Chapter 9 - Rachel’s Blood Sample
The DNA testing did not happen instantly.
Sarah made that clear.
Evidence had to be logged.
Chain of custody established.
A judge had to authorize comparison testing because the samples were now part of a criminal investigation.
For two days, Lily remained in the hospital.
I slept in a chair beside her.
Evelyn was released pending further investigation because Sarah did not yet have enough to charge her with intentionally causing the allergic reaction.
That enraged me.
Sarah did not apologize.
“Your anger isn’t evidence.”
“She admitted switching the dessert.”
“To you.”
“You heard part of it.”
“I heard her acknowledge a trace exposure. We still need the food evidence, toxicology, witnesses, and documentation.”
“What about the injector in her car?”
“Strong evidence.”
“Then arrest her.”
“If I move too early and the larger case collapses, you’ll hate me more.”
I hated that she was right.
Thomas remained cooperative.
Andrew Vale requested an attorney and stopped speaking.
Charles Mercer was still missing.
The mysterious caller had not contacted me again.
Then the DNA results came back.
Sarah asked me to meet her in a private room without Lily.
Thomas was already there.
I didn’t like that.
“What is this?”
Sarah closed the door.
“The comparison involved Rachel’s preserved sample, Lily’s existing hospital sample, and the sample you voluntarily provided yesterday.”
My pulse accelerated.
“What did it show?”
She looked at Thomas.
He looked like he might be sick.
Sarah spoke carefully.
“Daniel, you are Lily’s biological father.”
I exhaled.
I hadn’t realized I had been holding my breath.
“Of course I am.”
“There was never serious doubt about that.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because Rachel’s sample produced an unexpected relationship result.”
Thomas shut his eyes.
I stared at him.
“What relationship?”
Sarah slid a report toward me.
“Rachel was Lily’s biological mother.”
I almost laughed.
“What are we doing here?”
“Daniel, listen.”
She pointed lower.
“The analysis also indicates Rachel and Thomas Hart were not biologically related as father and daughter.”
The room became silent.
I stared at the paper.
Then Thomas.
“What?”
His eyes filled.
“I knew.”
“You knew?”
“For years.”
“Rachel knew?”
“No.”
I stood.
“You let her believe you were her father her entire life?”
“I raised her. I was her father.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“Evelyn was pregnant when I met her.”
I stared at him.
“Who was Rachel’s biological father?”
Thomas looked away.
“I was told he was dead.”
“By Evelyn?”
“Yes.”
“Name.”
“Robert Mercer.”
I stopped.
Mercer.
“Charles Mercer?”
“His older brother.”
Sarah watched me process it.
Robert Mercer had died when Rachel was a baby.
At least according to Thomas.
Charles had then spent decades beside the Hart family.
Rachel’s biological uncle.
A man she apparently never knew was related to her.
“Why hide it?”
“Evelyn said Robert was dangerous.”
“Was he?”
“I don’t know. He died before I could learn much.”
“What does this have to do with Lily?”
Sarah answered.
“The Hart Foundation assets Rachel inherited were originally tied to a Mercer family trust.”
I looked at Thomas.
“You told me they were Hart properties.”
“Legally, eventually.”
“But not originally.”
“No.”
The financial motive widened.
Rachel was not merely Evelyn and Thomas’s daughter.
She was the biological heir to a branch of the Mercer family.
Charles Mercer had spent decades advising a foundation partly built from property that may have come through his own brother.
“What happens to those assets after Rachel’s death?”
Thomas whispered, “They pass to Lily.”
That was the first moment the entire scheme started to make sense.
Lily wasn’t just a beneficiary of Evelyn’s policy.
She was the living heir to whatever Rachel had inherited from Robert Mercer.
“And if Lily dies?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Depending on which version of the trust is legally valid, some assets revert to the Mercer line.”
Charles.
I felt physically ill.
Sarah’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
“What?”
“Investigators located Charles Mercer.”
“Where?”
“His lake property.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then bring him in.”
Sarah’s expression remained tense.
“He isn’t alone.”
“Who’s with him?”
She turned the phone around.
A surveillance photograph showed Charles Mercer standing on a dock.
Beside him was Evelyn.
And between them stood a man I recognized instantly.
Martin Vale.
The notary who had certified Rachel’s forged signature.
May you like
The man Evelyn had claimed barely existed outside a paperwork error.
📖 See why Evelyn secretly met Mercer and the forged-document notary after leaving the hospital—and what their recorded conversation revealed in CHAPTER 10. 👇
