Chapter 3 - The Illness That Never Existed
Margaret Mercer had spent five years telling everyone she had early-onset dementia.
She forgot appointments, misplaced jewelry and wandered into neighbors’ yards. Gage managed her finances, signed her legal documents and used her illness to explain every cruel thing she said.
Whenever Margaret insulted Emily, Gage apologized afterward.
“Mom isn’t herself anymore.”
Whenever Margaret entered the couple’s bedroom without knocking or read Emily’s messages, he repeated the same excuse.
“She’s confused.”
Emily believed him until she found the medication.
The bottles in Margaret’s bathroom were not for dementia.
Most were vitamins. One contained low-dose anxiety medication prescribed years earlier. The newest bottle held sleeping pills Gage occasionally crushed into Margaret’s tea before medical appointments.
“He wanted the doctors to see her disoriented,” Emily told Detective Sarah Monroe at the hospital. “But at home, she remembered everything.”
Arthur sat beside his daughter’s bed while Dr. Patel examined the swelling around her ribs.
“Why would he fake his mother’s illness?” Arthur asked.
Emily looked toward the hospital door.
“The Mercer family trust.”
Gage’s grandfather had built a chain of hardware stores across Illinois. When he died, control passed to Margaret. Gage would inherit after she was declared permanently incapacitated.
“He wanted full control while she was alive,” Emily explained. “Margaret agreed because he promised she’d still have the money and none of the responsibility.”
Arthur’s face hardened. “So she knew.”
“She helped him fool the doctors.”
“Why?”
“Taxes. Lawsuits. Gage had made bad investments. They wanted to move the assets where creditors couldn’t reach them.”
Detective Monroe wrote nothing down. She simply watched Emily.
“How did Nora become involved?”
“She found financial records in the laundry room. Gage had used her name to open a company.”
Nora Rivera had worked for Margaret for four years. Gage used copies of her identification documents to register a cleaning business and funnel trust money through it.
When Nora confronted him, he threatened to accuse her of theft and have her deported.
“She’s a permanent resident,” Emily said. “But Gage told her he knew people.”
“Men like him survive because people believe their confidence,” Arthur said.
Emily looked at him.
“I believed it.”
“That isn’t your shame.”
Detective Monroe leaned forward. “Why did Gage attack you today?”
Emily’s hand tightened around the hospital blanket.
“Because I found the other phone.”
Gage kept a prepaid phone inside a locked desk drawer. Emily discovered it while searching for Nora’s passport.
It contained messages between Gage, Margaret and Evan Hale.
Arthur’s son.
Emily’s younger brother.
Arthur stood so fast that his chair struck the wall.
“Evan?”
Emily began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. Tell me.”
Evan owned a small construction company that was close to bankruptcy. Gage offered him work renovating Mercer properties, then gradually made him financially dependent.
The messages showed Evan reporting where Arthur went, when he spoke to Emily and whether he suspected abuse.
One message read:
Arthur asked about her wrist again. I told him she said it was an accident.
Another said:
Keep them angry at each other. If she goes home, we lose control.
Arthur sat down slowly.
His son had helped isolate his daughter.
Detective Monroe asked, “Did you preserve the phone?”
Emily shook her head. “Gage caught me with it. That’s when he hit me.”
“Where is it now?”
“Margaret hid it.”
At the police station, Margaret denied knowing anything about a second phone.
Her attorney insisted that dementia made her statements unreliable.
Gage used the same defense for her while claiming Emily had attacked him during a paranoid episode.
By Monday morning, his attorney had released carefully edited security footage showing Emily pushing Margaret away from the front door.
It did not show Margaret grabbing her hair moments earlier.
Local news stations described the case as a “violent family dispute at a prominent Lake Forest estate.”
Gage’s company issued a statement portraying him as a devoted husband and caregiver.
Several of Emily’s relatives called Arthur.
“Are you sure she isn’t confused?”
“Pregnancy can affect women emotionally.”
“Gage has always seemed respectful.”
Arthur stopped answering.
Evan came to the hospital on Tuesday.
He stood in the doorway with red eyes and an unshaven face.
“Dad.”
Arthur did not respond.
Emily turned toward the window.
Evan stepped closer.
“Gage said he needed to know whether you were planning to interfere. I never knew he was hitting her.”
Emily faced him.
“I told you.”
Evan looked confused.
“When?”
“At your daughter’s birthday party. I asked whether I could stay with you.”
His face collapsed.
“You said you and Gage had an argument.”
“I showed you my ribs.”
Evan swallowed.
“He told me you fell down the basement stairs.”
“And you believed him?”
“I needed the contract.”
Emily stared at her brother.
“You didn’t believe him. You needed to.”
Evan began crying.
Arthur stood between his children.
“Where is the phone?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were part of their messages.”
“Gage deleted the account before he was arrested.”
Detective Monroe entered carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was a badly damaged prepaid phone.
“Nora told us where Margaret hid it,” she said. “We recovered it from the mansion’s fireplace.”
Evan looked relieved.
The detective did not.
“The memory card is missing.”
Arthur turned toward his son.
Evan took one step backward.
“Dad, I swear—”
“Where is it?”
Evan’s silence answered before his words did.
“Gage gave it to me last week,” he whispered. “He said it was insurance.”
“Against whom?”
May you like
Evan looked at Emily.
“Against all of us.”
