Chapter 9 - Gabriel’s Real Father
Richard did not speak for almost a minute.
Damon did.
“What are you saying?”
Samuel turned the results toward him.
“The tissue from Gabriel’s autopsy is unquestionably Gabriel Mercer’s body based on dental records, surgical history and Claire’s independent genetic comparison.”
Claire exhaled.
“So there’s no switched body.”
“No.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“The Mercer archive lists Gabriel as Richard’s biological son.”
Richard stared.
“He was.”
Samuel looked at him.
“The autopsy DNA says otherwise.”
The room changed.
Damon looked at his father.
Richard looked wounded.
Not angry.
That mattered.
“Who is his father?” Emma asked.
Samuel needed comparison samples.
Walter.
Jonathan.
Damon.
Richard.
Old family samples.
They found the answer by evening.
Gabriel’s biological father was Walter Mercer.
Silence.
Richard stood so abruptly his chair fell.
“No.”
Damon stared.
“Uncle Walter?”
Claire covered her mouth.
Emma watched Richard.
He looked as if someone had struck him.
Gabriel—the son he raised, loved, fought with, buried—
was biologically his brother’s child.
Richard’s late wife, Caroline, became the obvious suspect.
Affair.
Betrayal.
Simple.
Too simple.
Richard said:
“Caroline hated Walter.”
Samuel looked disturbed.
“There may not have been an affair.”
Everyone understood.
The original archive.
Walter’s reproductive experiments.
Gabriel had been born through fertility treatment.
Richard and Caroline struggled to conceive.
They used an early Mercer-funded clinic in 1984.
Richard believed his sperm fertilized Caroline’s egg.
But if Walter substituted his own—
History repeated.
Damon whispered:
“He did to you what happened to Emma.”
Richard sat.
Forty-two years apart.
Same violation.
Same family.
Walter had used reproductive technology to alter paternity without consent.
Gabriel was not merely investigating Walter’s crimes.
He was one of them.
Did Gabriel know?
Claire found the answer in his journal.
Yes.
He discovered it eighteen months before death.
Entry:
I spent my life trying to repair Walter’s system.
Now I learn I am part of it.
Father is still my father.
That line broke Richard.
He turned away.
Emma let him.
Gabriel continued:
Blood is information, not parenthood.
Walter would hate that sentence.
Emma felt tears.
The dead man was becoming clearer.
Flawed.
Secretive.
Controlling.
But he had reached a truth his family desperately needed.
Gabriel learned Walter was his biological father and hid it from Richard because he feared the revelation would destroy him.
Again, protection through secrecy.
Even his best insight was trapped inside the family’s worst habit.
Damon read another entry.
If Damon learns, he will think I stole his place.
He didn’t.
I don’t want Father’s empire because Walter’s DNA is in me.
I want Walter’s system dead.
That explained Gabriel’s trust too.
He had changed inheritance structures after discovering his paternity.
He wanted biological descent to matter less, not more.
Ironically, his posthumous child now made biology matter enormously.
Exactly the contradiction the editor wanted.
Emma asked:
“Did Beatrice know Gabriel was Walter’s son?”
Evelyn nodded.
“My mother handled the old fertility records.”
There.
Beatrice knew.
She had spent decades knowing Richard’s eldest son was biologically Walter’s.
She knew Jonathan existed.
She knew Damon was infertile.
She knew Emma’s maternal history.
She knew every hidden branch.
A woman with no Mercer blood knew the Mercer bloodline better than the Mercers.
Mara found Beatrice at last.
She was not hiding.
She sat in a hospice garden outside Boston.
Terminal pancreatic cancer.
Weeks to live.
When Richard entered, Beatrice smiled.
“You finally came.”
He stared at the frail woman who had organized his life for forty years.
“Did you do this?”
“Which part?”
“Emma.”
Beatrice looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Emma remained standing.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Beatrice had activated the final substitution.
Nora replaced Walter’s intended M-4 vial with Damon’s sample.
After Nora left, Beatrice entered Haven using Evelyn’s master access.
She replaced Damon’s sample with Gabriel’s.
“Why Gabriel?”
“Because Walter’s plan was cowardly.”
Richard stared.
“Cowardly?”
“He wanted to reveal Jonathan and embarrass you.”
