Chapter 14 - The Lie Cole Wanted Them to Believe
“No,” Jax said.
Cole laughed softly through the phone. “Ask Hannah.”
“You’re lying.”
“Maybe. Bring the boy and find out.”
The line went dead.
Eli’s face had gone white.
“Is he my dad?”
Jax did not answer quickly enough.
Eli backed away. “Is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said Aaron is my dad.”
“Aaron raised you.”
“That’s not what I asked!”
The boy’s voice cracked across the bank lobby.
Jax knelt. “Cole lies when the truth doesn’t give him enough control.”
“But maybe this is true.”
“Yes,” Jax said. “Maybe.”
It hurt to say it, but Eli deserved truth, not comfort dressed as certainty.
Miriam had already opened her laptop.
“There may be a way to know.”
She pulled up an archived hospital investigation. The year Eli was born, a paternity sample had been collected during a custody dispute that never went to court.
“Hannah requested the test,” Miriam said.
“Result?”
“Sealed.”
“Can you get it?”
“Not legally in ten minutes.”
Darla said, “We’re past legal.”
Miriam gave her a look, then typed faster.
A minute later, a scanned lab summary appeared.
Jax read the line twice.
PATERNITY EXCLUDED: COLE MERCER.
He turned the screen toward Eli.
“Cole is not your father.”
Eli stared at the words.
“Then why say it?”
“To shake us.”
Miriam scrolled.
“There’s more.”
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: AARON CARTER — 99.9987%.
Eli covered his face and cried silently for the first time that night.
Jax sat beside him and waited.
After a moment, Eli leaned against him.
“My dad’s alive,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“We get him too.”
“Yes.”
No hesitation this time.
Miriam’s tactical team radioed. Twelve minutes out.
Cole’s deadline had three minutes left.
Jax stood.
“We stall.”
He called Cole again.
“I have the key,” Jax said. “But Eli isn’t coming.”
Cole sounded bored. “Then listen.”
A new audio feed opened.
Hannah’s voice.
“Jax, don’t—”
A sharp impact cut her off.
Eli lunged toward the phone.
“Mom!”
Cole came back on.
“North loading dock. Two minutes.”
Then Aaron’s voice appeared in the background, weak but clear.
“Jax! The ledger isn’t in the locker!”
A struggle.
A shout.
May you like
And Aaron yelled one final sentence before the call ended:
“IT’S INSIDE THE PHOTOGRAPH!”
