Chapter 11 - The Truth About the River
Thomas Mercer had been dead to Lena for twenty-one years.
Now she discovered he had been alive for twelve of them.
The betrayal felt different from Rebecca's.
Rebecca had abandoned her.
Thomas had allowed his daughter to mourn him.
“Why?” Lena whispered.
Sebastian sent the file.
Thomas Mercer.
Molecular biologist.
Helixor Therapeutics.
Specialization: cellular repair.
Adrian read beside her.
“Your father discovered the mutation.”
“In himself?”
“Yes.”
“And passed it to me.”
“Looks that way.”
Lena stared at the screen.
Thomas had joined Helixor under another name after supposedly dying in a boating accident.
He helped develop the mechanism that eventually became VMX-17.
Then he disappeared.
Again.
“Is he alive?”
Gabriel searched.
No death certificate after the first false one.
No records.
Rebecca knew nothing.
Margaret knew nothing.
But one person did.
Crane.
They needed him.
Federal agents were searching.
Adrian's people were searching.
Then Lena realized something.
“The river.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What?”
“Why did your car go into the river?”
“Because the brakes were cut.”
“No. Why that road?”
Adrian thought.
The fake message had sent him toward Marcus's home.
But a construction detour redirected him.
Gabriel checked.
The detour permit was fraudulent.
The route forced Adrian beneath the bridge where Lena slept.
Lena's pulse quickened.
“That wasn't random.”
Adrian understood.
“They knew you were there.”
Someone had been searching for Lena for eleven months.
Someone knew she slept beneath that bridge.
Someone arranged Adrian's crash there.
“Why?”
Then Gabriel found the answer.
A message from an anonymous account sent to Gideon hours before the crash.
MERCER GIRL CONFIRMED UNDER EAST RIVER BRIDGE.
Another:
VALE ROUTE READY.
Lena stared.
“They wanted both of us there.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“But why?”
The third message explained.
IF VALE SURVIVES, SHE WILL SAVE HIM.
Lena felt cold.
“They knew I'd jump.”
“How?”
She thought of her father.
A scientist.
A man who might have watched her from a distance.
A man who knew Elaine.
A man who knew Lena had sacrificed everything trying to save her mother.
“Because somebody knew me.”
Adrian looked at her.
The final message:
THEN HE WILL PROTECT HER.
Silence.
The entire crash had been engineered.
Not merely to kill Adrian.
To connect them.
Someone wanted Adrian Vale to become Lena Mercer's protector.
“Who sent these?” Adrian asked.
Gabriel traced the account.
An abandoned research facility in upstate New York.
They went with federal agents.
This time Lena did not argue about security.
The facility looked deserted.
Inside, one light remained on.
A man sat at a desk.
Sixty.
Gray hair.
Thin.
Brown eyes identical to Lena's.
She stopped walking.
The man stood.
“Lena.”
Her knees nearly failed.
Thomas Mercer.
Her father.
Alive.
She didn't hug him.
Didn't cry.
She slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Thomas accepted it.
“You deserved worse,” Lena said.
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“You let Mom think—”
“She knew.”
Lena froze.
“What?”
“Elaine knew.”
Her anger shifted.
“Why?”
Thomas explained.
He had helped develop the cellular-repair research.
When Crane realized its commercial potential, he pushed unethical testing.
Thomas tried to leave.
Crane threatened Elaine and Lena.
So Thomas disappeared publicly.
Then worked secretly to destroy Helixor from inside.
“Twenty-one years?”
“I failed many times.”
“You had twenty-one years to call me.”
“Yes.”
“You don't get those years back.”
“No.”
His eyes filled.
“Neither do I.”
Adrian remained silent.
Thomas looked at him.
“You're Vincent's son.”
“Yes.”
“Your father was my friend.”
Adrian stiffened.
“You arranged the crash.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“I arranged the route.”
“You cut my brakes?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Gideon.”
“Then you knew.”
“I knew he planned to remove you.”
“And you did nothing?”
“I changed the route.”
“Into a river.”
Thomas looked at Lena.
“I knew Lena would be there.”
Lena stared in disbelief.
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
“You risked my life.”
“Yes.”
Adrian moved forward.
Lena stopped him.
“No.”
This belonged to her.
Thomas continued.
“I needed Adrian alive. And I needed someone powerful enough to protect you when Crane realized the evidence had resurfaced.”
“So you gambled that I'd save him.”
“I knew you would try.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
“No.”
Thomas didn't ask forgiveness.
Perhaps that was the only thing saving him from Lena walking away immediately.
“Where is Crane?”
Thomas looked toward a locked laboratory.
“Coming here.”
Adrian frowned.
“Why?”
“Because he thinks I have the original research.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“What does he want?”
Thomas looked at Lena.
“Her.”
Adrian's expression turned cold.
“He's not getting her.”
Thomas smiled faintly.
“Vincent said you'd say that.”
Adrian stared.
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Thomas opened a safe.
Inside were files.
And a letter.
ADRIAN.
His father's handwriting.
Adrian took it.
Before he could open it, headlights appeared outside.
Federal agents moved.
Vehicles surrounded the building.
But Gabriel's voice came through the radio.
“Those aren't ours.”
Adrian looked at Lena.
Crane had arrived.
And he hadn't come alone.
Thomas locked the research drive inside a case.
“What happens now?” Lena asked.
Adrian moved beside her.
For the first time since the river, he took her hand openly.
“Now?”
He looked toward the approaching lights.
May you like
“We end it.”
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