Chapter 15 - VIVIENNE'S CHOICE
For one second, nobody moved.
Vivienne’s face was streaked with soot.
“Dad,” she said, “put the gun down.”
Malcolm didn’t turn.
“You were always weak.”
“No. I was afraid of you.”
“Same thing.”
She tightened both hands around his wrist.
He jerked backward.
The gun fired.
Tessa screamed.
The bullet hit the ceiling.
I tackled Malcolm as the firefighter pulled Tessa and Vivienne toward the hallway.
Malcolm was stronger than I expected. He slammed my shoulder into the wall.
“You think Amelia was brave?” he hissed. “She destroyed her own family.”
“No. She exposed yours.”
I drove him into the floor.
Federal agents reached us seconds later.
They cuffed him while the room burned around us.
Outside, paramedics treated Vivienne for smoke inhalation.
I stood several feet away holding Noah.
She looked at him and began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t answer.
There are apologies that open doors.
And there are apologies that belong on the record.
She seemed to understand.
“I know you’ll never forgive me.”
“You hurt my son.”
“I know.”
“No explanation changes that.”
She nodded.
Tessa walked over carrying the metal box.
Inside were the original consent forms.
Parents had signed for routine immune screening.
Someone later altered the documents to make them look like experimental-trial approvals.
Malcolm’s signature appeared on multiple authorizations.
So did my father’s.
At the bottom of the box was a sealed envelope addressed to me.
Amelia’s handwriting again.
I opened it.
Elliot,
If this survived, then you did too.
Do not spend your life defending the Mercer name.
Make it deserve Noah.
I pressed the letter against my mouth.
Then Ortiz approached.
“We found something else in Malcolm’s car.”
She held up a phone.
On the screen was a draft message scheduled to send the next morning.
May you like
It was addressed to the board of Mercer Foundation.
Subject: ELLIOT MERCER — REMOVAL FOR MENTAL INSTABILITY.
