diff --git a/kmod/src/btree.c b/kmod/src/btree.c
index 7a21afc7..1a2d85e9 100644
--- a/kmod/src/btree.c
+++ b/kmod/src/btree.c
@@ -2183,6 +2183,8 @@ static int merge_read_item(struct super_block *sb, struct scoutfs_key *key, u64
 		if (ret > 0) {
 			if (ret == SCOUTFS_DELTA_COMBINED) {
 				scoutfs_inc_counter(sb, btree_merge_delta_combined);
+				if (seq > found->seq)
+					found->seq = seq;
 			} else if (ret == SCOUTFS_DELTA_COMBINED_NULL) {
 				scoutfs_inc_counter(sb, btree_merge_delta_null);
 				free_mitem(rng, found);
diff --git a/kmod/src/forest.c b/kmod/src/forest.c
index 306f4841..41e99008 100644
--- a/kmod/src/forest.c
+++ b/kmod/src/forest.c
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 #include "hash.h"
 #include "srch.h"
 #include "counters.h"
+#include "triggers.h"
 #include "xattr.h"
 #include "scoutfs_trace.h"
 
@@ -731,6 +732,8 @@ static void scoutfs_forest_log_merge_worker(struct work_struct *work)
 	ret = scoutfs_btree_merge(sb, &alloc, &wri, &req.start, &req.end,
 				  &next, &comp.root, &inputs,
 				  !!(req.flags & cpu_to_le64(SCOUTFS_LOG_MERGE_REQUEST_SUBTREE)),
+				  scoutfs_trigger(sb, LOG_MERGE_FORCE_PARTIAL) ?
+				  SCOUTFS_BLOCK_LG_SIZE :
 				  SCOUTFS_LOG_MERGE_DIRTY_BYTE_LIMIT, 10,
 				  (2 * 1024 * 1024));
 	if (ret == -ERANGE) {
diff --git a/kmod/src/triggers.c b/kmod/src/triggers.c
index 317f0911..10ebfd4d 100644
--- a/kmod/src/triggers.c
+++ b/kmod/src/triggers.c
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ static char *names[] = {
 	[SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_SRCH_FORCE_LOG_ROTATE] = "srch_force_log_rotate",
 	[SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_SRCH_MERGE_STOP_SAFE] = "srch_merge_stop_safe",
 	[SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_STATFS_LOCK_PURGE] = "statfs_lock_purge",
+	[SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_LOG_MERGE_FORCE_PARTIAL] = "log_merge_force_partial",
 };
 
 bool scoutfs_trigger_test_and_clear(struct super_block *sb, unsigned int t)
diff --git a/kmod/src/triggers.h b/kmod/src/triggers.h
index eeb33b49..0b60f74e 100644
--- a/kmod/src/triggers.h
+++ b/kmod/src/triggers.h
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ enum scoutfs_trigger {
 	SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_SRCH_FORCE_LOG_ROTATE,
 	SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_SRCH_MERGE_STOP_SAFE,
 	SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_STATFS_LOCK_PURGE,
+	SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_LOG_MERGE_FORCE_PARTIAL,
 	SCOUTFS_TRIGGER_NR,
 };
 
