Chapter 3 - The Company My Father Buried Beneath Another Name

I had heard the name Halcyon once before.

I was twenty-two, standing outside my father’s study after midnight. Victor Mercer was arguing with someone on the phone.

Not shouting.

My father never shouted when he was truly angry.

He had said, “Shut Halcyon down before Lawson sees the books.”

The next morning, three companies disappeared from the Mercer portfolio.

I had assumed Halcyon was one of them.

I had never asked.

At twenty-two, I had been more interested in proving I could build power without borrowing his.

Now my children carried its signature in their blood.

Elena sat across from me in a secured conference room at Lakeshore while Prescott stationed two guards outside.

“Halcyon Biomedical was supposed to develop treatments for inherited blood disorders,” she said. “Your father funded it through shell companies. Meridian supplied embryos for research.”

“Human embryos.”

“Yes.”

“Without consent?”

“Sometimes with consent that was intentionally vague. Sometimes with forms people never understood. Sometimes…” She looked away. “Sometimes worse.”

My hands curled.

“What did Genevieve know?”

“She found out after the second miscarriage.”

That surprised me.

“We went to Meridian because her obstetrician recommended it.”

“Franklin recommended the obstetrician.”

The pieces had been arranged before we ever saw the board.

Elena continued.

“The twins’ embryos showed the repair defect. Standard protocol would have been to advise you and Genevieve about the risk. Instead, Franklin offered an experimental correction.”

“I never heard about an experiment.”

“You weren’t supposed to.”

I stood.

“Genevieve signed something behind my back?”

“She was terrified she would lose another pregnancy.”

“That doesn’t answer me.”

“No,” Elena said. “She did not knowingly agree to Halcyon.”

That pulled me still.

“She believed the embryos were receiving an approved screening procedure. Franklin changed the consent packet after she signed.”

Dr. Chen entered before I could respond.

She carried a printed genomic map.

“The synthetic marker is real,” she said. “And it’s old. It appears to have been introduced before the twins were born.”

“Can it explain what’s happening now?”

“Potentially. The sequence sits near the same repair pathway that’s malfunctioning.”

Elena whispered, “Off-target edit.”

Chen nodded reluctantly. “That would fit.”

I looked at them.

“Speak English.”

Chen pointed to the map.

“Someone tried to correct one defect and may have damaged something nearby. The twins lived normally for years because the damage stayed quiet. Then something triggered marrow instability.”

“The leukemia?”

“Or the treatment.”

The distinction felt obscene.

Prescott’s phone vibrated.

He stepped away, listened, then returned.

“Our people accessed archived corporate filings. Halcyon was dissolved six years ago.”

“Six?”

Elena’s eyes sharpened.

“That was after the twins were born.”

“Yes.”

“Who signed the dissolution?”

Prescott looked at me.

“Victor Mercer.”

My father had been dead four years.

I had mourned him.

I had defended him.

I had spent half my life trying not to become him while using the walls he built.

“Find every Halcyon asset.”

“We already started.”

“Not enough. Find every employee, lab, storage unit, patent, vendor, courier, and landlord. If the company bought coffee, I want the receipt.”

Prescott nodded and left.

Elena watched him go.

“You trust him.”

“I trust what he does when I give an order.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“No.”

Her eyes softened, just slightly.

At noon, Chen let me sit beside the twins without a mask for five minutes.

Blythe looked at Elena through the glass.

“Who’s she?”

“A friend of your mother’s.”

Blythe’s eyes widened.

“She knew Mommy?”

“Yes.”

“Can she come in?”

Elena heard through the intercom.

She froze.

I could have said no.

Instead, I nodded.

She scrubbed in, put on a gown and mask, and entered.

Blythe studied her.

“Daddy says you knew Mommy.”

Elena sat carefully.

“I did.”

“Was she funny?”

The question broke something in Elena’s face.

“Yes,” she said. “She was very funny when nobody important was watching.”

Jonah smiled weakly.

“That sounds like her.”

Elena laughed through tears.

For the first time since arriving, she stopped looking like a fugitive.

Then Prescott appeared outside the glass.

He held up a tablet.

I stepped out.

“We found an old Halcyon warehouse in Cicero,” he said. “It was supposedly emptied six years ago.”

“Supposedly?”

“Power bills never stopped.”

My phone rang.

Unknown number.

I answered.

No one spoke.

Then a recording played.

Genevieve’s voice.

My lungs stopped.

“Lawson,” she said, sounding younger, frightened, alive. “If you are hearing this, Franklin has already lied to you about the children.”

The recording ended.

A text followed.

CICERO. COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE REST.

I stared at the message.

Prescott read my face.

“No.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“It’s a trap.”

“Probably.”

Elena came out of the medical room.

“What happened?”

I held up the phone.

Her expression changed as soon as she saw the waveform.

“Where did that come from?”

“Someone who wants me in Cicero.”

Chen stepped into the hallway.

“Mr. Mercer, your children need you here.”

I looked through the glass.

Jonah was asleep again.

Blythe held Elena’s hand through her glove.

My entire life, men had tried to move me with threats.

This was different.

Someone had found the one direction I could not refuse.

I turned to Prescott.

“Prepare two teams.”

“You said the message told you to come alone.”

“I’m going alone.”

He stared at me.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

I handed him the phone.

“You’re going everywhere else.”