{"id":9471,"date":"2026-09-11T16:18:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9471"},"modified":"2026-09-11T16:18:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:18:50","slug":"part-14-daniel-finally-admitted-why-anna-vale-was-followed-that-night-but-his-confession-exposed-the-research-program-mercer-had-buried-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9471","title":{"rendered":"PART 14 \u2013 Daniel Finally Admitted Why Anna Vale Was Followed That Night, but His Confession Exposed the Research Program Mercer Had Buried for Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Reeves was twenty-two when Anna Vale died.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca had always imagined him entering her life as the middle-aged supervisor who gave her access to accounts and later helped construct the financial trap around her.<\/p>\n<p>Now she saw his younger face in an employment photograph.<\/p>\n<p>Thin.<\/p>\n<p>Clean-shaven.<\/p>\n<p>Almost boyish.<\/p>\n<p>A junior driver for a research contractor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe looks younger than Sophie,\u201d Rebecca said.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie stood behind her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make what he did smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel\u2019s attorney requested immunity before any interview about Anna.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors refused.<\/p>\n<p>They offered only to consider cooperation when evaluating charges.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel talked anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps age had changed his calculations.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the reopened evidence made denial impossible.<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps he had spent fifty-six years waiting for someone to ask the right question.<\/p>\n<p>His recorded interview lasted nearly six hours.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca watched every minute.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel said the research program had been called Project Meridian.<\/p>\n<p>The name immediately connected to Meridian Health Logistics, the company that later purchased pieces of Rebecca\u2019s former employer.<\/p>\n<p>Project Meridian had begun as a legitimate study involving preservation and transport of biological materials.<\/p>\n<p>The work itself was not inherently criminal.<\/p>\n<p>The problem came later.<\/p>\n<p>Private investors realized the logistics network could move restricted experimental samples across jurisdictions while disguising them as ordinary medical shipments.<\/p>\n<p>Some samples were obtained without proper consent.<\/p>\n<p>Others were transferred between institutions without authorization.<\/p>\n<p>Records were altered.<\/p>\n<p>Invoices were falsified.<\/p>\n<p>Money followed.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Vale worked in one of the laboratories processing samples.<\/p>\n<p>At first she believed discrepancies were clerical.<\/p>\n<p>Then she found consent forms bearing signatures that did not match patient records.<\/p>\n<p>She began copying documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was doing what Mom did,\u201d Sophie said.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca nodded.<\/p>\n<p>Decades apart, biological mother and daughter had encountered the same pattern.<\/p>\n<p>Numbers that did not fit.<\/p>\n<p>Questions people did not want asked.<\/p>\n<p>Anna contacted Charles Mercer because she trusted him.<\/p>\n<p>They had been involved romantically for almost a year.<\/p>\n<p>She told him she was pregnant.<\/p>\n<p>She also told him about the research violations.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer responded to the pregnancy with secrecy.<\/p>\n<p>He responded to the evidence with fear.<\/p>\n<p>According to Daniel, Mercer initially tried to persuade Anna to destroy her copies.<\/p>\n<p>She refused.<\/p>\n<p>Then she contacted Helen Ward.<\/p>\n<p>Why Helen?<\/p>\n<p>Because Helen\u2019s logistics company had transported several suspicious shipments.<\/p>\n<p>Anna believed Helen might unknowingly possess records proving the containers had been mislabeled.<\/p>\n<p>Helen agreed to meet.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting never happened.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel was ordered to follow Anna that night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrdered by whom?\u201d the detective asked.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel stared at the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid he tell you to hurt her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat exactly did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeep her from reaching Helen until he could talk to her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe didn\u2019t specify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel followed Anna from the laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>Another employee drove.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel sat in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n<p>When Anna realized she was being followed, she accelerated.<\/p>\n<p>The roads were wet.<\/p>\n<p>The driver pulled alongside.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel claimed he shouted at him to back off.<\/p>\n<p>Instead the driver attempted to force Anna toward the shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>Their vehicles touched.<\/p>\n<p>Anna lost control.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel\u2019s voice broke when he described the crash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t mean for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca paused the recording.<\/p>\n<p>The sentence echoed Marlene.<\/p>\n<p>That was never supposed to happen.<\/p>\n<p>People repeatedly described catastrophe as if unintended consequences absolved deliberate intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie said, \u201cPlay it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca resumed.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel and the driver panicked.<\/p>\n<p>They did not stop.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Nolan did.<\/p>\n<p>Anna survived long enough to reach St. Matthew\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer arrived after receiving a call from hospital staff because he was listed as her emergency contact.<\/p>\n<p>When he learned Anna\u2019s baby had survived, he faced two dangers.<\/p>\n<p>The first was personal.<\/p>\n<p>Paternity.<\/p>\n<p>The second was criminal.