I was running before Marcus finished the sentence.
Clara called my name behind me.
I stopped at the doorway.
Not because I wanted to.
Because leaving her without explanation would have been the old version of me.
“Catherine knows where Leo is.”
Clara went white.
“How?”
“Julian left a warning.”
She reached for the call button.
I was already calling Nina.
She answered immediately.
“Hospital security. Now.”
“What happened?”
“Catherine found Leo.”
“How do you know?”
“Julian.”
A pause.
“Stay with Clara.”
“I’m going to the NICU.”
“Liam.”
“My son is there.”
“So are security officers.”
“I’m going.”
Clara swung her legs from the bed.
“You’re not going without me.”
“No.”
Her expression became murderous.
“You have ten seconds to reconsider.”
“You just gave birth prematurely.”
“And he is my son.”
I knew better than to argue.
I grabbed the wheelchair.
By the time we reached the NICU corridor, security had locked down the unit.
Two officers stood outside.
A nurse I recognized was checking badges manually.
Dr. Bennett came toward us.
“What’s happening?”
“Has anyone tried to see Leo?”
“Only authorized staff.”
“Anyone unusual?”
“No.”
“Any transfer request?”
Her expression changed.
“One.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“From whom?”
“A neonatal transport coordinator.”
Clara gripped the wheelchair arms.
“Transport where?”
“Duke.”
“Why?”
“They said cardiology consult.”
“Leo doesn’t need cardiology.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“I refused until I could speak with the attending.”
“Then?”
“The caller disconnected.”
I looked at Nina’s video call.
“You heard that.”
“Yes.”
“We need Leo moved.”
Dr. Bennett shook her head.
“Moving a premature infant without medical need creates risk.”
“Leaving him here creates risk.”
“We can secure him here.”
Clara spoke before I could.
“Can you move him within the hospital?”
Dr. Bennett considered.
“To another NICU bay under restricted registration.”
“Do it.”
I looked at her.
She met my eyes.
“Moving him across town is dangerous. Moving him down a secured corridor is not.”
She was right.
Again.
I was becoming accustomed to that.
Nina coordinated with hospital administration.
Leo’s registration was restricted further.
His room assignment disappeared from ordinary internal directories.
Only essential staff received the new location.
I watched nurses prepare the incubator.
Leo looked impossibly small beneath blankets and tubing.
My anger became something colder.
Catherine had never met him.
Yet she had already tried to turn his existence into leverage.
I understood Julian’s line now.
Leave the child out of it.
Maybe it had been the only moral boundary he had left.
My phone rang from a blocked number.
Nina said, “Don’t answer.”
I looked at her on the screen.
“Why?”
“Could be Catherine.”
“Exactly.”
“We should route it.”
The call stopped.
Then came a text.
You finally understand him.
I showed Nina.
“Do not respond.”
Another message.
Julian spent his whole life cleaning up what your father did.
Then:
And you still think you are the victim.
Clara read over my shoulder.
“That’s Catherine.”
“Probably.”
Another message.
Ask Margaret why Richard chose you.
I stared.
My mother had said my father concealed Julian.
But why?
Was it merely legitimacy?
Marriage?
Timing?
Or something else?
I typed nothing.
Then a photograph arrived.
Julian.
Standing outside what appeared to be a train station.
Timestamped eighteen minutes earlier.
Under it:
He is coming to you.
Nina swore quietly.
“Can we identify the station?”
“Working.”
I looked at the photograph.
Julian had no coat despite the cold.
No briefcase.
Nothing except a dark shirt and trousers.
He looked exhausted.
Another message arrived.
He thinks he can save the babies.
Babies.
Plural.
Leo.
Ethan.
My skin went cold.
“She knows where Ethan is.”
Nina immediately disconnected to contact the Wisconsin team.
Clara whispered, “Call Rachel.”
“I don’t have her direct number.”
“Nina does.”
Seconds later Nina returned.
“Rachel and Ethan are secure.”
“For now.”
“Yes.”
“Move them.”
“We are.”
“Where?”
“You don’t need to know.”
I almost objected.
Then stopped.
“Good.”
Clara noticed.
“You’re learning.”
“I hate learning.”
“Clearly.”
Another blocked call.
This time Nina said, “Answer. We’re recording.”
I did.
“Hello.”
Silence.
Then Julian’s voice.
“Liam.”
Every muscle tightened.
“Where are you?”
“Not important.”
“You left headquarters.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Catherine is moving.”
“Toward Leo?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“She contacted me.”
“What does she want?”
“To finish this.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means she knows the Northline structure is collapsing.”
“So?”
“She needs leverage.”
“My children.”
“Yes.”
My anger sharpened.
“You let this happen.”
“I know.”
“You hid Ethan.”
“To keep him alive.”
“You hid him from me.”
“Yes.”
“You intercepted Clara’s messages.”
“Yes.”
“You fabricated the divorce attorney.”
Silence.
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Even knowing it, hearing Julian admit it mattered.
“Why?”
“Because you were going to choose her.”
“She was my wife.”
“I know.”
“No. Apparently you didn’t.”
“I knew exactly what she was.”
“What?”
“The one person who could make you walk away from everything Catherine spent my life teaching me I deserved.”
There it was.
Not business.
Inheritance.
Resentment.
Family.
“Mercer.”
“Yes.”
“You thought Clara would make me leave the company.”
“She almost did.”
“I should have listened.”
“I know that now.”
The answer surprised me.
“What changed?”
“Ethan.”
I went quiet.
