Chapter 14 - WHAT “STOP HIM” MEANT
Rebecca insisted she never ordered murder.
“I said scare him.”
Julia stared at her.
“You hired a Mercer security man to stop my husband on a mountain road.”
“I didn’t tell him to cut the brakes.”
“Did you ask how he planned to do it?”
Rebecca had no answer.
That was answer enough.
Ortiz arrested her for conspiracy and obstruction while prosecutors reviewed homicide charges.
Grant disappeared before police reached his office.
His car was found at the airport.
No passenger record.
Park checked private hangars.
One Mercer-owned jet had departed forty minutes earlier.
Destination withheld.
Thomas heard the news and went quiet.
Julia found him sitting on the stairs.
“You think he’s coming back?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Are you scared?”
Julia sat beside him.
“Yes.”
He seemed surprised.
“Adults get scared?”
“All the time.”
“What do you do?”
Julia took his hand.
“You decide what matters more than the fear.”
Thomas thought about that.
Then he looked toward Emily’s room.
“Family?”
“Exactly.”
That night, Ortiz moved them again.
Before leaving, Thomas asked to stop at the pharmacy where Emily found him.
“Why?”
“I left something.”
Under the awning, he reached behind a loose drainpipe and pulled out a tiny flash drive wrapped in plastic.
“What is that?”
“Diane gave it to me the night I ran.”
“You had this the whole time?”
“I didn’t know if I could trust you yet.”
They opened it at Ortiz’s office.
There was one video.
Diane sat in front of a blank wall.
“If Thomas found his mother, then I’m probably gone.”
She looked exhausted.
“Grant knows I kept copies.”
Julia leaned closer.
Diane held up a document.
“Thomas was not the only child they did this to.”
Ortiz froze the frame.
The paper showed a list of names.
Fourteen babies.
All born in Mercer-owned hospitals.
May you like
All declared dead.
All transferred somewhere else.
