
Daniel continued.
“She gave birth to both of you in the same hospital.”
I stared.
“Then why does every record show different dates?”
“Because the births were split.”
“How?”
“One child was entered immediately.”
He looked at Noah.
“The other was registered later.”
“Why?”
“To hide the second birth.”
Noah whispered:
“So I wouldn't exist.”
“Officially.”
I looked at Gabriel.
“Were you there?”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“Both times?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Because the second birth nearly got you killed.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
He looked at Noah.
“Eleanor believed there was only one heir.”
“And she thought that was me.”
“Yes.”
“And Noah was hidden.”
“Yes.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“That wasn't the only thing hidden.”
He opened a final file.
Inside was a death certificate.
My name was on it.
I stared.
“What?”
The date of death was nineteen years ago.
Daniel said:
“According to the founder's records, Hannah Vale died at birth.”
I couldn't breathe.
“That's impossible.”
“It is.”
“Then who was I?”
Daniel looked at me.
“A replacement identity.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“I gave you my name.”
I looked at him.
“And my original name?”
“Hannah Vale.”
“Why was it erased?”
“Because Eleanor was searching for the heir.”
Noah reached for my hand.
I held it.
Daniel continued.
“Your mother didn't just hide you.”
“She erased you.”
I felt something inside me fracture.
All those years.
School.
Friends.
Birthdays.
Every document.
Every memory.
A life built on a name that wasn't originally mine.
Then Daniel said:
“But there is something worse.”
“What?”
“The death certificate wasn't created to hide you.”
He looked at Noah.
“It was created to make the world believe the heir was dead.”
I stared.
“So who was supposed to be the heir?”
Daniel slowly pointed to the photograph.
“Both of you.”
A car screeched outside.
Jonathan stood.
“Down!”
Everyone ducked.
The diner window shattered.
A bullet struck the wall.
Daniel grabbed the folder.
“We have to move!”
Mark pulled me toward the rear exit.
I looked back at Daniel.
“Who is shooting at us?”
He shouted:
“The same person who has been chasing your mother!”
We ran into the alley.
A black SUV sped past.
I saw the driver for one second.
May you like
And recognized her.
Eleanor.
