Chapter 16 - The House on Long Island Sound
Federal agents reached the Greenwich estate before sunset.
Daniel and Olivia were required to remain outside until the property was cleared.
They sat inside an SUV overlooking iron gates nearly hidden behind snow-covered stone walls.
The house beyond them was enormous but strangely lifeless.
No family photographs appeared through the windows.
No holiday decorations.
No signs that children had ever played on the grounds.
“It feels like a hospital pretending to be a mansion,” Olivia said.
Daniel agreed.
Ward finally approached their vehicle.
“You can come in.”
The interior was worse.
Every room had been designed to look luxurious while remaining impersonal. Guest bedrooms contained hotel-quality linens. Bathrooms held sealed toiletries. Closets were empty.
The eastern wing contained three examination rooms.
Medical refrigerators.
Ultrasound equipment.
Locked cabinets.
Ward stood beside an evidence technician.
“This equipment hasn’t been used recently.”
“How recently?” Daniel asked.
“Maybe five years.”
Olivia’s eyes moved toward a hallway.
At the end sat a nursery.
Not one crib.
Six.
She stopped breathing.
Daniel stepped beside her.
The room was painted soft blue.
Shelves held unopened toys.
There were no names.
Only numbers burned into small wooden plaques.
Olivia covered her mouth.
Vance entered behind them.
“We found records downstairs.”
The basement looked like an archive.
Filing cabinets lined two walls.
Most were empty.
One was locked.
Agents opened it.
Inside were folders arranged by year.
The oldest dated back eighteen years.
Ward pulled on gloves.
The first folder contained medical records belonging to a woman named Lauren Keane.
Daniel recognized the initials from the ledger.
L.K.
There was a consent agreement.
A payment schedule.
Prenatal reports.
Then a termination letter.
Olivia read the document twice.
“It says the contract was terminated after delivery.”
Ward nodded.
Daniel looked at the next page.
A birth certificate application.
Father: withheld.
Mother: Lauren Keane.
Infant: male.
Daniel went still.
The birth date was twelve years earlier.
A DNA sequencing report appeared beneath it.
Paternal profile classification: Mercer lineage match.
Daniel leaned against the cabinet.
Olivia took his hand.
“Could it be your father?”
Ward shook her head.
“The date of the stored specimen is listed here.”
Daniel read it.
His twenty-fifth birthday.
His own genetic sample.
He stared at Olivia.
Somewhere, possibly, there was a twelve-year-old boy created using Daniel’s DNA without his consent.
He felt the world tilt.
The second folder documented another birth nine years earlier.
A girl.
The third showed a pregnancy that ended naturally in the first trimester.
The fourth file contained no birth result at all.
The fifth was labeled RACHEL BENNETT.
Grace.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Two children.”
“Potentially,” Ward corrected. “We need independent verification.”
Olivia looked through the records.
“Where are they?”
No addresses appeared after the deliveries.
Only financial transfers.
Then Vance found a sealed envelope taped behind the cabinet.
Inside was a list of names.
Lauren Keane.
Monica Shaw.
Jennifer Parks.
Rachel Bennett.
Three more women.
Beside two names were handwritten notes.
PLACEMENT COMPLETE.
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Placement where?”
Nobody knew.
An agent called from upstairs.
“Mr. Vance?”
They followed him into a study.
A computer sat on the desk.
The hard drive had been removed recently.
The dust outline showed exactly where it had been.
“Rourke,” Vance said.
Then Olivia noticed the fireplace.
Ash covered the hearth.
Something had been burned within the last twenty-four hours.
A partially blackened photograph survived beneath the grate.
She lifted it with forceps supplied by an investigator.
It showed Margaret standing beside a teenage boy.
The boy’s face was partially destroyed by flame.
But enough remained.
Dark hair.
Hazel eyes.
A familiar curve to the mouth.
Daniel stared.
It was like looking at an old photograph of himself.
On the back, two handwritten words remained legible.
ETHAN — 12.
Daniel sat down hard.
Olivia squeezed his shoulder.
The agents continued searching.
Then Ward received an urgent call.
She walked away, listened, and returned with an expression none of them liked.
“That was the U.S. Marshals Service.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
“Calvin Rourke just turned himself in.”
Vance blinked.
“Where?”
“Federal courthouse in Manhattan.”
“Why?”
Ward looked at Daniel.
“He walked into the lobby carrying a hard drive and asked for immunity.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What did he offer?”
May you like
Ward answered quietly.
“The current location of Ethan.”
