Chapter 13 - The Six-Minute House
The gas system began releasing through the heating vents.
Federal agents tried to override the shutters.
Nothing moved.
Nathan ran to the control room.
Beatrice had replaced the software weeks earlier.
Julian dropped the gun.
“I know the manual shutoff.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Beneath the west staircase.”
We moved together.
Not as husband and wife.
Not as family.
As people trapped by the same woman.
The panel beneath the staircase required two keys.
Julian had one.
Beatrice had the other.
My mother looked toward the marble fireplace.
“Harrison hid a duplicate.”
She remembered the house better than anyone.
Behind a loose stone, we found a brass key.
The countdown showed four minutes.
Julian and Nathan turned both keys.
The gas slowed.
Then the system requested a biometric confirmation.
AUTHORIZED MERCER FEMALE.
My mother placed her hand on the scanner.
Access denied.
Her identity had been legally erased.
I tried.
Access denied.
Because my married name still appeared in the security profile.
The baby shifted hard inside me.
Pain tightened across my abdomen.
Not labor.
Stress.
Naomi shouted from the control room.
“The system recognizes the unborn beneficiary.”
“How?”
“Your medical implant.”
During fertility treatment, the clinic inserted a tracking chip with the embryo record.
Another violation.
Another hidden device.
Nathan located the signal.
The scanner could confirm the baby’s genetic identity through my proximity.
I stood against the panel.
The system processed.
AUTHORIZED: MERCER SUCCESSOR.
The gas stopped.
The shutters lifted.
Fresh air entered.
Agents rushed us outside.
Julian collapsed on the steps.
Police handcuffed him.
He did not resist.
Beatrice’s voice disappeared from the speakers, but Nathan traced the signal to the old Mercer corporate tower downtown.
She was not hiding.
She was preparing something public.
At dawn, every major news network received an invitation.
Vale Meridian emergency shareholder meeting.
Hosted by Beatrice Vale.
Topic: The lawful removal of Claire Mercer.
She intended to take control through the board before the August 14 deadline.
Naomi reviewed the bylaws.
Beatrice still held temporary voting proxies from twelve investors.
Enough to challenge the trust if she convinced them I was medically incompetent.
The final vote was scheduled in forty-eight hours.
I looked at the mansion.
The door stood open behind me.
Julian had thrown me out believing I owned nothing.
Now he sat in a police car while I stood beside my mother on Mercer property.
But Beatrice still had one weapon left.
Public humiliation.
She would attack my sanity, my pregnancy, and my identity in front of the entire company.
My mother squeezed my hand.
“Then let her.”
I looked at her.
“She doesn’t know we have Harrison’s original board recordings.”
Anne smiled.
May you like
“No. She thinks I burned them.”
👉 Beatrice had failed to kill the Mercer heirs, but the coming shareholder meeting would decide whether Claire kept the company—or lost everything in public.