<\/p>\n<p>Anna might have hidden evidence somewhere connected to the infant\u2019s belongings or medical transfer.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer searched.<\/p>\n<p>He found nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Then Helen arrived following the refrigerated shipment.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital became a collision point for every secret.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor Ward arrived in premature labor.<\/p>\n<p>Anna\u2019s daughter and Eleanor\u2019s daughter were born hours apart.<\/p>\n<p>Judith confused the records.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer discovered the mistake.<\/p>\n<p>And rather than correct it, he recognized an opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stopped the recording again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe used me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz nodded.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer could allow Anna\u2019s daughter to leave under another identity.<\/p>\n<p>Any evidence tied to Anna\u2019s child would become difficult to trace.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Eleanor and David\u2019s daughter could be adopted under Anna\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n<p>Two families would unknowingly carry the wrong paper trails.<\/p>\n<p>The confusion protected Mercer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about the research samples?\u201d Sophie asked.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel\u2019s interview eventually reached them.<\/p>\n<p>The final refrigerated shipment contained preserved tissue and experimental biological materials collected from patients across several hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>Some had consented to research.<\/p>\n<p>Some had not.<\/p>\n<p>The second ledger documented the mismatch.<\/p>\n<p>Helen understood enough to threaten exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer threatened her family.<\/p>\n<p>The fight lasted years.<\/p>\n<p>Then Helen died.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca asked, \u201cNatural causes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz answered carefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo evidence suggests otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca accepted that.<\/p>\n<p>Not every death needed another hidden hand.<\/p>\n<p>Helen\u2019s death did something more ordinary and equally effective.<\/p>\n<p>It fragmented the resistance.<\/p>\n<p>David chose silence.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas withdrew.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer continued.<\/p>\n<p>Project Meridian formally ended.<\/p>\n<p>Its financial architecture did not.<\/p>\n<p>Shell companies remained.<\/p>\n<p>Vendor networks remained.<\/p>\n<p>People who learned to hide one kind of transaction discovered they could hide others.<\/p>\n<p>By the time Rebecca worked for the medical company, the old research conspiracy had evolved into straightforward financial theft.<\/p>\n<p>But the people involved still feared Helen\u2019s records.<\/p>\n<p>Then Thomas tried to enforce the trust.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer learned Rebecca might gain inspection rights.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel was ordered to solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>He expanded Rebecca\u2019s access.<\/p>\n<p>He positioned suspicious transactions where she would find them.<\/p>\n<p>He arranged for Northstar Consulting to use Helen Ward\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n<p>If Rebecca remained quiet, the theft continued.<\/p>\n<p>If she reported it, evidence could be redirected toward her.<\/p>\n<p>Either outcome protected the older network.<\/p>\n<p>Instead Rebecca copied records and kept investigating.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer ordered surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie became leverage.<\/p>\n<p>Marlene entered the picture.<\/p>\n<p>Everything escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel claimed he never expected Rebecca to be imprisoned.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca watched him say it.<\/p>\n<p>This time she did not feel rage.<\/p>\n<p>Only clarity.<\/p>\n<p>He had followed Anna.<\/p>\n<p>He had helped frighten Eleanor and David.<\/p>\n<p>He had framed Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>He had known Sophie was being monitored.<\/p>\n<p>Whether he personally locked the basement door was almost irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>His choices built the hallway leading to it.<\/p>\n<p>The detective asked Daniel why he never exposed Mercer.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause he knew what I did the night Anna died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blackmail again.<\/p>\n<p>Judith feared exposure for the switched records.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel feared prosecution for the crash.<\/p>\n<p>David feared losing Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor feared endangering Emily.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas feared reopening the family conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Marlene feared Daniel until money became more useful than fear.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer did not control people because they trusted him.<\/p>\n<p>He controlled them because each person carried one secret they believed would destroy them if exposed.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie whispered, \u201cThat\u2019s how he kept everyone separate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca nodded.<\/p>\n<p>Shame worked best in isolation.<\/p>\n<p>The moment people compared stories, Mercer\u2019s power weakened.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel provided investigators with something new.<\/p>\n<p>A storage location.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer had maintained an off-site archive for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel had delivered boxes there as recently as twelve years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>The property belonged to a legal-services company controlled through a trust.<\/p>\n<p>A warrant followed.<\/p>\n<p>Inside, investigators found shelves of files.<\/p>\n<p>Not hundreds.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands.<\/p>\n<p>Project Meridian records.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Surveillance reports.<\/p>\n<p>Hospital correspondence.<\/p>\n<p>Legal memoranda.<\/p>\n<p>Files on Helen.<\/p>\n<p>David.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>Emily.