Chapter 18 - THE INDEPENDENT PROOF
From the end of Pier Seven, a sudden blast of classical music echoed over the water.
Julian’s voice boomed through the pier's public address system. "Did you really think Arthur Vance was your savior, Daniel? Arthur worked for me for thirty years. Did you wonder why the local police haven't responded to the gunfire? Check the town ledger, little brother. Harbor Light isn't a town. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercer Holdings."
Claire pulled out her phone. There were zero bars. The entire coastal grid had been jammed.
"We can't escape by water," Daniel whispered, peering around the skiff. A sleek black military-grade tender was idling at the mouth of the harbor, blocking the open sea. "Julian has the harbor locked down. He wants to herd us toward the lighthouse."
"Why the lighthouse?" Claire asked, her instincts screaming.
"The original Mercer estate sits beneath it," Daniel said, his voice grim. "There’s a private underground clinic Eleanor built during the Cold War. Julian doesn't need to fly Theo to Halifax. The surgical team is already down there waiting for him."
Before they could move, a figure stepped out from the shadows of an adjacent fish-packing plant. Claire raised a heavy steel gaff hook, ready to strike, but stopped.
It was Dr. Marcus Vance—Arthur’s estranged brother, the pediatrician who had delivered Theo six years ago and vanished immediately after. His clothes were ragged, his face covered in a thick gray beard, but in his hands, he held an old, bulky cassette recorder and a sealed cryogenic vial.
"Don't shoot," Marcus rasped, coughing into his sleeve. "I watched them kill my brother from the packing plant window. Julian is lying to you."
Daniel leveled the empty gun at Marcus’s chest. "Talk fast, Marcus, before I beat you to death with this slide."
"Theo isn't Julian's clone," Marcus said, his voice trembling with desperate urgency. "Julian *thought* he was. Julian ordered Eleanor to use his frozen genetic material. But Eleanor swapped it at the last second. She couldn't stomach Julian's cruelty. She used Daniel's stored sample from before the coma!"
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Claire felt her heart stop. "What did you say?"
"Theo is one hundred percent Daniel's biological son," Marcus said, holding up the cryogenic vial. "Eleanor kept Julian believing the boy was his genetic match so Julian would funnel billions into protecting them! Julian doesn't know. If he extracts Theo’s marrow, Julian’s body will violently reject it within six hours. It won't save Julian. It will kill him!"
