Chapter 6 - The Name on the Test
Chloe handed Julian another document.
His eyes moved across the page.
Sample A: Julian.
Sample B: Arthur Kane.
Julian looked up.
“My father?”
Chloe nodded.
“That's why the result was hidden.”
Julian stared at the document.
“Zero percent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
Julian looked again.
The test was legitimate.
The samples were properly documented.
Arthur was not Julian's biological father.
But that raised a worse question.
“Then who is?”
Chloe shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Julian sat down.
Thirty years of memories suddenly felt unstable.
Arthur teaching him to drive.
Beatrice holding his hand at the hospital.
Family birthdays.
Christmas mornings.
Every photograph.
Every story.
Could all of it have been built around a lie?
Then Julian noticed a handwritten name in the margin.
Elias Mercer.
He knew that name.
Everyone in the family did.
Elias had been Arthur's closest friend.
He had died before Julian was born.
Julian looked at Chloe.
“Why would his name be here?”
Chloe whispered.
“Because Mom once told me you looked exactly like him.”
Julian's phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
Don't search for Elias Mercer.
A second message followed.
May you like
He isn't dead.
👉 Julian had spent his entire life believing Elias Mercer was buried decades ago—but someone was now warning him that the man might still be alive.
