Chapter 20 - Nine Hundred and Twelve
The Palisade chamber filled with light.
One alteration appeared.
Then another.
Then thousands.
Every file Evelyn had changed generated a path leading back through its previous versions.
Nine hundred and twelve alterations.
Margaret had not prevented Evelyn from changing history.
She had made every change confess its existence.
Emily nearly smiled.
Her mother had understood something Evelyn never had.
Perfect security was impossible.
Accountability was not.
"Stop the merge," Evelyn ordered.
Palisade refused.
CREATOR AUTHORITY LIMITED DURING AUDIT.
The first altered case appeared.
A trafficking report.
Two names Evelyn had removed.
Beside the alteration was the result.
Both victims had survived.
The next alteration appeared.
A financial transfer connected to Celeste Voss.
Removed.
Result unknown.
Then Belgrade.
Evelyn's alteration had created intelligence suggesting Silas betrayed Shepherd Unit.
Abraham had followed it.
Three people died.
Silas disappeared.
Brandon stared at the screen.
"So you did start their war."
"I redirected one operation."
"You killed three people."
"They entered a dangerous profession."
Emily looked at her.
"That sentence is why you should never control this archive."
Another file appeared.
Brandon Vale.
His childhood records.
His adoption.
Margaret's letters.
Emily stepped closer.
The record showed that Margaret had written twelve letters to Brandon before his eighteenth birthday.
Only one had ever reached him.
That one had been altered.
Brandon read the original.
My son,
There is no version of this decision in which you will not someday have the right to hate me.
But you were not given away because Emily mattered more.
You were hidden because someone was killing everyone connected to the Lake.
I hope one day I can tell you this face to face.
Brandon stopped reading.
His hands began shaking.
Emily watched him.
For years, he had believed Margaret chose her and discarded him.
Evelyn had sharpened that wound.
But Emily remembered the ballroom.
The chain.
The hammer.
The scissors.
Understanding explained a road.
It did not erase where Brandon had chosen to walk.
He looked at Evelyn.
"You knew."
"Pain makes people useful."
Brandon's eyes changed.
A door opened behind them.
A man's voice answered from the darkness.
"That is one lesson she taught very well."
Abraham stopped in the corridor above.
May you like
Emily knew the voice before she turned.
Silas Shepherd stepped into the chamber.
