Chapter 6
I called the twelve Mercy Table donors.
Not in a group.
One by one.
Russell hated that.
Good.
The first donor, Sebastian Crowe, answered cheerfully.
“Russell, another video?”
“No.”
Silence.
“It’s Serena.”
Longer silence.
I asked:
“What did you think you were funding?”
He tried to lie.
Then stopped.
“Relief.”
“How much?”
“Six hundred thousand.”
“What did Russell promise?”
Nothing at first.
Then:
“A seat when the advisory table returned.”
There.
“Did you know the crying boy was my son?”
“No.”
He sounded genuinely shocked.
Good distinction.
“When did you learn?”
“I didn’t.”
Interesting.
Russell had planned the reveal later.
Sebastian knew the videos were staged emotionally.
He did not know the child was Arthur.
Another donor knew even less.
A third knew much more.
Marcus Vale had been told.
He laughed when I introduced myself.
“You finally found the phone.”
That changed everything.
“You knew Arthur.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know food was withheld?”
Silence.
Enough.
“Why fund it?”
Marcus answered:
“Because you only listen when family becomes personal.”
My jaw tightened.
“You wanted me angry?”
“I wanted you cornered.”
There.
Some donors believed charity.
Some believed patronage.
Three knew the child was mine.
Two knew Russell intended to use the videos against me.
One had suggested making Arthur look thinner by changing his clothes.
I wrote down every distinction.
No collective innocence.
No collective guilt.
Then Marcus said something important.
“Your mother isn’t running this.”
I stopped.
“Who is?”
He laughed softly.
“You really think Russell invented donor tiers?”
I looked at my brother.
His face changed.
He heard Marcus through the speaker.
“Who?”
Marcus answered:
“Ask your mother who taught her to make children look poor.”
Doreen stood suddenly.
I turned.
She looked frightened in a way I had not seen all night.
Not of me.
Of a name.
“Mother?”
She whispered:
“Don’t.”
That word made me colder.
“Who?”
Russell looked confused.
Then Doreen said:
“Eleanor.”
My grandmother.
Doreen’s mother.
May you like
The woman I had been told died fifteen years earlier.
Except she apparently had not.
