Chapter 6 - Nicholas Comes Home
Nicholas Mercer walked down the stairs wearing black.
Not a doctor’s coat.
Not a disguise.
A simple black suit.
He looked enough like Julian that the resemblance was disturbing.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
But harder.
Thinner.
Older than his years.
Julian whispered:
“Nicholas.”
His brother smiled.
“Hello, Jules.”
Eighteen years vanished from Julian’s face.
For a second, he became the teenage boy whose brother had disappeared.
Then he remembered the children.
“What did you do?”
Nicholas looked at Victoria.
“Ask your wife.”
Victoria stepped in front of Emma.
“She’s not your property.”
Nicholas laughed.
“She’s my daughter.”
Emma recoiled.
That was answer enough.
Father by blood did not mean safe.
Nicholas noticed.
His smile faded.
“Emma.”
She moved behind Victoria.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Interesting.
He cared what she thought.
Maybe genuinely.
Maybe possessively.
Julian asked:
“Why did Dad say you ran away?”
“Because he needed you obedient.”
Nicholas explained.
At sixteen, he discovered Raymond’s private custody business.
Wealthy families paid Raymond to make inconvenient children disappear from inheritances, custody disputes, or scandals.
Not murder.
Identity replacement.
Private institutions.
False guardianship.
Sealed records.
Children reappeared under new names.
Nicholas threatened to expose him.
Raymond had him declared unstable and sent away.
Nicholas eventually escaped.
But Raymond controlled his legal identity and finances.
Nicholas spent years building evidence.
Then he met Victoria under the alias Nick Vale.
That was not accidental.
He believed Victoria’s family had records linked to Raymond.
Instead, he fell in love.
Then she became pregnant.
Nicholas disappeared because Raymond threatened Emma before she was even born.
Victoria whispered:
“You could have told me.”
“I thought leaving kept you safe.”
“Everyone in this family calls abandonment protection.”
That silenced him.
Then Nicholas looked at Chloe.
“She wasn’t supposed to be in the coffin.”
I nearly attacked him.
“What?”
He raised both hands.
“Victoria decided that.”
Julian turned toward his wife.
Victoria stared at the floor.
Why?
Because Chloe had seen Nicholas entering the hidden rooms.
And heard him arguing with Victoria about Emma.
Victoria panicked.
She gave Chloe a sedative prescribed for fever.
Too much?
No.
Enough to make her sleep deeply.
Then staged her death temporarily to remove her from Nicholas’s reach.
Her plan was to move Chloe elsewhere after the funeral.
“Inside a casket?”
“I needed Nicholas to believe she was dead.”
I wanted to scream.
“You terrified a six-year-old child and locked her inside a coffin.”
“I thought I was saving her.”
Again.
Saving.
Protecting.
Every monster had a softer verb.
Nicholas looked furious.
“I would never hurt Chloe.”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She stared at Nicholas.
“You wouldn’t.”
Then pointed upward.
“But Grandpa would.”
Julian whispered:
“Grandpa is dead.”
Emma looked confused.
“No.”
“He comes with Dad.”
Everything stopped.
May you like
Raymond Mercer had been buried four years ago.
Or so we believed.
