Chapter 2 - The Father Nobody Was Supposed to Name
For several seconds after the screen went black, nobody moved.
Fireworks continued exploding beyond the windows of Mercer Tower.
Blue.
Gold.
White.
Chicago celebrated a new year while Maya Bennett stared at a dead computer screen and wondered whether the last seven years of her life had been built on a lie.
Lily stood between Daniel Cross and Natalie Crane.
Her little face was frightened now.
Not crying.
That somehow made it worse.
“Mommy?”
Maya moved immediately.
Daniel lifted one hand.
Not toward a weapon.
Toward Maya.
“Wait.”
Ethan stepped between them.
“Daniel, if you tell her to wait one more time while you're holding her daughter, we're going to have a very short conversation.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I am not holding Lily prisoner.”
“You brought her here without Maya's permission.”
“Because the building is compromised.”
Ethan went still.
“What?”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
“Your internal security network went offline fourteen minutes ago.”
One of Ethan’s men immediately checked his phone.
“No signal from floors thirty-two through forty.”
Daniel nodded.
“Exactly.”
Maya barely heard them.
She was looking at Lily.
“Come here, baby.”
Daniel released her.
Lily ran.
Maya dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around her daughter.
“You okay?”
Lily nodded against her shoulder.
“The lady at Mr. Ethan's house said Mr. Daniel was security.”
Maya looked at Daniel.
“You took her from Ethan's housekeeper?”
“I evacuated her.”
“Without calling me?”
“I tried.”
Maya pulled out her phone.
No service.
Daniel looked at Ethan.
“Someone activated an internal jammer.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
“Only three people have access to that system.”
“Four.”
“No.”
Daniel met his eyes.
“Your uncle Malcolm never surrendered his override.”
Silence entered the room.
Maya looked between them.
“Who is Malcolm?”
Ethan did not answer immediately.
“My father's younger brother.”
Daniel added quietly, “And the man Richard Mercer feared most during the last year of his life.”
Natalie made a small sound.
Everyone turned.
She was shaking.
Ethan’s gaze settled on her.
“What does Malcolm have on you?”
Natalie wiped her face.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand you deleted Maya's reservation, lied to her, and helped lead my people away from Lily.”
“I didn't know Daniel was taking Lily.”
Daniel snapped, “I wasn't taking her.”
“Then why didn't you tell them?”
“Because I didn't know who I could trust.”
Maya stood with Lily still pressed against her side.
“Enough.”
Her voice wasn't loud.
Everyone stopped anyway.
“I want the truth.”
Daniel looked at her.
“All of it?”
“You've apparently known things about my daughter for seven years.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Yes.”
“Then all of it.”
Ethan moved back to the computer.
The black screen suddenly flickered.
A loading bar appeared.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Don't.”
Ethan turned.
“Why?”
“Because Richard designed that archive in stages. Once the final authorization starts, it broadcasts a verification request.”
“To where?”
Daniel looked at the clock.
Then at the office door.
“That's what I'm afraid of.”
The screen flashed.
SECONDARY RECORDING RESTORED.
Richard Mercer appeared again.
Older.
More exhausted than before.
Maya's heart began pounding.
Richard looked directly into the camera.
“If this portion is playing, Ethan has opened the archive with Maya Bennett physically present.”
Ethan whispered, “How the hell did you build this?”
Richard continued.
“Maya, your mother, Elena Bennett, worked for the Mercer family from 1993 until 2002.”
Maya frowned.
“My mother was an accountant.”
Daniel said nothing.
On-screen, Richard nodded almost as if answering her.
“She was an accountant. She was also the only person who discovered that millions of dollars were being moved through Mercer Freight into companies I did not control.”
Ethan's eyes sharpened.
Richard continued.
“Your mother came to me for help.”
A photograph appeared.
Elena Bennett.
Young.
Beautiful.
Standing beside Richard.
Maya recognized her instantly.
Then Richard said the words that changed everything.
“I failed her in ways I will never forgive.”
The photograph changed.
A hospital room.
Elena holding a newborn.
Richard beside her.
“Maya,” he said from twenty-five years in the past, “I am your father.”
Nobody breathed.
Maya laughed once.
A broken sound.
“No.”
Lily looked up at her.
“Mommy?”
“No.”
Maya shook her head.
“My father was Thomas Bennett.”
Richard's recording continued.
“Thomas Bennett knew the truth. He gave Maya his name because the Mercer name would have put a target on her before she learned to walk.”
Maya staggered backward.
Ethan caught her elbow.
She jerked away.
“Don't.”
His hand dropped.
The truth reached both of them at the same moment.
Ethan looked at her.
Maya looked at him.
Half brother.
Half sister.
A man she had met only hours ago.
A family connection buried for three decades.
Ethan whispered, “My father had another child.”
Daniel looked down.
“You knew,” Ethan said.
Daniel did not deny it.
“For twenty-five years.”
Ethan crossed the room so quickly Natalie gasped.
He stopped inches from Daniel.
