Chapter 5 - THE BABY THEY STOLEHannah Callahan was alive.
But the woman Marcus brought into the secure residence barely resembled the smiling young mother in the photographs Tess had shown Julian.
She had lost weight.
Her wrists carried dark marks.
A healing cut ran across her forehead.
And when Tess saw her, she burst into tears so violently that she could barely stand.
“Hannah!”
The sisters collided in the hallway.
For almost a full minute, neither could speak.
Hannah clung to Tess as though letting go might make her disappear.
Then a little voice came from behind them.
“Mommy?”
Hannah turned.
Oliver stood near the stairs, clutching his dinosaur.
Her mouth opened.
She dropped to her knees.
“Baby?”
Oliver ran to her.
Hannah caught him and held him against her chest.
“My beautiful boy,” she sobbed. “My beautiful, beautiful boy.”
Julian watched from the doorway.
For weeks, he had imagined the moment his own daughter would enter the world.
He had pictured tiny fingers.
A first cry.
A fragile body placed into his arms.
Now he knew those dreams had been built on a lie.
Yet watching Hannah hold her son awakened something more powerful than grief.
Determination.
Whatever Sloane had planned, Julian would not allow another family to be destroyed.
A physician examined Hannah before Marcus began asking questions.
She was dehydrated and exhausted, but stable.
Only after she ate and rested did she agree to speak.
Julian sat opposite her in a small library.
Tess remained at her side.
Marcus recorded the interview with her permission.
“Hannah,” Julian said gently, “you left a message saying there was a real baby.”
Her expression changed.
She looked toward Oliver.
“Can he go upstairs?”
Tess took the boy to his room.
When the door closed, Hannah folded her hands.
“I need you to understand something. I didn't know what I was helping them do.”
Julian nodded.
“Start wherever you can.”
Hannah stared at the floor.
“Six months ago, Nathan Cross told me that Sloane had experienced a private pregnancy loss. He said she was emotionally unstable and terrified of losing you.”
Julian felt his throat tighten.
“He told me she intended to tell you the truth eventually. Until then, she needed help maintaining appearances.”
“And you agreed?”
“He offered me twenty thousand dollars immediately. Oliver needed another operation. Insurance had denied part of the treatment.”
Her eyes filled.
“I told myself I was helping someone through a terrible situation.”
“What changed?”
“Two months later, Nathan asked me to accompany a young woman to a private clinic.”
“What woman?”
“Her name was Mia Bennett.”
Hannah looked up.
“She was nineteen.”
Julian leaned forward.
“Was she pregnant?”
“Yes. Eight months.”
Tess covered her mouth.
Hannah continued.
“Mia had been living in temporary housing. She'd been told a wealthy couple wanted to adopt her baby. Nathan claimed I was there to support her through the process.”
“What happened?”
“She went into labor earlier than expected.”
Hannah's voice began trembling.
“The baby was born at a private medical center outside Newark. A healthy little girl.”
Julian felt a chill.
“What happened to the baby?”
“Someone took her.”
Silence.
Hannah began crying.
“They told Mia that the baby had developed complications and needed specialized care. But I saw the medical discharge papers. The baby was stable.”
Julian's heart pounded.
“Who took her?”
“Nathan arranged the transport. Patricia Whitaker was there.”
Julian stared at her.
“Sloane's mother?”
Hannah nodded.
“She carried the baby out herself.”
Marcus exchanged a glance with Julian.
“Do you know where they took her?” Marcus asked.
“No. But I saw a document in Nathan's office a few days later.”
“What document?”
“A private custody agreement listing the child under a different name.”
Julian leaned closer.
“What name?”
Hannah swallowed.
“Evelyn Mercer.”
Julian stopped breathing.
Evelyn.
The name he and Sloane had chosen for their daughter.
The name painted above the crib.
The name embroidered on dozens of tiny blankets.
His hands began shaking.
“They were going to give me someone else's baby?”
Hannah nodded.
“They needed you to believe the pregnancy was real. Eventually, they planned to announce a premature birth, then present Mia's daughter as yours.”
Julian felt sick.
A child had been taken from her mother to complete a financial deception.
“Where is Mia now?”
“I don't know.”
“Is she alive?”
“I think so. But after she began demanding to see her daughter, someone moved her.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“Why did you go missing?”
Hannah looked at him.
