Chapter 5 - THE DNA REVELATION AND THE FROZEN HEIR
The red light on the suite door turned a sharp, mechanical green.
I stood up instantly, stepping in front of the bed to block Rowena and Leo from view. The door swung open, and three men in tailored charcoal suits stepped into the room, flanked by Julianna Vance and my father’s chief legal counsel, Marcus Sterling.
Julianna was dressed in an immaculate ivory designer suit, her platinum blonde hair pulled into a severe chignon. Her icy blue eyes scanned the room, landing first on me, then lingering with unconcealed disgust on Rowena and the sleeping child.
“Callahan,” Julianna said smoothly, crossing her arms. “Your father told me I would find you here playing savior to the local street life. I didn't want to believe him.”
“Julianna,” I said, my voice dangerously flat. “You have five seconds to turn around and get out of this room before I have hospital security physically remove you.”
Marcus Sterling stepped forward, adjusting his gold-rimmed spectacles. He held a thick legal binder tucked beneath his arm. “With all due respect, Mr. Mercer, you don't have the authority to remove us. As general counsel for Mercer Holdings, I am executing an emergency power of attorney order signed by Arthur Mercer two hours ago.”
“My father cannot execute a power of attorney over me,” I growled. “I am the CEO of Mercer Automotive.”
“You were the active CEO,” Marcus corrected calmly, opening the binder and extracting a certified court document. “Under Section 14 of the Mercer Family Trust bylaws, the patriarch reserves the right to declare any executive officer incapacitated if they demonstrate erratic behavior that jeopardizes public shareholder equity. By missing the Halcyon summit, assaulting your head of security on a public street, and unlawfully sequestering an unauthorized party in a private medical facility, you have triggered a temporary suspension of your executive privileges.”
Rowena gasped behind me, pulling Leo closer to her. The noise woke the boy. Leo rubbed his eyes, blinking against the harsh hallway light spilling into the room.
“Mommy?” Leo whimpered, seeing the strange men in suits. “Who are they?”
Julianna took two steps forward, her eyes narrowing as she locked her gaze onto Leo’s face. She saw the crescent birthmark beside his eyebrow. I watched the color drain from her perfectly contoured cheeks.
“It’s true,” Julianna hissed, turning toward Marcus Sterling. “Arthur said there was a rumor of a child, but I thought it was a pathetic shakedown. Look at him. He’s Callahan’s spitting image.”
“That is irrelevant to the legal proceedings, Ms. Vance,” Marcus said, though his own eyes flickered with unease. He turned back to me. “Callahan, your father is offering a clean exit. Relinquish your voting proxy to the board, sign an agreement confirming that this woman and her child have no legal claim to the Mercer trust, and Arthur will grant you a fifty-million-dollar severance package and allow you to walk away quietly.”
“And if I refuse?”
Marcus snapped the binder shut. “Then by eight o'clock tomorrow morning, every bank account tied to Mercer Automotive will be frozen. Your personal credit lines, your corporate jet access, and your residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach will be placed under executive review. Furthermore, child protective services will be dispatched to this hospital with an emergency custody warrant to remove the minor from an environment deemed financially unstable and unsafe.”
“You wouldn't dare,” I snarled, taking a step toward Marcus, my fists clenched so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“Try us, Callahan,” Julianna said with a cold, triumphant smile. “My father’s logistics firm controls eighty percent of Mercer Automotive’s supply chain. Without our parts, your factories in Michigan shut down by Friday. Arthur and my father have already agreed: you will marry me as planned, or you will be stripped of every dime you have ever earned.”
Leo suddenly slipped off the bed, running past me before I could grab him. He planted his small sneakers in front of Julianna, glaring up at her with fierce, tear-filled eyes.
“Leave my mommy alone!” Leo yelled, his little chest heaving. “You’re mean! Go away!”
Julianna recoiled as if a stray dog had brushed against her designer trousers. “Control your bastard, Callahan.”
That was the final straw.
I grabbed Marcus Sterling by the lapels of his thousand-dollar suit, slamming him against the wall with enough force to rattle the medical monitors. “Listen to me very carefully, Marcus. Go back to New York. Tell my father that I reject his severance. Tell him that every single share of Mercer Automotive I own is going into a private litigation fund. And tell Julianna that our engagement is officially terminated.”
Marcus gasped for breath, terrified by the sheer fury in my eyes. “Callahan… you’re destroying yourself! You have nothing without the family empire!”
“I have my son,” I whispered ruthlessly. “Now get out before I throw you through that window.”
I shoved Marcus out the doorway. The two security guards backed away, recognizing the raw authority in my command. Julianna stared at me with pure venom, her fingers curling into tight claws.
“You’re choosing a penniless gutter rat over the largest automotive merger in American history?” she spat. “You will regret this, Callahan. Arthur will destroy you before this week is over.”
“Let him try,” I said, and slammed the door in her face.
I turned back to the room. The silence that followed was suffocating. Rowena sat on the bed, her face buried in her hands, weeping silently. Leo ran to her, wrapping his small arms around her neck.
May you like
I walked over to the bed, pulled out my private smartphone—the encrypted device connected to my offshore personal accounts that even Arthur didn't know about—and dialed my private pilot.
“Captain Miller,” I said into the receiver. “Prep the Gulfstream at Palm Beach International. We’re wheels up in two hours.”
