Chapter 3 - The Man Declared Dead
Gregory stared at the door.
“That isn’t possible.”
The voice came again.
“Open the door, sir.”
Gregory moved toward it.
Ashlynn caught his shoulder.
“Whoever is outside expects you to be in control.”
“He said my father—”
“I heard him.”
Gregory looked from the door to the photograph.
“You knew he was alive.”
“I suspected it.”
“How?”
“Your family has been paying for his medication through a company registered in Panama.”
Gregory’s confusion looked genuine.
Ashlynn had expected many things from him.
Arrogance.
Violence.
Lies.
But not shock.
“You really didn’t know,” she said.
“My mother handled the estate.”
“Your mother handled everything.”
The knocking stopped.
Silence filled the suite.
Ashlynn moved toward the bedside telephone and lifted the receiver.
No dial tone.
The line had been disconnected.
Gregory checked his cell phone.
No signal.
“That shouldn’t happen this close to the coast.”
“They’re controlling the cabin network.”
Gregory looked toward the locked balcony door.
Outside, the ship cut through bright blue water.
No nearby vessels were visible.
“What do they want?” he asked.
Ashlynn studied him.
“Before today, I thought they wanted me.”
“And now?”
“They may want both of us.”
A small card slid beneath the cabin door.
Gregory bent to pick it up.
Ashlynn stopped him with the bat.
“Use the champagne bucket.”
He gave her an angry look but obeyed.
The card contained no words.
Only a black-and-gold crest Gregory recognized immediately.
The Mercer family seal.
His father wore it on a ring throughout Gregory’s childhood.
Gregory sank onto the edge of the bed.
“I watched his coffin go into the ground.”
“Was it open?”
“No.”
“Did you see the body after the crash?”
“No.”
“Who identified him?”
“My mother.”
Ashlynn nodded.
Gregory’s fear deepened.
His father’s supposed death transferred control of Mercer Maritime, a defense shipping company, to Gregory and his mother.
But Gregory never managed the company directly.
His mother told him which papers to sign.
Which accounts to approve.
Which politicians to support.
Ashlynn had believed Gregory was part of the conspiracy.
Now she wondered whether he had been used as a legal shield.
Then he looked at the bat lying in her hands.
“My mother packed that suitcase.”
Ashlynn’s gaze sharpened.
“She put the bat inside?”
“She said it was a wedding gift.”
The attack had not been spontaneous.
Someone had placed the weapon within Gregory’s reach and filled his head with the belief that Ashlynn was hiding something.
The cabin speaker crackled.
A calm older male voice filled the suite.
“Gregory, open the door.”
Gregory stopped breathing.
He recognized the voice.
“Dad?”
The man answered immediately.
May you like
“Bring me your wife.”
👉 William Mercer had returned from the dead—but Ashlynn still did not know whether Gregory would choose his father or the truth.