“You knew I had a sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“Your father ordered me not to.”
“My father has been dead nineteen years.”
“His enemies haven't.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
The recording continued.
“There is another reason Daniel was instructed to keep Maya away from the Mercer family.”
Maya looked back at the screen.
Richard's face became visibly strained.
“Anna.”
The photograph of the green-eyed little girl appeared again.
Ethan's shoulders locked.
“My daughter Anna did not die in an automobile accident.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
Maya saw something in him break without a single change in his expression.
Richard spoke carefully.
“The car was sabotaged.”
Ethan whispered, “No.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You knew that too?”
“I knew someone tampered with it.”
“Who?”
“I never had proof.”
Richard answered from the screen.
“Anna saw something she wasn't supposed to see. A transfer ledger. She heard Malcolm arguing with Elena. Two days later, the brakes failed on the car carrying Anna and her nanny.”
Ethan turned toward Daniel.
“You told me it was weather.”
“I was twenty-seven years old and following your father's orders.”
“My eight-year-old sister died.”
“I know.”
“No. You knew.”
Daniel flinched.
It was the first time Maya had seen him lose control.
Richard continued.
“After Anna's death, I sent Elena, Maya, and Thomas away from Chicago. But Elena refused to stop collecting evidence.”
Maya stared.
Her mother had died twelve years ago after what Maya had always been told was a heart attack.
Suddenly even that seemed uncertain.
Then Richard said:
“Maya, there is something you must know about Lily's father.”
Maya's heart stopped again.
The screen changed.
A photograph appeared of a young man.
Twenty-six, maybe twenty-seven.
Dark hair.
Kind eyes.
Maya recognized him.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“No.”
Daniel turned away.
Ethan looked between them.
“Who is he?”
Maya could barely speak.
“Michael.”
Daniel's voice cracked.
“My son.”
Maya looked at him.
The room tilted.
Michael Cross.
A man Maya had dated for four months eight years ago.
Before she married Ryan Bennett.
A man who had vanished from her life after telling her his father had gotten him a job overseas.
A man she had later been told died in an industrial accident in Rotterdam.
Maya shook her head.
“That isn't possible.”
Richard's recording continued.
“Michael Cross is Lily Bennett's biological father.”
Lily stared up at her mother.
Maya couldn't look down.
“No.”
Daniel's eyes were wet now.
“I ran the DNA test when Lily was six months old.”
“You what?”
“Michael left a sample in our family medical records.”
“You tested my baby without telling me?”
“I needed to know.”
Maya crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound cracked through the office.
Daniel did not move.
“You had no right.”
“No.”
“You watched us?”
“Yes.”
“You photographed my daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she's my granddaughter.”
Maya's eyes filled.
“You could have come to me.”
“And told you what? That Michael never abandoned you? That he was murdered three weeks after he discovered Malcolm Mercer knew about your mother's records?”
Maya stopped.
“What?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“My son didn't take a job overseas.”
His voice failed.
He swallowed.
“He was trying to protect you.”
Maya felt Ethan's hand close around the back of a chair.
Daniel continued.
“Michael found the first copy of the Room 614 ledger. He knew Malcolm's people were watching you. So he made you believe he was leaving.”
“And Ryan?”
“Ryan knew Lily probably wasn't his.”
Maya stared at him.
“No.”
“He loved you anyway.”
Her face collapsed.
For years she had hated Ryan for disappearing.
Daniel said, “Two years ago, Ryan discovered someone had begun following Lily again.”
Maya’s breathing changed.
“What happened to him?”
Daniel didn't answer.
“What happened to my husband?”
Before Daniel could speak, the lights went out.
Total darkness.
Lily screamed.
Ethan's voice came instantly.
“Down!”
Maya pulled Lily to the floor.
Glass exploded behind them.
A suppressed gunshot punched through the window beside the computer.
Then another.
Ethan dragged Maya and Lily behind the desk.
His men returned fire toward the doorway.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Daniel shouted, “They're inside the building!”
Natalie screamed.
A shadow appeared through the smoke beyond the shattered office door.
Daniel drew his weapon.
Bang.
He jerked backward.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Daniel!”
Maya crawled toward him.
He caught her wrist.
“Don't.”
Another shot struck the desk.
Ethan fired twice.
The shadow disappeared.
Daniel struggled to breathe.
Maya pressed her hands against his wound.
“Stay with me.”
Daniel looked at her.
Then at Lily.
For the first time, all the hardness left his face.
“My son would have loved her.”
“Don't talk like that.”
“Maya.”
“No.”
His fingers tightened around hers.
“Ryan is alive.”
Maya froze.
Daniel coughed.
Blood touched his lips.
“He never abandoned you.”
“Where is he?”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
Ethan moved closer.
“Daniel. Who's in the building?”
Daniel's eyes found Ethan's.
Fear appeared.
Real fear.
“The man who killed Anna.”
Ethan went completely still.
Daniel whispered four words.
May you like
“He's on your floor.”
And directly above them, the elevator began descending.
