Chapter 17 - The River
Mercer reached the dock before police reached the tunnel exit.
He had a small motorboat tied beneath the pier.
Michael saw it from the command vehicle.
“He’s getting away.”
Reese was already running.
Mercer started the engine.
Then Emily noticed something else.
A black SUV parked beyond the dock.
Its rear door was open.
Inside sat a child’s booster seat.
Mason’s size.
Her stomach dropped.
“He planned to take Mason.”
Michael looked.
The forged pickup form hadn’t been a backup plan.
It had been part of the escape.
Mercer pushed away from the dock.
A patrol boat came around the bend and blocked him.
He turned sharply, struck a piling, and nearly went overboard.
Officers hauled him out at gunpoint.
He screamed about warrants, rights, and powerful friends.
Nobody listened.
By sunrise Victor, Sophia, and Mercer were all in custody.
The red folder was recovered.
So were the trust amendment, ledgers, Thomas’s recordings, and Mercer’s emails.
Reese looked at Michael. “This is over enough for today.”
Emily exhaled.
Then pain tightened across her abdomen.
She grabbed the side of the vehicle.
Michael was beside her instantly but stopped before touching her.
“Can I?”
Emily nodded.
He supported her elbow.
Another contraction hit.
“Oh, God.”
Reese’s eyes widened. “Hospital. Now.”
Emily laughed once through the pain. “Of course.”
At St. Catherine’s, Dr. Patel examined her and frowned.
“You’re in early labor.”
Michael went pale.
“How early?”
“Three weeks. Not ideal, but not catastrophic. We’re going to monitor and try to slow it.”
Emily squeezed the bedrail.
Mason arrived with Helen.
“Is the baby coming?”
“Maybe,” Emily said.
Mason looked at Michael, then Emily.
“Are we still a family?”
No adult in the room moved.
Emily looked at her son.
“Yes.”
Michael’s eyes lifted.
Emily continued, “But families can change shape.”
Michael understood.
She was not promising him the marriage.
She was promising Mason he would not lose his parents.
Michael nodded slowly. “Your mom’s right.”
Mason climbed carefully beside Emily.
Then her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
She expected another threat.
Instead it was a photograph.
Thomas Carter smiling beside a newborn Michael.
Under it, one sentence:
ASK HELEN WHO TOOK THIS PICTURE.
Emily turned the phone around.
Helen’s face went white.
Michael stared at his mother.
May you like
“Who sent that?”
Helen whispered, “There’s one person we forgot.”
