Chapter 6 - Tommy Mercer
Nathan called 911.
Wade tried to take Diane’s phone.
She pulled away.
“Who is Tommy?”
Wade said nothing.
Franklin closed his eyes.
Diane turned toward him.
“You know.”
Franklin looked suddenly older.
“Tommy is Wade’s son.”
The room went silent.
Diane stared at her husband.
“You told me you never had children.”
Wade’s expression hardened.
“My father is confused.”
Franklin shook his head.
“No.”
His voice trembled.
“Tommy’s mother was named Rachel.”
Wade had dated her nine years earlier.
She became pregnant after they separated.
Wade denied paternity until a court-ordered test proved otherwise.
For several years, Rachel raised Tommy alone.
Then she died in what police classified as an accidental overdose.
Custody passed to Wade.
But Wade never brought Tommy into public.
He told relatives the boy had been placed with distant family because of severe behavioral problems.
Franklin had seen Tommy once.
Two years earlier.
Behind a locked bedroom door at Wade’s previous home.
“I told myself it was temporary,” Franklin said.
Ava stared at him.
“You saw the latch.”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
Franklin could not meet her eyes.
Wade pointed toward his father.
“He was afraid Tommy would hurt someone.”
“Did he?” Nathan asked.
Wade’s mouth tightened.
“He destroys things. He lies. He scratches himself and blames adults.”
Ava lifted the photograph of finger-shaped bruises.
“Those aren’t scratches.”
Diane stood.
“How long has he been in this house?”
Wade remained silent.
Franklin answered.
“Six months.”
Diane’s knees almost gave way.
They had been planning the wedding for eight months.
She had lived in the same house as a hidden child for half a year.
She remembered unexplained grocery deliveries.
Locked closets.
Wade refusing to let cleaners upstairs.
Every detail rearranged itself into something monstrous.
Sirens approached outside.
Wade moved toward the stairs.
Nathan blocked him.
“You’re not going near that door.”
Wade’s injured face twisted.
“You have no legal authority here.”
Diane stepped beside Nathan.
“I do.”
She removed her wedding ring and placed it on the coffee table.
Then she looked at the man she had married that afternoon.
“Open the door.”
Wade smiled coldly.
“You don’t have the key.”
Ava reached into her cardigan pocket.
May you like
She held up a small silver key covered with blue paint.
“I do.”
