Chapter 3 - The Coldest Matriarch
The chilling desperation in Rachel’s voice tore through the nursery, leaving Daniel and Olivia stunned. Just twenty minutes earlier, Rachel had appeared as the calculated villain in this nightmare. Now, the terrifying reality of Margaret Mercer’s reach was bearing down on all of them.
“Where are you, Rachel?” Daniel demanded, his voice crisp and authoritative. “Tell me the exact address.”
“I’m... I’m at the estate in Bedford,” Rachel gasped, glancing frantically toward the closed door of the bedroom. “Your family’s country house. There are two private guards outside the hallway. They told me to pack a single bag. They took my passport and my driver’s license. I managed to hide this secondary prepaid phone in the bathroom. Daniel, your mother is completely detached from reality. She kept saying that Olivia’s baby wasn't enough to secure the Mercer family legacy. She said Olivia was too independent, that she would eventually turn you against the family.”
Olivia felt a shiver run down her spine. Margaret had always treated her with polite condescension, smiling at galas while subtly belittling her background as an artist and gallery curator. But to actively harvest Daniel’s biological sample to create a parallel heir under the total legal control of the Mercer Foundation was psychotic.
“Listen to me carefully, Rachel,” Olivia said, leaning close to the microphone. Her voice was steady, surprising even Daniel with its icy resolve. “If you want Daniel to save you, you belong to us now, not Margaret. You don't get a five-million-dollar payout, and you don't get to run away. When you give birth to that child, you will answer to the courts and to the truth. Do you understand?”
“Yes! Yes, anything!” Rachel wept. “I just don't want to disappear in Switzerland! Please, Daniel, the transport arrives at 2:00 AM!”
“Lock the bedroom door from the inside,” Daniel ordered. “Push whatever heavy furniture you have against it. Vance is on his way to Bedford right now with a team. I’m right behind him.”
Daniel ended the call and immediately turned to his closet, grabbing a heavy wool coat and his car keys. But as he turned back, Olivia was already slipping into her boots and pulling on her cashmere overcoat.
“You’re staying here,” Daniel said firmly, reaching for her arm. “It’s too dangerous. Margaret has private security personnel who don't care about the law.”
“I am seven months pregnant, not crippled,” Olivia said, brushing his hand away with unyielding steel in her eyes. “Margaret targeted my marriage, my home, and my child. I am not sitting in this nursery like a helpless victim while you clean up the mess your toxic family created. I am coming with you, Daniel. If you leave me behind, I will hire a cab and drive up to Bedford myself.”
Daniel looked at her determined face, recognizing the unshakeable will that had made him fall in love with her in the first place. He gave a single, sharp nod. “Alright. But you stay inside the vehicle until I clear the house.”
Ten minutes later, Daniel’s black armored SUV roared out of the subterranean garage beneath the Manhattan penthouse, tearing through the deserted, snow-dusted avenues toward the highway. The city lights blurred past the windows like dying embers.
As Daniel pushed the vehicle past eighty miles an hour on the Saw Mill River Parkway, his dashboard display lit up with an incoming call from Margaret. Daniel tapped the steering wheel controls, connecting the call.
“You’re driving north, Daniel,” Margaret’s voice resonated through the car’s speakers, eerily calm, accompanied by the clinking of porcelain. She was monitoring his GPS tracking. “You always were predictable. Highly reactive. Just like your father before he ruined himself with sentimental nonsense.”
“Call off your guards at Bedford, Mother,” Daniel said, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. “If your men lay a hand on Rachel or try to force her into that transport, Vance will have New York State Police surrounding the property within fifteen minutes. Kidnapping across state lines carries a life sentence.”
Margaret laughed—a dry, brittle sound that made the hair on Olivia’s neck stand up. “Kidnapping? Rachel Bennett signed an all-inclusive surrogacy and relocation agreement, Daniel. She waived all jurisdictional rights in exchange for the full liquidation of her father’s liabilities. Legally, she is an employee under contract traveling for medical treatment. You don't have a legal leg to stand on.”
“And what about the fertility clinic?” Olivia shouted toward the dashboard microphone. “You obtained Daniel’s genetic material under false pretenses. That is identity theft, medical fraud, and non-consensual biological reproduction! You won't just lose the company, Margaret. You’re going to die in a prison cell!”
There was a brief pause on the line. When Margaret spoke again, the venom in her voice was unmistakable. “You were an ornament, Olivia. A pretty, charming little girl to stand beside Daniel on magazine covers. But you never understood power. Power doesn't ask for permission. If you interfere with the transport tonight, Daniel, I will release the complete Aspen surveillance footage to every media outlet in the Western Hemisphere. The headlines will read that the golden boy of Wall Street impregnated his wife’s best friend while his pregnant wife slept in Manhattan. Your new acquisition will collapse before the markets open at 9:30 AM.”
“Go ahead and release it,” Daniel spat back. “Because when they look at the timeline, they’ll see a mother who destroyed her own son. We’re ten minutes from Bedford. Tell your goons to back down, or this ends in blood.”
Daniel disconnected the call. Beside him, Olivia pulled out her own phone, her fingers moving swiftly across the screen.
“What are you doing?” Daniel asked, glancing sideways at her.
May you like
“Contacting the one person who hates your mother more than we do,” Olivia said grimly. “Arthur Pendelton. The chief legal counsel for the SEC—and your father’s former best friend.”
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