Chapter 14 - VISITING THE MONSTER IN ROOM 402
The Federal Medical Center at Carswell was shrouded in gray fog when Daniel arrived at sunrise. Armed guards checked his credentials three times before escorting him through four separate steel checkpoints into the hospice ward.
Room 402 smelled of rubbing alcohol, stale lavender, and impending death.
Evelyn Mercer lay in the center of the room, withered down to skin and bone, hooked to an IV drip and an oxygen concentrator. Her once pristine silver hair had fallen out; her aristocratic cheekbones were sunken like a corpse. Yet when her clouded blue eyes opened and fixed upon Daniel, the same cold, calculating fire flickered within them.
"You brought dirt into my room," Evelyn rasped, her voice wet and thin.
Daniel dragged a metal folding chair to the edge of the bed and sat down. He didn't offer a greeting. He pulled the red-wax letter from his coat and held it before her eyes.
"They attacked the lake house six hours ago," Daniel said.
Evelyn didn't blink. A ghastly, mirthless smile curled the corners of her lips. "Then the grace period has ended. Arthur Vance has run out of patience."
"You let the world call you a monster," Daniel said, his voice vibrating with rage and heartbreak. "You let me despise you. You let Lily look at you with pure terror. You chained a three-year-old baby to a stone column in ninety-degree heat while socialites drank champagne!"
"And she lived, didn't she?" Evelyn hissed, lifting her skeletal head an inch from the pillow. "If I had hidden her in the attic, Vance’s men would have taken her and you would have never found the body. If I had called the police, the Mercer board—which Vance owned—would have declared you unfit and handed her over. The only way to stop a multi-billionaire from claiming his property was to create a scandal so loud, so vile, so universally broadcast that federal agents had to take her into their own protective custody!"
Daniel stared at his mother, the horror of her logic twisting his stomach. "You destroyed our family to save her."
"I destroyed *myself*," Evelyn spat, coughing violently until flecks of blood dotted her pale lips. "I was old. My life was already over. But you... you idiot boy, you thought you won a victory by putting me in a cage. You dismantled the security grid. You gave interviews. You showed the world where you lived. And now, Vance is coming to harvest what he bought."
She reached out with a claw-like hand, grabbing Daniel’s wrist with surprising strength.
May you like
"He doesn't just want her blood, Daniel," she whispered, her eyes wide with terror. "Vance isn't working alone. Look at who signed the authorization for my transfer last night. Look at the signature!"
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