CHAPTER 14 — MERCER ISLAND
The flight to Maine took ninety minutes.
No one spoke for the first thirty.
Evelyn was alive.
The blood sample had been intentionally aged through chemical preservation.
Naomi’s claim of Evelyn’s death had been another layer of deception.
When Grace confronted her, Naomi did not deny it.
“She ordered me to tell everyone she died.”
“Why?”
“To make Silas stop searching.”
“He never stopped.”
“No. But he searched for a corpse’s archive instead of a living woman.”
Clara remained Silas’s prisoner on the island.
Helen had reached the estate first.
Evelyn controlled part of the network.
Daniel controlled another.
Silas retained the backup command.
Three administrators.
One system.
Mercer Island appeared beneath the aircraft near dawn.
A stone mansion stood above dark cliffs.
Grace remembered childhood summers there.
Her grandfather’s library.
Her mother’s greenhouse.
A locked door beneath the staircase she had been forbidden to open.
The aircraft landed on a private runway.
No guards waited.
The silence felt deliberate.
They entered the mansion.
Dust covered the furniture, but lights burned in every room.
A dining table had been prepared.
Seven plates.
Seven chairs.
At the head of the table sat Evelyn Mercer.
Grace stopped in the doorway.
Her mother had aged fifteen years.
White streaks ran through her hair. Scars covered one side of her neck. She leaned on a cane.
But she was unmistakably Evelyn.
No mask.
No imitation.
Evelyn looked at Grace.
“My beautiful girl.”
Grace crossed the room and slapped her.
The sound echoed through the mansion.
Evelyn accepted it.
Grace struck her again.
“You let me bury you.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me marry Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Grace raised her hand a third time but could not complete the motion.
Evelyn reached toward her.
Grace stepped away.
“Do not touch me.”
Evelyn lowered her hand.
Ethan entered.
His face showed no emotion.
Evelyn looked at him longer than she looked at Grace.
“My son.”
“No.”
“I am your mother.”
“You gave me away twice.”
“I made a choice—”
“Do not call it protection.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“You sound like Clara.”
“Where is she?” Grace demanded.
“Below the house.”
“With Silas?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you sitting here?”
“Because Silas cannot activate the central core without all four children present.”
Claire entered behind them.
Evelyn looked at her creation.
Guilt filled her face.
“Claire.”
Claire stared back.
“You made me because you were afraid.”
“Yes.”
“You gave me Grace’s face.”
“Yes.”
“You let strangers cut into my body.”
“I tried to reach you.”
“You designed the system they used.”
Evelyn’s composure broke.
“I believed my father’s research could protect our family.”
“It turned me into equipment.”
“I know.”
“No,” Claire said. “You know the sentence. You do not know the life.”
Naomi and Daniel entered last.
Evelyn looked at Naomi.
“You told them.”
“I was tired of being your ghost.”
Helen appeared at the upper staircase.
Lydia stood beside her, bound.
Daniel raised his weapon.
Helen pressed a gun against Lydia’s neck.
“Sit down.”
Everyone obeyed.
Silas’s voice came through speakers hidden in the walls.
“The family is finally complete.”
A section of the floor opened.
Metal stairs led underground.
Clara appeared at the bottom, escorted by armed guards.
Silas followed.
His chest wound had been bandaged.
He looked pale but powerful.
“Evelyn,” he said. “You look better than the last time I killed you.”
Evelyn smiled coldly.
“You were always poor at finishing things.”
Silas took his seat opposite her.
Grace understood.
This was not a rescue.
It was a negotiation between two architects of the same nightmare.
Silas gestured toward the table.
“The full network requires a single administrator.”
Evelyn answered.
“It requires destruction.”
“You built half of it.”
“And regretted it.”
“You regretted losing control.”
Evelyn did not deny it quickly enough.
Grace noticed.
“So Clara was right,” Grace said. “You do not want to destroy it.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“I want to remove Silas.”
“And take his place.”
“I want the power to protect you.”
Grace laughed.
“Power is the only child you never abandoned.”
The words wounded Evelyn.
Silas looked pleased.
The seven plates represented Grace, Clara, Claire, Ethan, Daniel, Evelyn and Silas.
But there was an eighth member of the bloodline.
Helen forced Lydia into the remaining chair.
“Lydia carries the Mercer founder’s biometric profile,” Helen explained. “The system recognizes her as an emergency maternal administrator.”
Lydia looked at her twin.
“You brought me here to kill me.”
“To replace you.”
Identical twins could sometimes fool older biometric systems.
Helen intended to inherit Lydia’s access after her death.
Silas raised a glass.
“To family.”
No one moved.
He pressed a control.
Metal restraints locked around every chair.
Gas filled the room.
Grace struggled.
Silas and Evelyn remained unaffected.
They had taken an antidote.
Grace looked at her mother.
“You knew.”
Evelyn’s face showed regret.
“I needed everyone in place.”
“Even if we died?”
“The gas will only sedate you.”
Clara shouted, “She’s lying!”
The room blurred.
Ethan fought the restraints.
Claire’s head fell forward.
Grace saw Naomi imitate Evelyn’s voice into a device hidden beneath the table.
“Subject 317,” Naomi whispered.
Clara’s implant activated.
Lights flashed beneath her skin near the wrist.
The destruction sequence began.
Silas stood.
“What did you do?”
Clara smiled weakly.
“Locker 317.”
The mansion shook.
Deep underground, the central server core began deleting itself.
Evelyn screamed.
“No!”
Grace heard the truth in that scream.
Her mother had never intended to destroy the network.
She had intended to inherit it.
The gas pulled Grace toward unconsciousness.
Before darkness took her, she saw Evelyn unlock her restraints and run toward the underground chamber.
Silas followed.
The two enemies abandoned every child at the table.
May you like
Together.
Because the system mattered more than any of them.