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca\u2019s file alone filled three boxes.<\/p>\n<p>She was not allowed to review everything immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Foster showed her an index.<\/p>\n<p>One section was labeled WARD CONTROL.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stared at the phrase.<\/p>\n<p>Another read HART MONITORING.<\/p>\n<p>A third read VULNERABILITIES.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie\u2019s name appeared beneath it.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca pushed the index away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie picked it up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t need to read how they evaluated you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie\u2019s expression tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs that your decision?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca heard herself.<\/p>\n<p>She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The correction hurt.<\/p>\n<p>But it mattered.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie read.<\/p>\n<p>The surveillance notes documented school schedules, friendships, routines and emotional responses.<\/p>\n<p>One report described Chloe as \u201cprimary peer attachment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chloe stared at it when Sophie showed her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is the creepiest way anyone has ever called me your best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie almost laughed.<\/p>\n<p>Another report recommended avoiding direct harm to Sophie because \u201cvisible injury may trigger maternal noncompliance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca felt sick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were studying how to control me through you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Marlene hurt you anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The file included complaints from Daniel about Marlene becoming unpredictable.<\/p>\n<p>It also contained a memo from Mercer.<\/p>\n<p>If control deteriorates, terminate operation and remove Rebecca from jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz read it twice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does \u2018remove\u2019 mean?\u201d Chloe asked.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody wanted to answer.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel was questioned.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed Mercer planned to relocate Rebecca under fabricated medical circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>A private facility had been identified.<\/p>\n<p>Once there, she could be declared unstable.<\/p>\n<p>Her accusations about financial fraud would be dismissed as delusional.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie\u2019s face went white.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow close did they get?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz looked at the dates.<\/p>\n<p>The memo was written two days before the spring fair.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stared at Chloe.<\/p>\n<p>Two days.<\/p>\n<p>If Chloe had not kept speaking, if Sophie had not dropped the backpack, if Rebecca had allowed Marlene to take her home, the plan might have moved forward.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca thought of all the times people later called the rescue lucky.<\/p>\n<p>Luck had played a role.<\/p>\n<p>But so had resistance.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie resisting silence.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe resisting dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca resisting the confession.<\/p>\n<p>Helen resisting Mercer decades earlier.<\/p>\n<p>None knew the whole picture.<\/p>\n<p>Each had simply refused the easiest lie.<\/p>\n<p>The archive contained one more folder marked ANNA V.<\/p>\n<p>Inside were copies of Anna\u2019s laboratory notes.<\/p>\n<p>The originals were missing.<\/p>\n<p>But one page contained a handwritten list of sample identification numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Foster compared them with the second ledger.<\/p>\n<p>Several matched.<\/p>\n<p>One number did not.<\/p>\n<p>AV-14.<\/p>\n<p>Beside it Anna had written:<\/p>\n<p>PERSONAL \u2014 DO NOT RELEASE.<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz asked Daniel what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed not to know.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators searched the archive inventory.<\/p>\n<p>AV-14 appeared again in a transfer log dated the night of Anna\u2019s crash.<\/p>\n<p>Destination:<\/p>\n<p>ST. MATTHEW\u2019S MATERNITY.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas it a sample from Anna?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPossibly,\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat kind?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Sophie remembered Margaret Bell\u2019s description.<\/p>\n<p>The second coded bracelet placed on newborn Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>Letters and numbers.<\/p>\n<p>A research code.<\/p>\n<p>AV.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Vale.<\/p>\n<p>Fourteen.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca\u2019s birth date.<\/p>\n<p>The unidentified hospital bracelet may not have been identifying Rebecca as a research subject.<\/p>\n<p>It may have connected her to something Anna had deliberately hidden.<\/p>\n<p>Foster searched the newly recovered archive.<\/p>\n<p>A memo from Mercer mentioned \u201cmissing AV material.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another ordered staff to locate \u201cthe Vale personal specimen before discharge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca whispered, \u201cThey thought Anna hid something with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz nodded.<\/p>\n<p>That might explain why Mercer came to Eleanor\u2019s room twice.<\/p>\n<p>He was searching for whatever Anna had marked personal.<\/p>\n<p>But if he never found it, where had it gone?<\/p>\n<p>Margaret Bell was contacted again.<\/p>\n<p>When shown the code AV-14, she became visibly emotional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca leaned toward the screen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you remember?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bracelet wasn\u2019t on the baby when she came from delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen was it added?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy whom?