Chapter 4
Daniel nearly dropped the phone.
“My what?”
The woman on the other end took a shaky breath.
“My name is Rebecca Mercer. Michael Mercer is my father.”
Daniel stood.
I stood with him.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
Patricia had lied about so many things that Daniel still looked shocked hearing the answer.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“At Vanderbilt Medical Center.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Why?”
“He had a stroke six days ago.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Is he dying?”
“No. At least we don’t think so. He’s stable. He can speak. He’s starting rehabilitation.”
Rebecca sniffed.
“He kept asking whether we had heard from you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“How did he know I might call?”
“He sent another letter to your mother.”
Daniel looked at the one on the table.
“She got it.”
“He told her he was done waiting.”
Daniel paced toward the window.
“How long have you known about me?”
“My entire life.”
He stopped.
I saw the pain hit him.
“You knew?”
“Not everything. Dad told me I had a brother named Daniel. He said there were complicated circumstances and he wasn’t allowed to interfere.”
“Allowed by who?”
“Your mother.”
Daniel looked toward the dark hallway.
Ethan was sleeping only twenty feet away.
“Why would he listen to her?”
Rebecca was quiet.
“That’s something he should explain.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m sorry.”
He pressed his fingers against his forehead.
“I found out about you thirty minutes ago.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She went silent.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Rebecca spoke carefully.
“If you want to meet him, I can make sure no one else is there.”
Daniel looked at me.
I nodded.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
He hesitated.
Then said, “Okay.”
We barely slept.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the broom coming down.
At two in the morning, Ethan woke up screaming.
I ran to him.
Daniel was right behind me.
Ethan sat upright, crying so hard he could barely breathe.
“She found the key.”
I sat on the bed.
“What key?”
“The little one.”
Daniel looked at me.
“The storage key?”
Ethan nodded.
“She kept asking where I put it.”
“When?”
“Before you came home.”
Daniel crouched beside him.
“Buddy, how did you find the envelope?”
Ethan wiped his eyes.
“I wanted my crayons.”
“What crayons?”
“The old box.”
I remembered.
We stored art supplies in the hallway closet.
The wooden box had been on the top shelf, but Ethan’s crayons were in a plastic bin below it.
“Did the box fall?”
He nodded.
“I pulled my blue crayons and the wood box came down.”
“Did Grandma see?”
“Not first.”
“What happened?”
“I picked up the papers.”
His lip trembled.
“There was Daddy’s name.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“You can read my name?”
Ethan nodded.
“I saw Daddy and real father.”
He didn’t fully understand the words.
He had simply recognized enough to know it was important.
“What did Grandma do when she saw you?”
“She yelled.”
He started crying again.
“She took all the papers and said I was sneaky.”
I stroked his hair.
“Then what?”
“She asked where the key was.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Did you take it?”
“I thought it was cool.”
He pointed at his little dinosaur backpack in the corner.
My stomach dropped.
Daniel opened it.
Inside a front pocket was another key.
Not the brass key from the envelope.
A silver one.
A plastic tag hung from it.
FIRST TENNESSEE SAFE DEPOSIT.
BOX 416.
Daniel stared at me.
“There are two keys.”
We had assumed the brass key was the only one.
Apparently Patricia had been looking for this.
“Was this in the wooden box too?” I asked.
Ethan nodded.
“Grandma got really mad when she couldn’t find it.”
Suddenly her panic made more sense.
She hadn’t beaten a six-year-old because he read a letter.
She had been trying to force him to reveal where he put a key.
Daniel held the silver key.
“What is in that box?”
The next morning, I called my boss and said I would not be coming in.
Daniel did the same.
We took Ethan to his pediatrician.
The doctor documented the marks.
Ethan cried when she examined him.
I cried in the bathroom afterward.
Daniel stood beside our car for several minutes, staring at nothing.
Then he called Rebecca.
By noon, we were at the hospital.
I expected Michael Mercer to look powerful.
Dangerous, maybe.
Patricia’s secret had built him into something enormous in my imagination.
Instead, I saw a sixty-seven-year-old man in a hospital bed wearing gray socks.
His right hand shook slightly.
A cane leaned against the wall.
Rebecca stood beside him.
She was thirty-two.
She had Daniel’s eyes.
That was the first thing I noticed.
Daniel noticed too.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Michael started crying.
Not loudly.
His face simply folded.
“Daniel.”
Daniel froze.
Michael tried to stand.
Rebecca stopped him.
“Dad, don’t.”
Michael ignored her.
He pushed himself upright.
His leg weakened.
Daniel moved instinctively and caught his arm.
The second they touched, both men went still.
Michael looked at his face.
“My God.”
Daniel released him.
“You know what I look like.”
“I have pictures.”
“From my mother?”
Michael looked toward Rebecca.
“Some.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You’ve been watching me?”
“No.”
“Then where did you get pictures?”