“So you used Gabriel.”
“I wanted the truth to reach everyone.”
Emma’s voice hardened.
“You used my body.”
Beatrice looked at her.
“Yes.”
“You violated my consent.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
Emma almost hated her more for accepting the words calmly.
“You don’t get to turn confession into morality.”
Beatrice’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“Why me?”
“Because Walter had already put you in the system.”
“So you continued his plan.”
“I changed it.”
“That doesn’t make it yours to change.”
“No.”
Again.
Beatrice did not defend herself.
That made the conversation harder.
She believed she had done something unforgivable.
And did it anyway.
“Why create Gabriel’s child?”
Beatrice looked at Richard.
“Because Gabriel spent his life trying to protect this family from the truth.”
Claire whispered:
“He was protecting people.”
“And every protection became another lie.”
Beatrice wanted one event no Mercer could bury.
A child.
Living evidence.
Gabriel’s biological child born to Damon’s wife would force questions.
Damon’s infertility.
Gabriel’s true paternity.
Walter.
Jonathan.
Helen’s trust.
Margaret.
Everything.
“The reveal is the objective,” Emma whispered.
Beatrice nodded.
“Walter wanted to prove blood controls destiny.”
“And you?”
“I wanted to prove secrets do.”
That was the ideological core.
But Emma did not let philosophy beautify harm.
“You could have released documents.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“1998. 2007. 2019.”
Richard looked up.
Beatrice had anonymously sent evidence.
Mercer lawyers suppressed it.
Richard’s own office dismissed claims as extortion.
Gabriel later intercepted another packet and buried it while investigating privately.
Every route disappeared.
“So you created a baby,” Emma said.
“Yes.”
“You decided my child should carry the burden because your documents failed.”
Beatrice began crying.
“Yes.”
There was no acceptable justification.
Only explanation.
Damon asked:
“Did you kill Gabriel?”
Beatrice looked genuinely horrified.
“No.”
“Did Walter?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know who did.”
Everyone froze.
Claire stepped forward.
“Who?”
Beatrice looked at her.
“Gabriel.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
“The helicopter crash was caused by Gabriel.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not.”
Beatrice explained.
Gabriel discovered his helicopter had been compromised before takeoff.
A tracking device connected to a remote flight-control exploit.
He believed Walter planned to follow him to Samuel.
Gabriel attempted to disable it midflight.
He accidentally triggered a systems failure.
“He caused his own crash?”
“Trying to stop Walter from controlling the aircraft.”
Not suicide.
Not murder in the simple sense.
Walter created the danger.
Gabriel’s intervention caused the final failure.
Multiple causality again.
Mara demanded proof.
Beatrice had Gabriel’s recovered maintenance photographs.
He sent them to her ten minutes before departure.
“Why you?”
“Because by then he knew I was the editor.”
Claire stared.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he expose you?”
Beatrice’s face changed.
“Because he wanted my help.”
That rewrote everything.
Gabriel and Beatrice had not simply been enemies.
In his final weeks, Gabriel discovered she had been altering Walter’s plans.
He confronted her.
Then recruited her.
They agreed to destroy Continuity together.
But disagreed about Emma.
Gabriel insisted Emma be protected.
Beatrice believed Emma’s connection was already too deep.
“Did Gabriel approve using his sample?”
“No.”
“Would he have?”
“No.”
“Then you betrayed him too.”
“Yes.”
Claire began crying.
Beatrice looked at her.
“I loved him.”
Claire snapped:
“Stop saying love as though it makes what you did smaller.”
Beatrice lowered her eyes.
“You’re right.”
Emma watched.
This story had too many people who loved someone and therefore believed themselves entitled to make choices for them.
She would not let her child inherit that.
Then Beatrice revealed the final piece of Gabriel’s death.
He survived the initial crash.
For eleven minutes.
Emergency telemetry showed movement.
A satellite phone call was placed.
To Beatrice.
She answered.
Gabriel said:
“Don’t let Walter use Emma.”
Then:
“And don’t become him.”
Beatrice cried.
“I promised.”
Emma stared at her belly.
“You broke both promises.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Beatrice looked at her.
“Because after Gabriel died, Walter sent me something.”
“What?”
A video.
