Chapter 11
Sarah did not want to come to the Mercer estate immediately.
I respected that.
I wanted guards.
She accepted two.
I wanted her near me.
She chose a small house on Mercer land with its own gate.
Compromise.
New for both of us.
Lily refused to let me return her $11.40.
“It’s mine.”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
“I have to pay you for the formula.”
“No.”
Her face tightened.
“I said I would.”
“I know.”
“When I’m grown.”
I almost smiled.
“You can repay me another way.”
She looked suspicious.
“How?”
“Eat breakfast tomorrow.”
She frowned.
“That’s not paying.”
“To me it is.”
She thought about it.
Then nodded reluctantly.
Sarah watched from the doorway.
“She doesn’t like owing people.”
“I noticed.”
Sarah looked at me.
“Neither do I.”
There was the Mercer blood.
Not authority.
Stubbornness.
I sat across from her later.
“Why didn’t you come after our father died?”
“Vincent.”
“Only him?”
She looked at me.
“No.”
That hurt before she explained.
“I watched you become him.”
My face tightened.
“From where?”
“News. People. Stories.”
“What did you hear?”
“That Daniel Mercer was cold. Dangerous. Unforgiving.”
“True.”
She almost smiled.
“I know.”
“Then?”
“I didn’t know whether there was room beside that man for a sister nobody asked for.”
I looked away.
Fair.
Then Sarah continued.
“Mom thought there was.”
My head turned.
“Our mother?”
Sarah nodded.
“She visited me.”
My breath stopped.
“How long?”
“Until she died.”
I had mourned my mother believing I knew every important relationship in her life.
Apparently she spent years quietly loving the daughter my father could not publicly claim.
Sarah reached into a drawer.
Then placed an envelope in front of me.
My mother’s handwriting.
Daniel, when you finally meet your sister, don’t punish her for surviving our mistakes.
May you like
I closed my eyes.
Even dead, my mother knew exactly where my pride would go first.
