CHAPTER 4: THE LITTLE YELLOW NOTEBOOK
CHAPTER 4: THE LITTLE YELLOW NOTEBOOK
The ICU was unnaturally quiet.
Machines breathed for Eli.
Monitors measured every heartbeat.
The six-year-old lay impossibly still beneath white hospital blankets, his dark hair matted where surgeons had shaved part of his head.
Dominic stood outside the glass window for nearly an hour.
He couldn't force himself to go inside.
He had faced assassins.
Federal investigations.
Cartel wars.
Yet opening one hospital door terrified him more than any bullet ever had.
Finally, a nurse approached.
"Mr. Mercer?"
He looked up.
"You can see him."
Dominic hesitated.
"I... don't know if I should."
The nurse smiled gently.
"Sometimes children hear familiar voices, even while unconscious."
Dominic almost laughed.
"I'm not familiar."
The nurse didn't know what to say.
Neither did Dominic.
He walked in anyway.
Eli looked even smaller surrounded by machines.
Dominic pulled a chair beside the bed.
For several minutes...
He simply watched the little boy breathe.
Then he noticed something tucked beneath the pillow.
A worn blue notebook.
The nurse explained,
"His mother said he carries it everywhere."
Dominic carefully picked it up.
Construction-paper cover.
Crayon drawings.
Across the front, in uneven handwriting, were the words:
MY DAD BOOK
Dominic's heart stopped.
He slowly opened it.
The first page contained a child's drawing.
A tall man.
A little boy.
Holding hands.
Above them...
A badly drawn sun wearing sunglasses.
Written underneath:
One day I will meet my daddy.
Dominic swallowed hard.
He turned the page.
Another drawing.
The same man.
This time wearing a cape.
"My daddy is probably brave."
Next page.
"My mommy says Daddy helps people."
Another.
"I hope Daddy likes dinosaurs."
Dominic looked toward the plastic green dinosaur now resting on the bedside table.
The toy recovered from the street.
His vision blurred.
He turned one more page.
This one wasn't a drawing.
It was a letter.
Written with obvious help from an adult.
Dear Daddy,
Mommy says you don't know I exist.
I don't think that's your fault.
If you ever find me, I won't be mad.
We can eat pizza.
Love,
Eli.
A tear landed on the paper.
Dominic stared at it in disbelief.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried.
Perhaps he never had.
Not like this.
He leaned forward, took Eli's tiny hand in his own, and whispered,
"I'm here now."
Outside the room...
Clara watched through the glass.
And for the first time since the accident...
She saw not the ruthless man she had fled seven years ago—
But a father mourning the childhood he had never been allowed to live.
Just then, Marcus hurried down the hallway, his face grim.
"Dom."
Dominic stepped outside.
"What is it?"
Marcus lowered his voice.
"We have a problem."
"What happened?"
"Our people intercepted information."
He paused.
"Someone tried to access Eli's hospital records."
Dominic's expression hardened instantly.
"Who?"
Marcus looked toward the elevators.
"The request originated from inside the Mercer organization."
A long silence followed.
Dominic already knew the answer before Marcus spoke it.
"It came directly from Victor."
Dominic looked back through the ICU window at his sleeping son.
Then toward the elevators where his father had disappeared.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"Double the security."
Marcus nodded.
"And my father?"
Dominic's eyes became ice.
"If Victor Mercer comes within twenty feet of that child..."
"...he no longer enters as the head of the family."
Marcus understood immediately.
May you like
"He enters as the enemy."
The war inside the Mercer family had officially begun.
