He looked at Daniel.
“You want to know why your mother spent years letting you wonder if Michael was your father?”
Daniel’s face drained.
Rebecca whispered, “Charles, no.”
“Because she preferred that possibility to the truth.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What truth?”
Mercer smiled.
“I am your father.”
Daniel stepped backward.
The room tilted around him.
Rebecca began crying.
“Daniel, please.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“All these years?”
“Yes.”
“And he knew?”
Mercer answered.
“Of course.”
Daniel’s eyes moved to him.
“You never contacted me.”
“No.”
The cruelty of that single word silenced everyone.
Rebecca stepped toward her son.
“I kept you away because he would have used you.”
Daniel moved back.
“You used me instead.”
“No.”
“You built my life out of lies.”
“I loved you.”
“Love without truth becomes another kind of cage.”
Rebecca stopped.
Mercer looked bored.
“Very touching.”
Thomas said, “What happened to Margaret’s policy?”
Mercer smiled again.
