Chapter 3 - THE DOCTOR WHO WAS PAID TO FORGET
Dr. Helen Park had delivered my sons.
I remembered everything about her.
Her calm voice.
Her dark hair tied behind her head.
The way she'd squeezed my shoulder when Noah's heart rate suddenly dropped during labor.
The way she'd said, “We're going to take good care of all three of you.”
I trusted her.
At 12:34 in the morning, I sat across from Damien staring at a transfer showing that a company controlled by his mother had paid Dr. Park $412,000 six weeks after Ethan and Noah were born.
“This has to be something else.”
Damien shook his head.
“Glenrock had one outgoing payment that quarter.”
“To her?”
“To a limited-liability company registered to her husband.”
My stomach twisted.
“What did she sell your mother?”
“I don't know.”
I stood.
“I'm calling her.”
“Mara—”
“I trusted that woman with my babies.”
“It's after midnight.”
“I don't care.”
The number I had for Dr. Park was old.
Disconnected.
Damien called his security director.
Within twenty minutes, he had a current address and phone number.
Money still opened doors quickly.
I hated that it helped us now.
Dr. Park answered on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“Helen?”
Silence.
“It's Mara Bennett.”
More silence.
Then a whisper.
“Oh my God.”
I looked at Damien.
He heard it too.
“You remember me.”
“Of course.”
“You delivered my twins.”
“I remember.”
“Did Celeste Mercer pay you four hundred and twelve thousand dollars?”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Damien immediately stood.
“That's an answer.”
“No. That's panic.”
I called again.
Straight to voicemail.
Five minutes later Damien's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
“Unknown number.”
“Answer.”
He put it on speaker.
“Damien Mercer?”
A woman's voice.
Helen.
“Yes.”
“I need you both to listen carefully.”
I leaned toward the phone.
“I'm listening.”
“I didn't falsify Mara's medical records.”
“Then why did my mother pay you?” Damien asked.
Helen breathed shakily.
“She didn't pay me to alter what happened.”
“What did she pay you for?”
“To stay silent about who requested information.”
My skin prickled.
“Who requested what information?”
Helen hesitated.
“After the twins were born, a woman representing herself as Damien Mercer's family attorney contacted the hospital.”
Damien's jaw tightened.
“She knew they had been born?”
“Yes.”
My hand went to my mouth.
All these years, part of me had wondered whether Celeste truly knew.
Now there was no doubt.
“She requested confirmation of the birth,” Helen continued. “Sex, date, health status.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“No. It would have violated patient privacy.”
“Then what happened?”
“She began calling me privately.”
I could hear shame in Helen's voice.
“My husband had a gambling problem at the time.”
Damien closed his eyes.
“They found out,” Helen said. “He owed dangerous people nearly three hundred thousand dollars.”
“And my mother paid it.”
“Yes.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Information.”
My stomach turned.
“What information?”
“Whether the boys were healthy. Whether there had been paternity testing. Whether Mara had named a father on the birth certificates.”
I stared at the floor.
I had left the father section blank.
At the time, it felt like survival.
Now I realized Celeste had been waiting for that decision.
“You told her?”
“Yes.”
Anger exploded through me.
“You sold information about my newborn children?”
Helen began crying.
“I know.”
“You were my doctor!”
“I know.”
“I trusted you.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know!”
My voice woke Ethan.
I heard movement upstairs.
I lowered my volume.
“You had no right.”
“No. I didn't.”
Damien took the phone.
“What else?”
Helen was quiet.
“What else did she ask?”
“She wanted DNA.”
Every hair on my arms stood.
“What?”
“I refused.”
“Did she get it anyway?”
“I don't know.”
My heart hammered.
Helen continued.
“Three days after you were discharged, I learned two newborn blood-spot cards had been requested from pathology under an internal authorization code.”
Damien frowned.
“Explain.”
“Routine newborn screenings use blood samples. Those samples are retained according to hospital protocol.”
“You think my mother took biological material from my sons?”
“I think someone accessed it.”
I felt physically sick.
“For what purpose?”
“I don't know.”
Damien's voice turned cold.
“You took four hundred thousand dollars and never reported this?”
Helen started crying harder.
“I was afraid.”
“So was Mara. She raised two children alone.”
“I know.”
Damien looked at me.
For once his anger was not useful.
“Can you prove any of this?” I asked.
“Yes.”
