Chapter 10: The Name on My Birth Certificate
“Thomas!””
I ran toward the door.
Michael caught my arm.
“Wait.””
“My father just disappeared.””
“That might be exactly what he wants.””
I pulled free.
“Everybody wants something from me.””
Lily started crying again.
That stopped me.
I turned around.
She stood beside Claire, hugging her rabbit so tightly its fabric ears were twisted.
I crossed the room and knelt.
“Hey.””
“Are you leaving?””
“Only for a minute.””
“You said you wouldn't.””
The fear in her eyes cut through me.
She didn't understand secret studies or altered birth certificates.
She understood people leaving rooms and not coming back.
I kissed her forehead.
“Then I'm staying.””
Evelyn watched silently.
Michael walked toward the security monitors.
“Thomas didn't use the main corridor.””
“How do you know?””
“Because that camera never triggered.””
Claire examined the wall.
“Another passage?””
Evelyn answered.
“Several.””
I stared at her.
“Of course.””
Michael searched the control panel.
Then the speakers crackled again.
“Good choice, Ryan.””
The unknown man sounded almost pleased.
“Who are you?”” I shouted.
“My name is Dr. Daniel Mercer.””
Evelyn's face changed.
Not much.
But enough.
“You know him,” I said.
She didn't answer.
Mercer laughed through the speaker.
“She knows me very well.””
Michael looked at Evelyn.
“Who is he?””
“Someone who should be dead.””
I almost laughed.
“Apparently that's a popular condition in this family.””
Mercer's voice returned.
“Look beneath the third drawer of the archive desk.””
Michael and I exchanged a glance.
“Don't,” Evelyn said.
That decided it.
We returned to the archive.
Claire stayed with Lily and Emma.
Sarah followed.
The third drawer looked empty.
Michael removed it completely.
Taped underneath was an envelope.
Inside was a birth certificate.
My name appeared across the top.
RYAN THOMAS WALKER.
Mother:
EVELYN WALKER.
Father:
Blank.
I stared at it.
“No.””
Michael took another document from the envelope.
A second certificate.
Same date.
Same hospital.
Different name.
RYAN DANIEL MERCER.
My hands went numb.
Sarah whispered, “Oh my God.””
I turned toward Evelyn.
“Who is Daniel Mercer?””
Her face remained unreadable.
Before she could answer, the speaker came alive.
“I'm the man who watched you being born.””
I swallowed.
“Are you my father?””
A long silence.
Then Mercer said:
“Biologically? Yes.””
Michael backed away.
I couldn't breathe.
Thomas wasn't my father.
Or maybe he was.
The word father suddenly felt more complicated than blood.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Daniel donated genetic material to the program.””
“Don't call me material,” Mercer snapped through the speaker.
Evelyn ignored him.
“Thomas raised you.””
“Until I was twelve.””
“Yes.””
“Then you told me he died.””
“Because he discovered Daniel was alive.””
Michael stared at her.
“And me?””
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
“You and Ryan were created from the same embryo cohort.””
I frowned.
“Created?””
Mercer interrupted.
“She's manipulating the language again.””
“Then you explain it.””
“I was a medical researcher. Evelyn and I had a relationship. You and Michael were conceived through IVF using our genetic material.””
Michael went still.
“So you're my biological father too?””
“Yes.””
Michael laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“Fantastic.””
I looked at Evelyn.
“Then Thomas knew we weren't his?””
“He knew.””
“And he raised us anyway?””
“He believed fatherhood was more than biology.””
That sentence landed differently.
For all Thomas's lies, he had chosen me.
At least once.
I looked at the birth certificate again.
“Why change my name?””
Mercer answered.
“To hide you from me.””
Evelyn snapped toward the speaker.
“To protect him from you.””
“Protect me from what?””
Neither answered.
Michael slammed his hand against the desk.
“Enough!””
His voice echoed through the archive.
“Both of you have spent decades turning everyone else into pieces on your board.””
He looked toward the ceiling.
“Mercer, where is Thomas?””
A pause.
“He came to me.””
“Why?””
“Because he knows Evelyn hasn't told Ryan what happened the night the clinic burned.””
Evelyn went pale.
There it was.
The first real fear I'd seen from her.
“What happened?””
“Ryan,” she said quietly, “some things should stay buried.””
“No.””
I stepped toward her.
“That's how this started. Everyone deciding what I shouldn't know.””
Mercer's voice came through the speakers.
“Then come to the original nursery.””
Michael checked the building map.
“There isn't a nursery.””
“Yes, there is.””
A mechanical click sounded beneath us.
Part of the archive floor shifted.
A staircase appeared.
Cold air rose from below.
Evelyn whispered, “Daniel, don't.””
I looked at her.
“What is down there?””
Her eyes filled with something that looked dangerously close to shame.
“Proof.””
I started down.
Michael followed.
Sarah stayed close behind.
At the bottom, we entered a preserved hospital corridor.
Dust covered everything.
Tiny rooms lined both sides.
Through one window, I saw old cribs.
Not dozens.
Six.
Michael stopped beside me.
One crib still had a nameplate.
MICHAEL.
The next:
RYAN.
The third:
SUBJECT C.
The fourth:
SUBJECT D.
I stared.
“There were other babies?””
Michael looked sick.
A light switched on at the end of the corridor.
Thomas stood there.
Beside him was a man in his seventies.
Dr. Daniel Mercer.
Thomas looked at me.
“Ryan.””
I held up the birth certificate.
“You knew.””
“Yes.””
“Every day you raised me, you knew.””
“Yes.””
“Why didn't you tell me?””
His eyes filled.
“Because you were my son.””
That answer almost broke me.
Mercer stepped forward.
“There's something else.””
He opened an old ledger.
“Ryan and Michael weren't the only children who left this clinic.””
He turned the book toward us.
Four names had been written beside the four occupied cribs.
Michael.
Ryan.
A third name I didn't recognize.
And the fourth—
May you like
Claire Bennett.
My wife's maiden name.
