Chapter 12 - The Brother Without a Name
Lily could not yet speak, but she communicated by writing on a digital tablet.
Her first complete message contained seven words.
MASON DID NOT CALL THE MAN GRANDFATHER.
Daniel sat beside her.
“What did he call him?”
Lily wrote:
GUARDIAN.
Reyes stood near the window.
“Nathaniel Vale may have taken the position after Evelyn escaped.”
Ward shook his head.
“The Guardian must be connected to the fourth bloodline.”
“Unless the bloodline continued through another child,” Reyes replied.
Maria Bell’s sealed son.
Mason’s half-brother.
A descendant of the Ward line through Maria’s mother.
The records were incomplete, but Reyes located an adoption file. Maria Bell’s son had been placed with another family at age three.
The adoptive name was Gabriel Voss.
Dean Alexander Voss’s son.
Gabriel had attended Westbridge, studied computer systems, and vanished from public records at twenty-two.
No current address.
No employment history.
No death certificate.
Lily wrote again.
GABRIEL WAS THERE.
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“At the stairwell?”
Lily nodded.
“Was he the fourth voice?”
She hesitated.
Then wrote:
VOICE CHANGER.
The audio did not contain Nathaniel Vale’s real voice. Gabriel had used a digital filter modeled after him.
The recording was designed to implicate Connor’s grandfather.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
Lily closed her eyes briefly before writing.
START A WAR BETWEEN FAMILIES.
Gabriel wanted the three founding families to turn against one another.
Mason believed he served the Cross family. Connor believed his grandfather controlled the operation. Bryce believed his father would protect him.
But Gabriel had manipulated all of them.
“Why attack you?” Daniel asked.
Lily’s hand trembled.
She wrote slowly.
I FOUND HIS PLAN.
“What plan?”
Before she could answer, the hospital’s fire alarm activated.
The lights changed to red.
An automated voice ordered evacuation.
Ward checked the hallway.
“No smoke.”
Reyes drew her weapon.
“Stay with Lily.”
The doors at both ends of the ICU corridor locked simultaneously.
The monitor screens switched off.
A black symbol appeared on each one.
Four pillars inside a circle.
A voice came through the hospital intercom.
“Lily Mercer.”
Daniel stood between the speaker and the bed.
The voice was male, calm, and electronically distorted.
“You have inherited something that belongs to no individual.”
Lily stared at the ceiling.
“The three families will destroy one another to possess you,” the voice continued. “Your father cannot protect you. The police cannot protect you. Your uncle has already betrayed you once.”
Ward’s face tightened.
Daniel looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Ward did not answer.
The voice continued.
“Come to Founders’ Hall before sunrise. Bring the key. Come voluntarily, and the people around you will live.”
The red lights flickered.
“Refuse, and every name in your mother’s final file will be released.”
Reyes looked toward Lily.
“Released to whom?”
The voice answered as if it heard her.
“To the people they betrayed.”
The screens filled with hundreds of names.
Undercover officers.
Protected witnesses.
Children relocated after criminal trials.
Abuse survivors living under new identities.
The Guardian’s network did not only preserve corruption. It also contained secrets that, if exposed without care, would kill innocent people.
The voice spoke one final time.
“Your mother understood the burden. By dawn, you will too.”
The fire alarm stopped.
The doors unlocked.
Every screen returned to normal.
Lily wrote on the tablet.
HE WANTS ME TO OPEN THE LEDGER.
“Then we will not go,” Daniel said.
Lily looked at him.
She wrote:
HE ALREADY HAS THREE KEYS.
Reyes understood.
“Hale, Cross, and Vale.”
Lily nodded.
HE NEEDS MY BLOOD.
Ward moved toward the door.
“We should transfer her.”
“No,” Lily wrote.
Daniel looked at her.
She continued.
IF WE RUN, HE KEEPS HUNTING.
Her hand paused.
MOM LEFT A WAY TO DESTROY IT.
Daniel remembered Evelyn’s video.
She said she had failed.
Perhaps she had not failed completely.
“How?” he asked.
Lily wrote:
INSIDE FOUNDERS’ HALL.
Reyes checked the time.
May you like
3:46 a.m.
Sunrise was less than three hours away.