Walter confessed he had arranged Richard and Caroline’s fertility substitution.
He mocked Gabriel’s belief that parenthood was more than blood.
He said after Richard died, he would reveal Gabriel’s paternity and destroy the Mercer legacy.
Beatrice became furious.
She decided to reveal everything first.
Control the explosion.
Use Gabriel’s child as undeniable proof.
Emma understood.
Beatrice had convinced herself she was defeating Walter.
Instead she adopted his method.
Manipulate reproduction.
Engineer revelation.
Treat people as variables.
Gabriel’s final warning had been correct.
She became him.
Richard asked:
“Where is Walter?”
Beatrice looked toward the hospice windows.
“Coming here.”
Security moved instantly.
“Why?”
“Because I told him Emma’s baby is not Jonathan’s.”
Emma’s pulse jumped.
“You invited him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make him confess.”
Richard stared.
“You used us as bait.”
Beatrice smiled sadly.
“Apparently I never learned.”
Emma stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked.
“We are not doing this again.”
She refused to participate in another hidden trap.
If Walter came, police would know.
Security would know.
Everyone would know.
No secret plan.
No bait without consent.
Beatrice nodded.
“You’re better than us.”
Emma’s expression hardened.
“Don’t turn me into your redemption.”
Beatrice fell silent.
Walter arrived forty minutes later.
Not sneaking.
Not armed.
He walked into the hospice garden using a cane.
Eighty-three.
Silver-haired.
Thin.
Still resembling Richard.
He saw Emma.
Then her belly.
His smile disappeared.
“You changed the donor.”
Beatrice looked at him.
“Yes.”
Walter’s eyes filled with fury.
“That child was supposed to be Jonathan’s.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Why?”
Walter laughed.
“To give you back the son Mother stole.”
Richard stared.
For the first time, Walter’s motive changed shape.
He claimed his plan was not destruction.
He wanted Jonathan revealed.
A child linking Jonathan to Damon’s wife would force Richard to discover him.
Twisted reconciliation.
Still violation.
But not what Beatrice had believed.
“You wanted to help me?” Richard asked.
Walter shrugged.
“I wanted you to know what Mother did.”
“By using Emma?”
“You would never have listened to documents.”
Beatrice laughed bitterly.
“See? We became the same person.”
Walter looked at her.
“No. You became worse.”
Then he pointed at Emma’s belly.
“I never would have used Gabriel.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Why?”
Walter looked at her.
For the first time, grief appeared.
“Because Gabriel was my son.”
Richard flinched.
Walter continued:
“And he asked me not to.”
Silence.
Claire stared.
“Gabriel spoke to you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The morning he died.”
Beatrice looked shocked.
Walter smiled without humor.
“You didn’t know everything after all.”
He removed a phone from his coat.
An audio file.
Gabriel’s final call before boarding the helicopter.
Not to Beatrice.
Earlier.
To Walter.
Gabriel said:
“I know you’re my biological father.”
Walter’s breathing on the recording changed.
Gabriel continued:
“It changes nothing.”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“You are not my father. Richard is.”
Walter looked away.
Gabriel then said:
“But I need your help stopping Beatrice.”
Everyone froze.
Beatrice’s face emptied.
The supposed alliance between Gabriel and Beatrice had not been what she believed.
Gabriel had been playing both sides.
Trying to stop both.
The recording continued:
“She thinks exposing every secret will free everyone. She doesn’t understand she’s building another version of your machine.”
Emma looked at Beatrice.
Gabriel had seen it before his death.
Then:
“Promise me Emma Lawson never becomes part of this.”
Walter’s voice:
“I promise.”
He had broken that promise too.
Both older conspirators had promised Gabriel to protect Emma.
Both later used her.
Different intentions.
Same arrogance.
Then Gabriel’s final line to Walter:
“If either of you touches Emma’s future, there’s one thing neither of you knows.”
The recording stopped.
Walter frowned.
“That was all.”
Emma stared.
“What didn’t you know?”
Walter shook his head.
“I’ve wondered for eight months.”
Beatrice did too.
May you like
Gabriel had left a final secret beyond both conspirators.
And if he had gone to such lengths to hide it from Walter and Beatrice, Emma suspected it was the one secret capable of changing what her pregnancy meant yet again.
