Chapter 21 - The Pediatric Files of Dr. Mercer
"Open the door!" Ethan roared, slamming the brass bar against the reinforced steel shutter that now sealed the mirror frame. The solid steel didn't even dent; it rang with a dull, impenetrable thud.
From the hallway behind him came the frantic pounding of running footsteps.
Thomas appeared in the doorway of the guest suite, his service revolver drawn, his eyes scanning the shattered bathroom. "Ethan! I heard the crash! What happened?"
"Leo," Ethan panted, his chest heaving, his hands bleeding from tiny glass splinters. "Did you leave Leo alone?"
"No! I locked the nursery deadbolt from the outside and brought the master key with me! What did you see?"
"Julian," Ethan said, his voice shaking with a terrifying mixture of rage and wonder. "He’s behind the wall, Thomas. Mercer is in there with him. They’ve been living inside the structural cavity between Suite 204 and the north chimney."
Thomas stared at the steel-plated mirror in absolute shock. "Mercer? Dr. Mercer has been dead for six months, Ethan! His obituary ran in the Times last October! He died of heart failure in Zurich!"
Ethan stopped. He lowered the brass bar, staring at Thomas. "What did you say?"
"I handled the condolences card from the estate, boss," Thomas insisted. "His estate attorney sent a formal notice to all former patients. I archived it in your study safe!"
Ethan didn't argue. He grabbed Thomas by the lapel and pulled him toward the suite's exit. "If Mercer is dead, then who is in that room?"
They ran back to Ethan’s study. Ethan tore open the lower drawer of his desk, where he kept Clara’s medical power of attorney documents and the Zurich correspondence. He pulled out the thick folder labeled Mercer Neurology Clinic.
He dumped the contents onto the mahogany desk. Among the receipts and medical summaries was a single certified document from the Swiss Federal Department of Health, dated five years ago.
Ethan read the clinical summary aloud, his voice dropping into a horrified whisper:
"Subject: Vance, Clara. Condition: Familial Fatal Neurological Degeneration. Experimental Protocol: Intrauterine Cryo-Preservation and Asynchronous Gestation."
Thomas leaned over the desk, squinting through his reading glasses. "Asynchronous gestation? What in God's name does that mean?"
Ethan flipped to the second page of the clinical trial data.
"Clara wasn't carrying one baby when she got sick," Ethan said, piecing together the nightmarish reality from the dense medical terminology. "She was carrying twins conceived via in vitro fertilization. When her diagnosis became terminal four years ago, Mercer convinced her to deliver the first fetus—Julian—at thirty-two weeks to save his life. Julian was born four years ago."
Ethan's fingers trembled as he turned to the final protocol page.
"And Leo?" Thomas asked, his voice barely audible.
"They didn't deliver Leo," Ethan whispered, the cold horror washing over him like an arctic wave. "Mercer harvested the second blastocyst and preserved it in an experimental low-temperature developmental suspension chamber. Clara didn't want both boys exposed to her family’s corporate creditors if she died. She arranged for Leo to be brought to term three years later in a surrogate facility in Bern, so the two boys would never be legally recognized as twins under the Vance family trust."
"Why?" Thomas gasped. "Why would Mrs. Clara do that to her own children?"
Ethan pointed to the bottom of the final contract page, where the trust inheritance clause was highlighted in red ink:
"In the event of multiple heirs born simultaneously, the Vance estate shall be liquidated and divided among the surviving board members of Saint Jude Logistics. In the event of a single surviving direct heir, the entirety of the seventy-million-dollar trust remains under the sole guardianship of the surviving parent until the child reaches majority."
Ethan looked up, his eyes hollow. "The trust was rigged by Clara’s father. If the board knew Clara had twins, they would have seized the entire estate four years ago and left Clara with nothing to pay for her medical treatments. Clara hid Julian to protect him, and used the estate money to keep him secret in the sub-basement until Leo was old enough to claim the legal inheritance above ground."
"Then who is in that room with Julian right now?" Thomas asked, his hand trembling on his revolver.
May you like
Ethan looked at the signature line on the Swiss document. Below Dr. Mercer’s signature was the name of the legal witness and primary trustee who had co-signed the protocol four years ago:
Evelyn Vance. Clara’s sister.
