Chapter 9 - The Other Lucas MercerRachel stabilized after Nathan administered emergency medication.
The implant remained in place because removing it without imaging could destroy evidence or release another dose.
Before losing consciousness, she had said there was another Lucas.
Miriam finally explained.
Hawthorne created backup identities for major trust beneficiaries. If a real heir became uncooperative, a trained substitute could appear briefly to sign documents, attend hearings, or confirm medical statements.
The substitute did not need to live the person’s entire life.
He only needed to survive official scrutiny long enough to transfer control.
A man resembling Lucas had been trained for six years.
His original name was Aaron Cole.
Nathan stared at Miriam.
“My brother?”
Nathan’s younger brother disappeared at age nineteen after a motorcycle crash. The family believed he died in the hospital.
No body was viewed.
Hawthorne listed him as a successful identity candidate because his bone structure resembled photographs of Lucas’s father.
After surgery and years of behavioral training, Aaron could pass as Lucas during controlled appearances.
Nathan became a patient at Hawthorne after discovering a recent image of him.
The memory-treatment program erased most of that discovery.
Lucas looked at the doctor.
“You’ve been treating Walter while your brother was being trained to replace me.”
Nathan’s face collapsed.
“I didn’t know.”
Again, ignorance had been manufactured.
The live St. Catherine’s feed changed.
Helena Ward brought a man into the archive corridor.
He had Lucas’s height, hair, and facial structure.
The resemblance was close enough to disturb every person watching.
The man wore Lucas’s coat.
He carried a copy of Lucas’s wallet.
The real Evelyn remained restrained nearby.
Derek stood beside the silver suitcase, increasingly desperate.
Helena addressed the substitute.
“Sign the incapacity confirmation. Walter becomes sole patient guardian. Gregory receives temporary estate control.”
The substitute hesitated.
“My name is Aaron.”
Helena’s expression hardened.
“Your name is whatever keeps you alive.”
Nathan stepped toward the screen.
“Aaron.”
The substitute looked toward the hidden camera as though he heard something.
The transmission had no two-way audio.
Yet he touched his ear.
A small implant sat behind it.
Miriam explained that Hawthorne instructors could feed scripted responses directly through a receiver.
Aaron had begun resisting.
That made him dangerous to Helena.
Walter gave the signet ring to Lucas.
“You must open the archive before Helena uses him.”
Lucas stared.
“You built the key around blood?”
“A biometric pattern and the ring’s encrypted core.”
“Then Aaron cannot open it.”
“He doesn’t need to. He only needs to sign that you surrendered your rights.”
Evelyn’s real legal credentials could authenticate the filing if Helena forced her.
Derek’s stolen access codes could bypass the first security layer.
Every piece was in place except Walter.
The psychiatric warrant outside the mansion was designed to transfer him to St. Catherine’s legally.
Lucas understood the trap.
Hawthorne did not need to kidnap Walter.
It needed the law to deliver him.
The federal agents arranged an independent medical transport under their supervision. Walter agreed to go because refusing the warrant would strengthen Gregory’s claim that he was unstable.
Lucas accompanied him.
Eleanor remained with Rachel and Nathan.
Pamela begged to stay near her daughter.
Gregory demanded access to his father.
Walter refused.
As the ambulance left the mansion, Lucas looked through the rear window.
Gregory stood beneath the lights beside Pamela.
For the first time, he looked frightened rather than powerful.
Then Lucas noticed a figure at the upstairs window.
Derek.
He had been shown inside St. Catherine’s minutes earlier.
Yet someone wearing his clothes now stood inside the mansion.
Hawthorne had another substitute.
Or the live feed had been manipulated.
Lucas reached for his phone.
The ambulance doors locked automatically.
The driver turned off the main road before reaching St. Catherine’s.
Walter looked toward the front.
“That is not the hospital route.”
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The attendant beside them removed a syringe.
👉 Hawthorne’s substitute network reached beyond Lucas, and the supposedly protected ambulance became another controlled transfer before they ever reached the archive.