That surprised me.
“How?”
“I kept everything.”
Damien leaned forward.
“Everything?”
“Emails. Payment records. The authorization request. Notes from the conversations.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew someday I might need protection.”
“Protection from Celeste?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“Not on my computer.”
Helen gave us the name of a bank in Manhattan.
A safe-deposit box.
Then she said something stranger.
“There is one document you need to see before you confront Celeste.”
“What document?”
“A laboratory invoice.”
“For what?”
“DNA analysis.”
Damien went silent.
Helen continued.
“The blood samples were sent to a private lab in Boston.”
I whispered, “She tested them.”
“Yes.”
Damien stared at me.
Five years earlier, Celeste had known beyond any doubt that Ethan and Noah were her son's children.
And she had continued lying.
“When did she receive the results?” Damien asked.
“About a month after they were born.”
I could barely speak.
“So she knew.”
“Yes.”
“She knew they were his.”
“Yes.”
“And then she forged documents saying the pregnancy had ended.”
“I believe so.”
Damien turned away.
He placed both hands against my counter.
His shoulders shook once.
When he turned back, his face was different.
Whatever relationship he'd had with his mother before that phone call was gone.
“I want the evidence.”
“I'll meet you tomorrow.”
“No. Tonight.”
“Damien—”
“Tonight.”
Helen hesitated.
Then agreed to meet us at the bank when it opened at eight.
We ended the call.
I looked at Damien.
“Go home.”
His eyes widened.
“Mara—”
“My boys are asleep. I'm exhausted. And I need to think.”
“I can stay outside.”
“No.”
“What if my mother sends someone?”
That stopped me.
Five years earlier I would have called him paranoid.
Now I knew Celeste had secretly monitored us for four years.
“I have an alarm.”
“She had access to your doctor.”
“I'll call the police if anyone comes.”
“Mara.”
“I said no.”
He studied me.
Then nodded.
“I'll have security watch the street.”
“I don't want strangers outside my house.”
“You won't see them.”
“That isn't better.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he walked toward the door.
Before leaving, he turned.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For telling Noah the truth.”
“I didn't do it for you.”
“I know.”
He left.
The next morning, I woke to forty-three missed calls.
Not from Damien.
From reporters.
Somehow my phone number had leaked.
I opened social media.
My stomach dropped.
My photograph was everywhere.
An old picture of Damien and me leaving a restaurant five years earlier.
Beside it was a current image of Ethan and Noah taken yesterday at the mall.
The headline read:
MERCER HEIR'S SECRET TWINS? FORMER GIRLFRIEND EMERGES AFTER FIVE YEARS.
Another:
BILLIONAIRE'S EX HID TWO SONS — NOW FORTUNE AT STAKE.
Then I saw the worst one.
SOURCES: WOMAN DEMANDED MILLIONS TO STAY SILENT.
I stared at the words.
Someone had flipped the story.
Celeste.
Of course.
Before we could expose her, she was making me look like the extortionist.
The doorbell rang.
I froze.
Then checked the camera.
Damien stood there.
Beside him was a woman carrying a legal briefcase.
And behind them were six reporters.
I opened the door.
“What happened?”
Damien pushed inside while his security team held the reporters back.
“My mother went to the press.”
“I noticed.”
The woman beside him introduced herself.
“Rachel Cole. Litigation attorney.”
I looked at Damien.
“Why do I need a litigation attorney?”
Rachel answered.
“Because thirty minutes ago Celeste Mercer filed an emergency petition in family court.”
My blood went cold.
“For what?”
Damien's eyes burned with rage.
“Temporary guardianship.”
I laughed because the idea was insane.
“Of my children?”
Rachel nodded.
“She alleges you're planning to remove them from the jurisdiction to obtain financial leverage against the Mercer estate.”
For several seconds, I couldn't speak.
Then Ethan walked into the hallway holding his stuffed dinosaur.
“Mommy?”
I immediately lowered my voice.
“It's okay.”
Rachel looked toward him, then back at me.
“There is more.”
Of course there was.
“What?”
“Celeste attached a document claiming you accepted two million dollars five years ago in exchange for waiving any future claim against the Mercer family.”
I stared at her.
“I never signed anything.”
Rachel slowly placed a copy on my kitchen table.
At the bottom was a signature.
May you like
Mara Bennett.
It looked exactly like mine.