“When I saw him, I understood what Catherine had done.”
“She created him.”
“Yes.”
“With my stolen reproductive material.”
“Yes.”
“You knew only after Rachel was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because then I would have had to tell you everything.”
“So you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
At least he said it.
“And Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“Do not put those on the same moral level.”
“I don’t.”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“Where are you going?”
“To you.”
“Why?”
“Because Catherine knows the hospital.”
“Security is locked down.”
“She won’t walk through the front door.”
“What does that mean?”
“She has someone inside.”
I looked at Nina.
Her face changed immediately.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She stopped trusting me months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I refused to involve Clara’s pregnancy.”
“You already involved it by hiding it.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that as if awareness is repentance.”
“It isn’t.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Julian said, “Check neonatal respiratory.”
I looked at Dr. Bennett.
“What?”
Julian repeated it.
“Neonatal respiratory services. Contractor. Catherine used the same vendor to access Clara’s old clinic records.”
Nina was already typing.
Dr. Bennett turned toward a security officer.
“Lock respiratory contractor access.”
The officer moved.
“How do you know?”
“Because I paid them once.”
“To access Clara’s records?”
“Yes.”
My anger flared.
“And Catherine took over the relationship.”
“Yes.”
“You built the weapon.”
“Yes.”
“She picked it up.”
“Yes.”
I hated the calmness of his admissions.
“Why are you helping now?”
His answer took too long.
“Because I saw Leo’s picture.”
I looked through the glass toward the moving incubator.
“That’s it?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“I heard Catherine call him leverage.”
His voice changed.
Something raw appeared beneath it.
“She used that word about me my whole life.”
I said nothing.
“She told me Richard would acknowledge me if I became impossible to ignore.”
“Our father was already dead when you joined Mercer.”
“Death doesn’t end the argument.”
No.
We had proved that thoroughly.
“Where are you?”
“Forty minutes away.”
“Police will be waiting.”
“I know.”
“Then surrender.”
“I will.”
I almost thought I had misheard.
“What?”
“After Leo is secure.”
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
“Then why come?”
“Because I know Catherine.”
“So do investigators.”
“Not the way I do.”
“What will she do?”
“She will create an emergency.”
“What kind?”
“Something that forces the hospital to move vulnerable patients.”
Fire.
Power.
Gas.
I looked at Nina.
She heard it too.
Hospital security began contacting facilities.
Julian continued.
“She doesn’t need to enter the NICU if she can make you bring Leo out.”
A cold understanding spread through me.
Evacuation.
Confusion.
Transport.
“What should we look for?”
“Fire systems. Oxygen alarms. Electrical.”
Dr. Bennett was already speaking into her phone.
Clara whispered, “Oh God.”
I took her hand.
“Julian.”
“Yes?”
“If you’re lying—”
“I’m not.”
“If anything happens to him—”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
His voice became quiet.
“I know exactly what it means to spend your childhood wondering why your father never came.”
That silenced me.
Then alarms sounded.
Not inside the NICU.
Farther down the corridor.
A mechanical voice came over the hospital speakers.
Code Red.
Third floor mechanical area.
Dr. Bennett froze.
We were on the third floor.
Smoke doors began closing automatically.
Nurses moved immediately.
No panic.
Procedures.
Check patients.
Secure oxygen.
Prepare horizontal evacuation if necessary.
Julian had predicted it.
Nina shouted through the phone.
“Liam, stay where you are.”
Smoke appeared faintly beyond the far corridor doors.
Clara gripped my arm.
“They’re going to move Leo.”
Dr. Bennett shook her head.
“Not yet.”
A security officer ran toward us.
“Fire department responding. We have a mechanical-room fire.”
“Accidental?” I asked.
“No idea.”
Then another officer’s radio crackled.
A woman wearing respiratory-services credentials had been seen entering a restricted stairwell.
My blood went cold.
“Catherine?”
“No identification yet.”
I looked at Julian’s active call.
“Where will she go?”
“Service elevator.”
“Why?”
“It connects to neonatal transport.”
Dr. Bennett turned sharply.
“There’s a loading corridor.”
Security moved.
Julian said, “Liam.”
“What?”
“Do not follow them.”
I almost laughed.
“You really don’t know me.”
“I know you better than you think.”
The line disconnected.
Smoke thickened beyond the doors.
A nurse began moving Clara back.
I stayed beside Leo’s incubator.
Then a woman in blue scrubs appeared through the opposite corridor.
Respiratory badge.
Mask.
Hair covered.
She pushed a transport cart.
For one second, nothing about her seemed wrong.
Then she looked directly at me.
Not at the nurses.
Not at the alarm.
At me.
She knew who I was.
Security shouted.
The woman abandoned the cart and ran.
An officer pursued.
Another blocked the stairwell.
She disappeared around the corner.
Then came shouting.
A crash.
Silence.
I waited.
Clara whispered my name.
Thirty seconds later, security returned.
Alone.
“She got through a service door.”
“Outside?”
“We don’t know.”
“What was on the cart?”
The officer looked toward Dr. Bennett.
“A transport incubator.”
Empty.
Prepared.
Waiting for my son.
I felt something inside me harden permanently.
This was no longer a hidden family dispute.
Catherine had come for Leo.
And Julian had been the only person who warned us in time.
Click here to continue reading: PART 20: Julian Walked Into the Hospital Ready to Surrender, but Catherine’s Next Move Revealed Which Child She Had Truly Been Hunting
The Call That Reached Me Minutes Before I Signed the Biggest Deal of My Career
Part 19 of 35
