Chapter 18 - The Sister Who Chose the FireCatherine did not ask forgiveness.
She did not offer excuses.
She placed a pistol on the library table and stepped away from it.
Daniel immediately called security.
Elena raised one hand.
“Wait.”
Catherine looked exhausted.
“Clara contacted me again six months ago.”
Mara’s expression hardened.
“You told us one year.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew where the convent survivors were.”
“You already said that.”
“She knew where their children were too.”
Catherine’s voice broke.
“She built files on everyone.”
Elena felt anger rising.
“Did you help her?”
“Yes.”
Lucia whispered, “Catherine…”
“I gave her schedules. Old archive passwords. Names of people Adrian trusted.”
Mara stared at the gun.
“And the church?”
“The man I met there was Nathan Bell.”
Daniel recognized the name.
“A Vale Maritime auditor.”
“He discovered Falcon Key Holdings was still moving money after Gabriel’s network collapsed.”
“Where is he?”
“Hospital.”
Elias had said Clara attacked him.
Catherine shook her head before Elena asked.
“She did not mean to kill him.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
Catherine looked directly at Elena.
“It makes it complicated.”
She explained.
Nathan discovered a hidden financial route connected to twelve accounts.
Each account corresponded to one missing ledger.
Clara wanted access.
Nathan refused because the accounts contained current locations of protected children.
Clara sent people to frighten him.
The encounter became violent.
“He gave me this before he lost consciousness.”
Catherine removed an envelope from inside her coat.
Brown paper.
Wax seal.
Falcon holding a key.
The same symbol that had started everything.
Daniel did not touch it.
Mara photographed it.
Elena opened it wearing gloves.
Inside lay a list of names.
Eight.
Elena Ruiz.
Mara Quinn.
Vanessa Vale.
Isabel Dorne.
Catherine Bell.
Jonah Pierce.
Rebecca Sloan.
Marcus Hale.
Elena frowned.
“Catherine is one of the Crown children?”
Catherine nodded.
“My birth name was never Catherine Bell.”
Mara looked at the list.
“Where’s Elias?”
“He was never a numbered subject.”
“And Clara?”
“Archive seat.”
Daniel pointed at the last three names.
“Who are Jonah, Rebecca, and Marcus?”
Catherine answered:
“People who do not know what they are.”
A chill crossed the room.
Not every Crown child knew the truth yet.
The countdown was forcing them toward revelations that could destroy their lives.
The envelope contained a second page.
A map.
An abandoned private school two hundred miles north.
Saint Agnes Academy.
Elena recognized the architecture immediately.
The nine live feeds Clara broadcast had backgrounds taken from rooms there.
“She is at the school.”
Catherine nodded.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Clara never stays where she wants you to look.”
Mara checked satellite images.
The school had been closed for fourteen years after a boiler explosion.
No current utilities.
No registered owner.
Daniel said, “Falcon Key?”
“Yes.”
Catherine looked at Elena.
“Clara intends to assemble the voters there before midnight.”
“Voluntarily?”
“No.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“Then she has learned nothing.”
Catherine shook her head.
“You still think Clara wants to renew the trust.”
“What does she want?”
“To burn it.”
“Then why not let Elias dissolve it?”
“Because she hates the death clause.”
Elena stopped.
Catherine continued.
“Clara has spent years trying to separate the victim identities from the criminal records.”
Mara stared.
“She wants a clean dissolution.”
“Yes.”
Elena slowly lowered herself into a chair.
For the first time, Clara’s actions looked different.
Still wrong.
Still manipulative.
But not meaningless.
Daniel asked, “Then why the threats? Why Rose? Why the public screens?”
“Because Clara believes institutions only act when terrified.”
Elena looked toward the Falcon seal.
“Like Gabriel.”
Catherine nodded.
“That is what she cannot see.”
A security officer entered.
“Mr. Vale.”
Daniel turned.
“We found something in the east driveway.”
Another brown leather handbag.
Nobody moved.
The officer continued.
“It has Elena’s name on it.”
They opened it in the monitoring room.
No diamonds.
No weapon.
Only a child’s red sweater.
And a photograph.
A boy of approximately twelve stood outside Saint Agnes Academy.
On the back:
JONAH PIERCE HAS FOUR HOURS LEFT TO REMEMBER WHO HE IS.
Then Mara’s phone rang.
The caller identified herself as Rebecca Sloan.
May you like
She was crying.
“I think someone stole my son.”
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