Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF A NAME
Alessandro led them through a concealed stairway behind the library.
The passage descended deep beneath the palace.
Emma had fallen asleep in Clara’s arms. Marcus carried the blue rabbit inside his coat.
At the bottom, they reached a steel corridor lined with locked doors.
One door bore the number 27.
Clara remembered the room upstairs.
“Why is that number everywhere?”
“Adrian was the twenty-seventh child registered in the original Lazarus program,” Alessandro said.
Clara stopped walking.
“Registered?”
Alessandro faced her.
“My wife and I could not have children.”
The corridor seemed to narrow around them.
“Adrian was adopted?”
“He was given to us through Lazarus.”
Clara struggled to understand.
“Did Gabriel know?”
“He discovered the truth shortly before Isabella died.”
“Who were his biological parents?”
“The records were sealed.”
“By whom?”
“Vivian’s father.”
Clara looked at Emma sleeping against her shoulder.
The secret was larger than inheritance or family revenge.
Gabriel had not only been hiding evidence.
He had been searching for himself.
They continued toward the vault.
Marcus unlocked a security station and checked the cameras. One screen showed Vivian entering an elevator with two armed men.
Another showed the ballroom guests being held under guard.
A third displayed the vault entrance.
A countdown glowed above it.
01:31:42.
Alessandro examined the system.
“She has overridden the external locks.”
“Can we stop the deletion?” Clara asked.
“The archive requires three keys. Without all three, Vivian cannot enter the central chamber.”
“Then why is she going down?”
“She must believe she has the keys.”
Marcus looked at the rabbit.
“She has Alessandro’s?”
Alessandro touched the signet ring on his finger.
“No.”
Clara noticed the ring’s black stone.
Vivian could not possess Alessandro’s key if he was still wearing it.
Unless the ring was not the key.
Alessandro saw the question in her face.
“My key is not an object. It is a phrase.”
“And Isabella’s?”
Alessandro’s silence answered.
Clara looked at Emma.
“No.”
“Isabella’s key was encoded genetically.”
“You mean blood.”
“Her bloodline.”
“But Emma isn’t related to Isabella.”
“Not by birth.”
Marcus looked toward Alessandro.
“You are not telling us everything.”
Alessandro’s jaw hardened.
Before he could respond, the security screens flickered.
Vivian’s face appeared.
She stood inside the vault elevator.
“Good evening, Alessandro.”
“End the lockdown.”
“I’m afraid that would allow several important witnesses to leave.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to make you understand the seriousness of the situation.”
Clara stepped into view.
Vivian smiled.
“There she is. The widow who married a dead man.”
“Where is Gabriel?” Clara demanded.
“Still clinging to hope? How touching.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I arranged the accident.”
Clara’s knees weakened.
“But the man inside the vehicle was not Adrian.”
Alessandro gripped the console.
“Who was it?”
“A traitor who had become inconvenient.”
“Where is my son?”
Vivian’s smile disappeared.
“He was alive when I last saw him.”
Clara moved closer to the screen.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
The world went silent around Clara.
Gabriel was alive.
Vivian continued.
“He refused to tell me where he had hidden his key. Fortunately, his daughter brought it directly into my home.”
Marcus reached for the rabbit.
Vivian laughed.
“You still think the key is inside the toy?”
The screen went black.
A red light began blinking on Emma’s bracelet.
Clara stared at it.
The bracelet had been given to Emma by Rosa in the nursery.
Marcus ripped it from the child’s wrist.
May you like
A tracking device.
They had led Vivian directly to them.
