Chapter 10: The Man Wearing My Face
I watched the video again.
The hospital corridor appeared on the monitor, grainy and washed out beneath the fluorescent lights. Vanessa stood beside the nursery window, holding a wristband between two fingers. Behind her, a man in a white coat turned toward the camera.
The identification badge on his chest carried my name.
*DR. DANIEL MERCER.*
My photograph.
My name.
A face that looked enough like mine to make my stomach turn.
“That isn't me,” I said.
Detective Collins paused the footage.
“Were you ever employed by St. Catherine's?””
“Never. I own a construction and property development company. I've never worked in medicine.””
“Have you ever had a brother?””
“No.””
“Any close relatives who resemble you?””
“My father had a younger brother. He died when I was a teenager. But he wasn't a doctor.””
Collins leaned toward the screen.
“Then someone deliberately used your identity.””
“Why?””
“That is what we need to establish.””
The forensic technician enlarged the reflection in the nursery glass. The man's face became clearer, revealing a narrow scar above his left eyebrow.
I touched my own forehead instinctively.
I had no scar.
But I remembered someone who did.
My father's younger brother, Michael.
Uncle Michael had disappeared from our lives when I was sixteen. My father told us he'd moved overseas after a bitter family dispute. Years later, we received news that he'd died in a boating accident.
I had never seen his body.
I had never questioned the story.
“Detective,” I said slowly, “I think I know who that man might be.””
Collins turned toward me.
“Who?””
“My uncle. Michael Mercer.””
He immediately requested photographs and available records.
While the officers worked, I called Rachel.
She answered from her hospital room, her voice still weak.
“Daniel? Is something wrong?””
“I need you to listen carefully. The video from the hospital shows a man wearing my identity. I think he may be my uncle.””
Rachel went silent.
Then she asked, “Was his name Michael?””
My blood ran cold.
“How do you know that?””
“I saw him once. Before Maya was born. Your father introduced him as a family friend because he said Michael was trying to keep a low profile.””
“Why didn't you tell me?””
“Because I didn't recognize him in the video at first. But I remember the scar. And I remember Vanessa looking frightened when he entered the room.””
I gripped the phone.
“What was he doing at the hospital?””
“I don't know. But your father told me afterward that Michael had helped him resolve a complicated inheritance matter.””
My mind raced.
An inheritance matter.
The altered birth records.
The hidden trust.
A man impersonating me.
“What else do you remember?””
Rachel hesitated.
“Your father once said Michael had been a medical student before he left the family. He never finished his training, but he knew enough about hospital procedures to understand how records could be manipulated.””
That explained the coat.
The badge.
Perhaps even the access.
It didn't explain why he had been involved in the birth of three children.
Or why my father-in-law had paid to hide the truth.
Before I could ask another question, Rachel whispered, “Daniel, you need to check something else.””
“What?””
“The night Maya was born, I remember hearing your voice outside my room.””
I frowned.
“I was there. Of course you heard my voice.””
“No.”” Her breathing quickened.
“I mean after the delivery. You had gone to speak to the doctor. I was half asleep, and I heard someone say my name. It sounded like you, but the voice was different.””
I stared at the screen.
The man in the white coat had my face and my name.
But he wasn't me.
“Rachel, do you think Michael was pretending to be me?””
“I don't know.””
She began to cry.
“But if he was, then someone may have used his presence to convince the hospital that you had authorized the changes.””
I ended the call and turned to Collins.
“We need to find Michael Mercer.””
The detective nodded.
“We're already checking the identity records connected to the badge. But there's another issue.””
He showed me a scanned document from the USB drive.
It was an authorization form granting a person named Daniel Mercer permission to access confidential neonatal records.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
It was a convincing forgery.
Except for one detail.
The signature included an unusual flourish I had stopped using years before the birth.
I had never signed the document.
Someone had copied my old signature from a financial contract.
“Can you prove the authorization was fraudulent?”” Collins asked.
“Yes. My bank and my company retain authenticated copies of my signatures. I'll provide them.””
“Good. We may be looking at identity fraud, document forgery, and interference with medical records.””
My phone rang.
An unknown number.
I answered cautiously.
A man's voice came through, low and raspy.
“Daniel Mercer?””
“Who is this?””
“You've been looking at old hospital footage.””
I signaled Collins to begin tracing the call.
“Who are you?””
“Someone who knows what happened to those babies.””
“Are you Michael Mercer?””
Silence.
Then a quiet laugh.
“Your father always said you were too curious for your own good.””
My blood turned to ice.
“Michael?””
“Don't use that name again.””
“Where are you?””
“Doesn't matter. Listen carefully. Vanessa isn't the person who started this. She's only the person who decided to profit from it.””
“Who started it?””
“My brother. Your father.””
I gripped the phone.
“My father is dead.””
“Dead men leave living children to clean up their messes.””
“Why did you impersonate me?””
“Because someone had to take responsibility for what happened.””
“You changed those children's records?””
“I corrected a mistake.””
“Which mistake?””
“The one that put the wrong child in the wrong family.””
I felt sick.
“Tell me which girl belongs to whom.””
“Not over the phone.””
“Then meet me.””
“I will. Tomorrow morning. The old Mercer estate, outside Hartford. Come alone.””
“I'm not coming alone.””
“Then you'll never learn why your father paid to keep one of those children alive.””
The call ended.
Collins stared at me.
“Did he say alive?””
“Yes.””
The detective immediately dispatched officers to secure the estate.
But as we left the station, another message appeared on my phone.
It contained a photograph of Maya sleeping beside Rachel in the hospital bed.
The caption read:
*If you want your daughter safe, stop asking questions.*
I called the hospital security desk.
They confirmed that no unauthorized person had entered Rachel's room.
But someone had accessed the patient portal using a stolen staff credential.
Collins ordered an immediate security review.
I returned to the hospital and found Maya awake, sitting beside her mother's bed.
She looked up at me.
“Daddy, are we going home soon?””
I knelt beside her.
“Yes, sweetheart. As soon as the doctors say Mommy is ready.””
She hesitated.
“Will Vanessa be there?””
“No.””
“Will the man from the video come?””
I froze.
“What man?””
Maya looked at Rachel.
Rachel's face had gone white.
“The man in the white coat,” Maya whispered.
“I saw him in a dream. He was standing outside the locked door, calling Mommy by her name.””
Rachel covered her mouth.
I took Maya's hand.
“Did you ever see him before?””
She nodded.
“Once. When Vanessa took me to the hospital last year. He gave me a candy and told me I looked just like my daddy.””
My heart hammered.
“What did he look like?””
Maya closed her eyes, concentrating.
“He had a little scar above his eyebrow.””
I looked at Rachel.
Then at Detective Collins, who had just entered the room.
My uncle Michael was not merely a figure in an old video.
He had been near my daughter.
May you like
And if he had been watching her for years, then the secret surrounding her birth was no longer just a question of inheritance.
It was a threat that had never truly gone away.
