Chapter 5 - The Night Jonathan Collapsed
Lila laughed.
It sounded wrong in the archive room.
"No."
Richard did not move.
"Your mother was a Mercer by blood."
Jonathan released his coat.
"Whose daughter?"
Richard looked at Lila.
Then away.
"Not here."
Lila stepped in front of the door.
"Here."
Richard's jaw tightened.
"My daughter."
Silence.
Lila stared.
Jonathan whispered, "Anna was your daughter."
"Yes."
"Then why was her name Hart?"
"Her mother married someone else."
"Did Anna know?"
"Eventually."
Lila's hands went cold.
Her mother had spent a lifetime protecting her children from poverty while her biological father sat inside a corporate empire.
"When did you tell her?"
"After the plant accident."
"Why then?"
Richard did not answer.
Jonathan did.
"Because she had leverage."
Richard looked at him.
Jonathan's face hardened.
"You told her the truth to control her."
"I tried to help her."
Lila's voice rose.
"You watched us sleep in shelters."
Richard flinched.
"I offered money."
"She refused it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because she wanted me to confess."
"About the leak."
"About all of it."
Jonathan sat at the table.
His body looked heavier.
"What exactly happened that night?"
Richard rubbed his eyes.
"A solvent containment valve failed."
"How many exposed?"
"We did not know initially."
"Later."
Richard said nothing.
Jonathan slammed his palm down.
"How many?"
"Hundreds."
Lila's stomach dropped.
"The report said five."
"The public report."
Jonathan stared.
"Civilians?"
"Nearby residents. Contractors. Workers."
"Children?"
Richard looked away.
That was an answer too.
Lila opened another file.
BM-17 intake.
Names redacted.
She held Anna's bracelet beside it.
Same blue stripe.
Jonathan rubbed his wrist unconsciously.
He remembered now.
A blue band.
A private hospital room.
His father telling him he had passed out from dehydration.
William laughing when Jonathan asked why a toxicologist had visited.
"Executive insurance," his father had said.
Jonathan looked at Richard.
"My annual bloodwork."
Richard's face tightened.
"What about it?"
"Was that BM-17 monitoring?"
Silence.
Jonathan stood.
"Was it?"
"Yes."
His chair fell backward.
Lila caught it before it hit the floor.
Jonathan stared at his own hands.
"Nine years."
Richard nodded.
"Your father wanted to be certain."
"Certain of what?"
"That you were healthy."
Jonathan laughed bitterly.
"Without telling me why."
Richard said, "William loved you."
Jonathan looked up.
"That sentence does not help you."
Lila searched the incident box again.
A tiny folded image slid from Anna's bracelet envelope.
A photo.
Jonathan unconscious on concrete.
Anna beside him.
On the back:
HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HIS FATHER DID.
Beneath it, another line.
THE LIST IS IN THE BAND.
Lila stared.
"The band."
She pulled Anna's bracelet from her pocket.
The clasp felt too thick.
Jonathan noticed.
"Don't force it."
He found a small precision knife.
Cut the plastic seam.
Something slid onto the table.
A strip of microfilm.
Richard went white.
"No."
Lila looked at him.
"You knew."
"Anna said she destroyed it."
Jonathan held the strip to the light.
Tiny rows.
Patient codes.
Names.
Exposure levels.
He reached for an old magnifier.
The first clear line made his hand stop.
MERCER, JONATHAN - BM-17.
Lila looked at him.
Jonathan whispered:
May you like
"My father put me on the same list he buried."
CUT.
