Chapter 8 - Before the Sun Goes DownDaniel Hart was lying in a hospital bed when Lily reached him.
He looked smaller than he had that morning, smaller than any father should look to a daughter who still needed him. His skin was gray. Tubes ran beneath his nose. A monitor tracked his heart in uneven green lines.
But his eyes opened when Lily grabbed his hand.
“Hey, little lily.”
The nickname broke her.
She folded over his hand and sobbed so hard the nurse looked toward Cole with concern.
Daniel lifted two fingers weakly and touched her hair.
“No crying like that. Makes me feel dramatic.”
Lily laughed through tears.
“You were kidnapped and escaped through marsh grass with one lung.”
“Still handsome, though.”
Cole stood near the foot of the bed, unable to speak.
Daniel saw him and grew still.
For twenty-four years, Cole Mercer had existed in Daniel’s mind as a child carried through smoke. A boy screaming for his mother. A boy Daniel had saved first because Abigail ordered him to.
Now that boy stood before him as a man.
Tall. Controlled. Wounded in ways money could not protect.
Daniel looked at him with tears in his eyes.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Cole shook his head.
“Cole.”
Daniel tried to smile.
“You look like her.”
Cole stepped closer.
“I’ve been told I look like my father.”
“People lie to comfort children.”
Cole’s face cracked.
Lily looked between them.
Daniel squeezed her hand. “You read the letter?”
She nodded.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily leaned over him. “Don’t.”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“You kept me alive.”
“I also kept you from your mother.”
Lily looked toward Abigail, who stood by the doorway under police guard, pale and shaking. The doctors had not wanted her to leave her own hospital evaluation, but Abigail Mercer had waited twenty-four years to see Daniel Hart. No doctor on earth could have stopped her.
Daniel saw her.
The old man’s face crumpled.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
Abigail crossed the room slowly.
“Daniel.”
He tried to sit up. Pain stopped him.
“I failed you.”
“No,” Abigail said. “You saved both my children.”
“I saved one and hid the other.”
“You obeyed me.”
Daniel shook his head. “I should have gone back for you sooner.”
Abigail took his hand opposite Lily.
“You survived long enough to bring them home.”
Cole turned away, his eyes burning.
There are some debts no fortune can repay.
Daniel looked at him.
“Nursery safe?”
“We found it.”
“Good.” His breath caught. “Use everything. Don’t negotiate.”
“With Bradford?”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened. “With anyone.”
Cole understood.
Mercer board members. Police. Judges. Doctors. Old friends. People who had eaten in his home while knowing his family was built over a graveyard of lies.
Daniel coughed violently. Lily called for the nurse, but he waved her off.
“Listen,” he said.
“We are listening,” Lily whispered.
Daniel looked at Cole.
“Bradford keeps originals.”
“Where?”
“Whitmore Hall. Not the office. Not the safe room. Too obvious.”
Cole leaned closer.
Daniel’s voice faded.
“Wine cellar. Behind the false temperature panel. Code is the date Sloane’s mother died.”
Cole frowned. “Why would you know that?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because I drove him there once. He was drunk. Said dead women keep better secrets than living ones.”
Abigail closed her eyes.
Lily felt sick.
“What else?” Cole asked.
Daniel’s gaze moved to Lily.
“She needs proof of blood.”
Lily stiffened.
“No.”
Daniel’s eyes filled. “Sweetheart.”
“No. I don’t want his blood.”
“You don’t need to want it,” Daniel said. “You need the world unable to deny what he did.”
Lily shook her head.
“I am your daughter.”
Daniel smiled weakly.
“Best thing I ever was.”
Her face collapsed again.
Cole stepped closer. “We can do DNA quietly.”
Daniel looked relieved.
Then he gripped Cole’s wrist with surprising force.
“Do not let them make her a scandal.”
Cole looked at Lily.
“I won’t.”
Daniel held his gaze.
“Promise me as her brother. Not as Mercer.”
Cole’s throat moved.
“I promise.”
Daniel relaxed.
Outside the room, a commotion rose.
Marcus stepped into the hall.
Voices sharpened.
Then Sloane appeared in the doorway with two attorneys and a police escort who looked deeply uncomfortable.
Lily stood instantly.
“What are you doing here?”
Sloane wore black now. Simple, expensive, camera-ready black. Her hair was pulled back. Her eyes were dry.
“I came to see my father’s victim.”
Daniel’s monitor beeped faster.
Abigail moved in front of him. “Get out.”
Sloane looked at her with almost clinical contempt.
“You have no idea how many people are discussing your mental health right now, Abigail.”
Cole stepped forward.
“You are not welcome here.”
Sloane lifted a folder.
“I’m not here socially. I’m here to notify you that the Whitmore family disputes every allegation made last night. We will be pursuing defamation claims against anyone spreading false statements, including employees, former employees, and unstable medical patients.”
Her eyes moved to Lily.
“Especially opportunistic staff members attempting to attach themselves to wealthy families.”
Lily felt the slap of it.
But before Cole could answer, Daniel laughed.
It was weak. Painful.
But real.
Everyone looked at him.
Sloane frowned.
Daniel lifted one shaking hand and pointed at her.
“You always were Bradford’s daughter.”
Sloane’s jaw tightened.
Daniel continued. “Cruel before you were clever.”
“Careful,” one attorney said.
Daniel ignored him.
“You think blood makes you safe?”
Sloane stepped closer. “No. Power does.”
Daniel smiled.
Then he turned his face toward Lily.
“Baby, give Cole the blue drive.”
Lily frowned. “What blue drive?”
“In the hem.”
“What?”
“Your jacket. The one I made you wear every winter even when you said it was ugly.”
Lily stared at him.
Her old navy winter jacket hung in the closet back at their apartment.
Daniel looked at Sloane.
“I made copies before your father learned what computers were.”
Sloane’s face went white.
Cole saw it.
So did everyone else.
Daniel closed his eyes, exhausted.
“Run along now,” he whispered. “Grown folks are talking.”
Sloane’s mask cracked.
“You pathetic old man.”
Lily moved so fast no one stopped her.
She did not hit Sloane.
She simply stepped between Sloane and Daniel.
“Say one more word to my father.”
Sloane looked down at her. “Which father?”
The room went silent.
Lily’s face changed.
For one second, Cole thought she might break.
Instead, she smiled.
It was small and devastating.
“The one who stayed.”
Even Abigail inhaled.
Sloane had no answer.
Cole turned to the police officer.
“Remove her.”
This time, no one objected.
As Sloane was escorted out, her phone buzzed in her hand. She glanced at the screen and froze.
Cole noticed.
“What is it?”
Sloane looked back at him.
For the first time since the ballroom, she looked truly afraid.
Then Lily’s phone buzzed too.
A message from an unknown number.
A photo.
Her old navy winter jacket hanging from a hook.
On fire.
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