“Because I found a second set of documents.”
“About the baby?”
“About Julian.”
She turned toward him.
“Nathan had prepared a plan with two possible outcomes.”
Julian felt a slow dread.
“Explain.”
“Option one: You became medically incapacitated after the wedding. Sloane would obtain temporary control of your personal affairs under documents they were arranging. Ethan would help with company governance.”
“And option two?”
Hannah looked down.
“If the first plan failed, they would try to make your death look natural.”
Nobody spoke.
Hannah continued.
“They wanted control of assets connected to your estate. But they needed a child believed to be yours because it would strengthen Sloane's public position as the mother of your heir.”
Julian leaned back.
He thought of his future.
The nursery.
The bedtime stories.
The schools he had researched.
The children's books stacked beside the rocking chair.
Every tender dream had been weaponized against him.
“Why twelve days?” he asked.
Hannah hesitated.
“That part is important.”
“Tell me.”
“Nathan scheduled several steps around the wedding. The first involved signing additional personal and financial documents. The second involved a medical assessment. Twelve days later, Sloane planned to take you to your estate in Connecticut.”
Julian frowned.
“The lake house?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“She told you it would be a private honeymoon retreat.”
He remembered.
Sloane had insisted they spend several days alone at Lake Ashford.
No staff.
No visitors.
No phones except emergencies.
She said she wanted privacy before the baby arrived.
Now he understood why.
“What happens at the lake house?” he asked.
Hannah's lips trembled.
“That's where they planned to give you medication without your knowledge.”
Tess inhaled sharply.
Hannah wiped her face.
“Nathan had recruited a doctor willing to provide false explanations for any symptoms. They intended to claim you suffered a sudden neurological emergency.”
Marcus took notes.
“And who was supposed to administer it?”
Hannah looked directly at Julian.
“Sloane.”
A long silence followed.
Then Julian asked the question that mattered most.
“Who ordered all of this?”
Hannah closed her eyes.
“I never saw the person in charge. But Nathan referred to someone called the Beneficiary.”
“The same name Tess mentioned.”
“Yes.”
“Was it Ethan?”
“No.”
“Patricia?”
“No.”
Julian waited.
Hannah opened her eyes.
“The Beneficiary was someone Nathan said had been waiting more than twenty years for your father's empire.”
Julian went still.
His father, Robert Mercer, had died twelve years earlier.
Robert had built the original Mercer business from a small construction company into an international investment group.
Julian had inherited control.
Ethan had received a smaller trust and minority interests.
Julian remembered their father's final years.
The arguments.
The bitter fights over succession.
The way Ethan had shouted at the reading of the will.
But someone else had been there too.
Someone who had spent decades inside the Mercer family's inner circle.
His father's closest business adviser.
Walter Bishop.
Walter was seventy-one now.
A respected former chairman.
He had retired after Robert's death, but continued attending board meetings as an honorary adviser.
Julian had known him since childhood.
He called him Uncle Walter.
Walter had taught him to ride a bicycle.
Taken him fishing.
Attended his college graduation.
He had even given a speech at Julian's engagement party.
Julian looked at Marcus.
“Find out whether Walter Bishop has any connection to Briarstone.”
Marcus began typing.
Before he could finish, Hannah grabbed Julian's wrist.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
She stared at him with unmistakable panic.
“I heard Nathan say the Beneficiary wasn't satisfied with just your money.”
Julian's pulse quickened.
“What else did he want?”
Hannah whispered:
“He wanted the Mercer name erased.”
A phone vibrated.
Marcus glanced down.
His expression became grave.
“Julian, we just got a report from the airport.”
“What report?”
“Your brother boarded a private flight forty minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“Philadelphia.”
Julian frowned.
“Why Philadelphia?”
Marcus looked at Rebecca Reed's file on his tablet.
Then back at Julian.
“Because someone gave him the address of Alexander Reed's sister.”
Julian stood.
“Call Rebecca. Now.”
Marcus dialed.
The phone rang.
Nobody answered.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Then Julian's own phone buzzed.
An unknown sender had delivered a photograph.
Rebecca stood inside her bookstore.
Ethan stood beside her.
And behind them, barely visible through the glass door, was the scarred man from the engagement party.
May you like
The message beneath the photograph contained only six words.
STOP DIGGING, OR SHE DIES NEXT.
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