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Margaret thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnna\u2019s nurse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said it belonged with the child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she give anything else?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Margaret closed her eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA little cloth pouch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stopped breathing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened to it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave it to Eleanor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was inside?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never looked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca searched her memories of her mother\u2019s belongings.<\/p>\n<p>A cloth pouch.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Then Emily spoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone turned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Eleanor approached me in the park, she was holding something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Emily had forgotten because it seemed insignificant.<\/p>\n<p>A small faded pouch with a drawstring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe kept rubbing it between her fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stared at her.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor had carried Anna\u2019s hidden object when she went to meet Emily.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps she intended to give it to her.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps fear stopped her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she take it when she left?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Emily frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sewing box had contained tapes.<\/p>\n<p>No pouch.<\/p>\n<p>The wall box contained letters.<\/p>\n<p>No pouch.<\/p>\n<p>They searched Eleanor\u2019s belongings again.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Then Sophie found a clue in the final cassette transcript.<\/p>\n<p>Near the end, Eleanor said:<\/p>\n<p>Some things should not be kept where people search for secrets. I put Anna\u2019s last gift somewhere Rebecca only looks when she is remembering joy.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca read the sentence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemembering joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie looked around the apartment.<\/p>\n<p>Photographs.<\/p>\n<p>Albums.<\/p>\n<p>Keepsakes.<\/p>\n<p>Then Chloe pointed toward a framed picture on the bookshelf.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca and Eleanor baking together when Rebecca was ten.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca picked it up.<\/p>\n<p>The frame had belonged to her mother.<\/p>\n<p>Its backing was unusually thick.<\/p>\n<p>Inside, folded behind the photograph, was a faded cloth pouch.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca\u2019s knees weakened.<\/p>\n<p>Foster opened it under controlled conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Inside was a small glass vial sealed in protective wrapping.<\/p>\n<p>And a tightly folded piece of paper.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Vale\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n<p>If anything happens to me, this proves the samples were taken without consent.<\/p>\n<p>The vial contained preserved biological material.<\/p>\n<p>Not from Anna.<\/p>\n<p>From a patient identified only by initials.<\/p>\n<p>The accompanying note listed a research number.<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz searched the Project Meridian files.<\/p>\n<p>The patient was still alive.<\/p>\n<p>A former participant who had spent fifty-six years believing a medical procedure performed at St. Matthew\u2019s had been routine.<\/p>\n<p>Anna\u2019s hidden specimen could prove Project Meridian\u2019s crimes against actual patients.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, prosecutors had physical evidence linking Mercer\u2019s old research conspiracy to a specific nonconsensual collection.<\/p>\n<p>The case was no longer merely about falsified records, financial theft or obstruction.<\/p>\n<p>There were living victims.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca stared at the tiny vial her biological mother had protected.<\/p>\n<p>Anna had died trying to expose the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor had preserved it.<\/p>\n<p>Helen had preserved the records.<\/p>\n<p>And without knowing any of it, Rebecca had spent her own life following the same instinct.<\/p>\n<p>Ask why the numbers do not match.<\/p>\n<p>Ask why someone is afraid of a question.<\/p>\n<p>Ask what everyone else has agreed not to notice.<\/p>\n<p>Foster\u2019s phone rang.<\/p>\n<p>She listened.<\/p>\n<p>Then looked toward Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMercer has requested a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca felt nothing at first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith prosecutors?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foster shook her head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie stood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca looked at her daughter.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie\u2019s face hardened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe doesn\u2019t get to summon you after all this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca understood.<\/p>\n<p>But she also understood something else.<\/p>\n<p>Mercer had spent fifty-six years deciding who knew what, when they knew it, and what fear would keep them silent.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca was finished letting him control the terms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sophie stared at her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca looked at Anna\u2019s vial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause this time, he doesn\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9472\">Click here to continue reading: PART 15: Mercer Expected Rebecca to Ask Why He Abandoned Her, but She Asked About Anna Instead and Finally Broke His Carefully Practiced Story<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Reeves was twenty-two when Anna Vale died. Rebecca had always imagined him entering her life as the middle-aged supervisor who gave her access to accounts and later helped construct &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9491,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9471\/revisions\/9491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}