Chapter 4: The Man Irene Feared

I pulled the door open before Robert could stop me.

Thomas Mercer stood on the porch with a silver cane and a smile that did not reach his eyes.

“You must be George.”

“You must be the coward who frightened my wife.”

Thomas looked past me.

“Robert, you’ve grown into Irene’s face.”

Robert stepped between us.

“You do not speak to him.”

Thomas tapped his cane against the threshold.

“I can speak to anyone standing inside my wife’s house.”

“This is my house,” I said.

“Your name is on the deed because Irene placed it there.

That can be challenged.”

Daniel came forward.

“Mr.

Mercer, all communication must go through my office.”

“You’re the young lawyer she hired to clean up sixty years of dishonesty.”

“She hired me to protect her family.”

Thomas laughed softly.

“Family?

George was never her husband, and Robert was never his son.”

I seized the doorframe.

“Say one more word about my son.”

Thomas raised his eyebrows.

“Your son?”

“Yes.

Mine.”

Robert turned his face away, but not before I saw tears on his cheeks.

Thomas removed a folded document from his coat.

“Irene remained legally married to me.

As her surviving husband, I am claiming her bank accounts, personal property, and share of this house.”

Daniel took the document.

“This is a petition, not a judgment.”

“It becomes a hearing on Monday.”

“You had no relationship with Irene for six decades.”

“Marriage is a legal relationship.”

“So is extortion,” Robert said.

Thomas’s smile disappeared.

“Careful.

You cannot prove what your mother told you in private.”

“We have the checks.”

“Gifts from a guilty wife.”

I stepped onto the porch.

“You let her believe you were gone.

Then you returned and made her pay for the privilege of keeping her family together.”

“She chose to pay.”

“You chose to frighten her.”

Thomas leaned close enough for me to smell peppermint on his breath.

“She chose you because you were safe, George.

A decent little soldier who never asked difficult questions.”

My hand tightened around the door.

Robert caught my shoulder.

“Dad, don’t give him what he wants.”

Thomas glanced at Robert’s hand.

“You see?

Even now, the boy is holding you up.”

“He has done that more times than you will ever understand.”

Daniel handed the petition back.

“Irene left a signed will naming George as primary beneficiary.”

“A will cannot erase a lawful spouse.”

“It can expose one.”

Thomas’s cane stopped moving.

Daniel continued.

“Irene kept records.”

“Then you should read them carefully.

Some records can destroy the people you mean to protect.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Thomas looked at Robert.

“Ask him why he took a DNA test.”

Robert went still.

I faced him.

“You took a test?”

“Dad, it was years ago.”

“Do you know who your biological father is?”

Before Robert answered, Thomas smiled again.

“He knows who it isn’t.”

A county process server walked up the path carrying a large envelope.

“George Hale?”

“Yes.”

He held it toward me.

“You have been served with an emergency petition freezing Irene Mercer’s estate pending a hearing.”

Thomas stepped aside to let the man pass.