Chapter 4 - THE NAME ON THE MEDICAL BRACELET
Three days later, Lucy developed a fever.
Maria tried to manage it quietly, but Arthur noticed the child was unusually sleepy.
Nicholas called a pediatrician.
During the examination, the doctor found an old medical bracelet in Maria’s bag.
It had been issued when Lucy was an infant.
The bracelet bore her birth date, blood type, and a hospital identification number.
But the surname was not Santos.
It was Mercer.
Nicholas noticed.
“Mercer?”
Maria quickly took the bracelet.
“It was her father’s name.”
Nicholas did not press.
But later that afternoon, Arthur entered his study looking troubled.
“Sir, do you remember Daniel Mercer?”
Nicholas froze.
Daniel Mercer had once managed security systems for Caruso-controlled warehouses.
Four years earlier, he disappeared after accusing senior executives of falsifying freight records.
The organization branded him a thief.
Nicholas had accepted the accusation.
Arthur continued.
“Daniel had a younger sister named Maria.”
Nicholas stared.
Maria Santos.
Maria Mercer.
The same woman.
He looked toward the garden, where Lucy was recovering in the sunshine.
The child’s father had not simply vanished.
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He had been connected to Nicholas’s own organization.
And Nicholas had never known.