diff --git a/tests/golden/totl-merge-read b/tests/golden/totl-merge-read
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..931671e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/golden/totl-merge-read
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+== setup
+expected 4681
+== cleanup
diff --git a/tests/sequence b/tests/sequence
index 8091b1b1..c2ec96c8 100644
--- a/tests/sequence
+++ b/tests/sequence
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ simple-xattr-unit.sh
 retention-basic.sh
 totl-xattr-tag.sh
 quota.sh
+totl-merge-read.sh
 lock-refleak.sh
 lock-shrink-consistency.sh
 lock-shrink-read-race.sh
diff --git a/tests/tests/totl-merge-read.sh b/tests/tests/totl-merge-read.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3cd40644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/tests/totl-merge-read.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+#
+# Test that merge_read_item() correctly updates the sequence number when
+# combining delta items from multiple finalized log trees.
+#
+# A bug in merge_read_item() fails to update found->seq to the max of
+# both items' seqs when combining deltas.  The combined item retains
+# a stale seq from the lower-RID tree processed first.
+#
+# Multiple write/merge/read passes increase the chance of hitting the
+# double-counting window.
+#
+# The log_merge_force_partial trigger forces one-block dirty limits on
+# each merge iteration, causing many partial merges that splice
+# stale-seq items into fs_root while finalized logs still exist.
+#
+# The read-xattr-totals ioctl uses a sliding cursor that can return
+# pre-merge values (< expected) or duplicate entries when btree data
+# changes between batches. To avoid test false positives we've assigned
+# a 3-bit window for each mount so that any double counting can
+# identify the double counting by overflow in the bit window.
+#
+
+t_require_commands setfattr scoutfs
+t_require_mounts 5
+
+NR_KEYS=2500
+
+echo "== setup"
+for nr in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	d=$(eval echo \$T_D$nr)
+	for i in $(seq 1 $NR_KEYS); do
+		: > "$d/file-${nr}-${i}"
+	done
+done
+sync
+t_force_log_merge
+
+sv=$(t_server_nr)
+
+vals=( 4096 512 64 8 1 )
+expected=$(( vals[0] + vals[1] + vals[2] + vals[3] + vals[4] ))
+
+n=0
+for nr in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	d=$(eval echo \$T_D$nr)
+	val=${vals[$n]}
+	(( n++ ))
+	for i in $(seq 1 $NR_KEYS); do
+		setfattr -n "scoutfs.totl.test.${i}.0.0" -v $val \
+			"$d/file-${nr}-${i}"
+	done
+done
+
+sync
+
+last_complete=$(t_counter log_merge_complete $sv)
+
+t_trigger_arm_silent log_merge_force_finalize_ours $sv
+t_sync_seq_index
+while test "$(t_trigger_get log_merge_force_finalize_ours $sv)" == "1"; do
+	sleep .1
+done
+
+# Spam the log_merge_force_partial trigger in a tight Python loop
+# that keeps fds open and uses pwrite, avoiding fork/exec overhead of
+# doing this in a shell "echo" loop, which is too slow.
+trigger_paths=""
+for i in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	trigger_paths="$trigger_paths $(t_trigger_path $i)/log_merge_force_partial"
+done
+python3 -c "
+import sys
+paths = sys.argv[1:]
+while True:
+    for p in paths:
+        with open(p, 'w') as f:
+            f.write('1')
+" $trigger_paths &
+spam_pid=$!
+
+bad_dir="$T_TMPDIR/bad"
+mkdir -p "$bad_dir"
+
+read_totals() {
+	local nr=$1
+	local mnt=$(eval echo \$T_M$nr)
+	while true; do
+		echo 1 > $(t_debugfs_path $nr)/drop_weak_item_cache
+		# This is probably too elaborate, but, it's pretty neat we can
+		# illustrate the double reads this way with some awk magic.
+		scoutfs read-xattr-totals -p "$mnt" | \
+			awk -F'[ =,]+' -v expect=$expected \
+			'or($2+0, expect) != expect {
+				v = $2+0; s = ""
+				split("0 1 2 3 4", m)
+				split("12 9 6 3 0", sh)
+				for (i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
+					c = and(rshift(v, sh[i]+0), 7)
+					if (c > 1) s = s " m" m[i] ":" c
+				}
+				printf "%s (%s)\n", $0, substr(s, 2)
+			}' >> "$bad_dir/$nr"
+	done
+}
+
+echo "expected $expected"
+reader_pids=""
+for nr in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	read_totals $nr &
+	reader_pids="$reader_pids $!"
+done
+
+while (( $(t_counter log_merge_complete $sv) == last_complete )); do
+	sleep .1
+done
+
+t_silent_kill $spam_pid $reader_pids
+
+for nr in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	if [ -s "$bad_dir/$nr" ]; then
+		echo "double-counted totals on mount $nr:"
+		cat "$bad_dir/$nr"
+	fi
+done
+
+echo "== cleanup"
+for nr in $(t_fs_nrs); do
+	d=$(eval echo \$T_D$nr)
+	find "$d" -maxdepth 1 -name "file-${nr}-*" -delete
+done
+
+t_pass