The Boy Called Colin Reed
Chapter 03 - The Boy Called Colin Reed
For eighteen months, Caleb had lived under the name Colin Reed at Briarwood Youth Recovery Center.
The facility told him Daniel had died in a plane crash and Lily no longer remembered him.
Whenever he insisted his name was Caleb Mercer, doctors recorded identity delusion.
His original records disappeared.
A therapist named Mara Chen secretly believed him.
She found photographs online and noticed that the missing Mercer boy had the same small scar above his eyebrow.
Mara helped Caleb remember details no impostor would know.
The blue mark beneath the nursery window.
The hidden drawer in Daniel’s desk.
The three-note whistle Amelia taught both children.
Six weeks before the renovation, Mara attempted to contact Daniel.
Briarwood fired her.
Caleb was moved to another building.
Two days before Daniel returned from Toronto, Victoria arrived personally.
She told Caleb his father had finally learned the truth.
She brought him to Mercer House through an old service entrance at night.
Caleb expected to see Daniel.
Instead, Victor Shaw, the family attorney, placed him inside the chamber and said a medical evaluation had to happen first.
Victoria promised it would last one evening.
Then workers installed the new floor above him.
The room contained a speaker through which Dr. Paul Mercer—Victoria’s cousin—asked Caleb to agree that his memories were unreliable.
Caleb refused.
The biometric scanner remained unsigned.
When he heard Lily walking above, he used the whistle.
At first she thought the sound came from the pipes.
Then he tapped the pattern of their childhood game.
Two taps meant yes.
One meant no.
Three meant find Dad.
Lily waited until Daniel returned because every adult in the house answered to Victoria.
Daniel held Caleb’s hand in the hospital room.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Caleb looked at him.
“Did you stop looking?”
May you like
Daniel could not soften the truth.
“Yes. Too soon.”