“Your mother sent a few when you were younger.”
Daniel stared at him.
“She told you about me?”
“Yes.”
“She took your money?”
Michael’s expression changed.
So did Rebecca’s.
“You know about the money?”
“We found a letter.”
Michael sat down slowly.
“I thought she was putting it into accounts for you.”
“She says she spent almost all of it.”
Michael closed his eyes.
Rebecca whispered, “Dad.”
“How much?” Daniel asked.
Michael looked at him.
“More than one hundred and eighty thousand.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“How much?”
“Two hundred and forty-six thousand dollars.”
I felt sick.
Daniel stared at him.
“You sent a quarter of a million dollars to a woman who wouldn’t let you see me?”
“Over thirty-eight years.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you deserved something from me.”
“I deserved the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you give me that?”
Michael looked at him for a long moment.
“Because I was a coward.”
The answer seemed to surprise Daniel.
Michael continued.
“When Patricia became pregnant, she was engaged to Thomas.”
Daniel swallowed.
Michael looked down at his hands.
“She and I had been seeing each other secretly.”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
She had clearly heard some version of this before.
“When she found out she was pregnant, she didn’t know which of us was your father.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So this gets better.”
“Thomas found out.”
Daniel’s head snapped up.
“He knew before I was born?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Michael smiled sadly.
“He punched me.”
Despite everything, Daniel almost smiled.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He broke my nose.”
“Definitely Dad.”
The smile vanished as quickly as it came.
Michael continued.
“Then he told Patricia he still wanted to marry her.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“Because he loved her.”
Michael’s eyes filled.
“And because when you were born, he loved you.”
Daniel looked away.
“DNA testing wasn’t simple then. Not like now. But you looked like me.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Thomas knew.”
“Did he hate you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hate him?”
“For a while.”
Michael looked toward the window.
“Then I respected him.”
“For taking your child?”
“For raising his child.”
Daniel’s eyes turned back.
Michael nodded slowly.
“He never called you mine.”
Daniel swallowed hard.
“He called you his son.”
The room fell silent.
I watched my husband trying to hold together thirty-eight years of identity with both hands.
“Why did you stay away?”
Michael breathed slowly.
“Patricia said if I came near you, she would tell you I had tried to destroy their marriage. She said she would make sure you hated me.”
“That wouldn’t have stopped you if you really wanted me.”
“No.”
Michael nodded.
“You’re right.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“I was also married later. I had Rebecca. I had a business. I told myself staying away was noble.”
He looked ashamed.
“It was easier than admitting I was afraid.”
Daniel stared at him.
“And the letters?”
“I started sending them when you turned eighteen.”
“My mother kept them.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because she answered some.”
Daniel went still.
“What?”
Michael looked at Rebecca.
She opened her purse.
She handed Daniel several photocopied letters.
They were written in Patricia’s handwriting.
Daniel read one.
Michael,
Daniel wants no contact with you.
He considers Thomas his only father.
Please respect that.
Patricia.
Daniel’s hands trembled.
“I never said this.”
“I know.”
Michael’s voice cracked.
“I know that now.”
Daniel flipped through more.
Each said some version of the same thing.
Daniel wanted no contact.
Daniel resented Michael.
Daniel had returned the money.
Daniel wanted the past buried.
Every one was a lie.
“Why did you finally stop believing her?”
Michael looked at me.
Then Daniel.
“Because three years ago, I saw you.”
Daniel frowned.
“Where?”
“At a children’s hospital fundraiser.”
I remembered it.
Daniel’s company had sponsored a table.
“You were speaking with a group near the stage. Your mother was there.”
Michael took a breath.
“When she went to the restroom, I approached you.”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
I saw him remembering.
“A man asked if I was Thomas Bennett’s son.”
Michael nodded.
“You said yes.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You were that man?”
“Yes.”
“You shook my hand.”
“It was all I could manage.”
Daniel sat down.
Michael’s face tightened.
“Then you said something that changed everything.”
“What?”
“You said your father died when you were twelve.”
Daniel looked confused.
Michael continued.
“You said, ‘I’d give anything for one more conversation with him.’”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I realized Patricia had spent years telling me you wanted nothing to do with me.”
Michael wiped his face.
“And you didn’t even know I existed.”
No one spoke.
Then Daniel reached into his pocket.
He placed the silver safe-deposit key on the table.
Michael’s face went white.
“Where did you get that?”
“My son found it.”
Michael stared at the tag.
“Box 416.”
“You know it?”
“Yes.”
“What’s inside?”
Michael looked frightened.
“That box belonged to Thomas.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“My dad?”
Michael nodded.
“He gave Patricia the key before he died.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What did he put in it?”
Michael looked directly at him.
“A letter for you.”
Daniel’s voice became barely audible.
“From my father?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Michael hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“And what?”
May you like
Michael swallowed.
“Proof of where the money was supposed to go.”
