Chapter 14 - The Children Under St. Catherine's
St. Catherine's Children's Institute looked peaceful from the outside.
Stone buildings.
White fences.
Mountain pines.
A chapel.
A playground.
The lie ended beneath the ground.
Nicholas opened a service entrance behind the laundry building.
The corridor descended five levels.
Each level became colder.
More clinical.
Adrian saw rooms containing medical files.
Blood samples.
Photographs of royal relatives.
DNA maps covering entire walls.
There were names from Bellmont, Norland, Austria, Spain, Britain, Belgium, Denmark.
Not all royal.
Some were descendants of aristocratic families.
Some were ordinary citizens who had no idea their ancestry had been catalogued.
Evelyn whispered, "How long has this existed?"
Gabriel examined a file.
"Since before we were born."
They reached Level Five.
Children were housed in dormitories behind locked doors.
Forty-three.
Ages ranged from four to seventeen.
Some cried when strangers entered.
Others simply stared.
Nicholas knew most of them by name.
Adrian watched him free a little girl.
"Are you really the prince?" she asked.
Adrian knelt.
"Yes."
"Are you taking us outside?"
His throat tightened.
"Yes."
"Forever?"
"Forever."
Rowan's men began evacuation.
Gabriel searched medical offices.
Evelyn stayed with the youngest children.
Adrian went deeper.
At the end of the corridor was a reinforced room.
Inside sat Helena.
Alive.
Her hair was completely white.
Her face carried scars.
But when she saw Evelyn through the glass, she stood.
Evelyn froze.
Neither woman spoke.
Helena touched the glass.
Evelyn slowly lifted her own hand.
Their palms met through the barrier.
Helena whispered, "My baby."
Evelyn broke.
Adrian turned away, giving them the small dignity of privacy.
Gabriel entered minutes later.
He saw his mother.
All bitterness left his face.
"Mom?"
Helena stared at him.
Then collapsed to her knees.
The reunion lasted less than a minute before alarms sounded.
Marcus's voice came through the facility speakers.
"You always were sentimental, Adrian."
Adrian drew his weapon.
Marcus continued.
"That is why you will never be a successful king."
Rowan shouted from the corridor.
"Explosives!"
Adrian looked up.
Red lights flashed.
Marcus's voice remained calm.
"St. Catherine's cannot be allowed to survive discovery."
Evelyn grabbed Helena.
"We need to move."
Nicholas ran toward Adrian.
"The main exits are locking."
"Alternate route?"
"The old mine tunnel."
"Where?"
"Level Seven."
Adrian stared.
"I thought this was the bottom."
Nicholas shook his head.
"No."
"What is on Level Seven?"
Fear entered the boy's face.
"The originals."
Adrian frowned.
"The original what?"
A blast shook the building.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
They had no choice.
Nicholas opened a hidden stairway.
They descended.
Level Six contained archives.
Level Seven contained coffins.
Not graves.
Preservation chambers.
Inside were bodies.
Doctors.
Guards.
Former Council members.
People officially dead.
Some chambers were empty.
One bore King Julian's name.
Another Helena's.
The Council had prepared bodies for identities it expected to erase.
Evelyn looked sick.
Then Gabriel found a chamber labeled ADRIAN BELLMONT.
Inside was a man.
Alive.
Unconscious.
Approximately Adrian's age.
His face was swollen from surgery.
But even beneath the bandages, the resemblance was frightening.
Nicholas whispered, "My replacement."
Adrian stared.
Nicholas was not the final duplicate.
Only a prototype.
The man in the chamber was nearly finished.
An explosion sounded above.
Marcus appeared at the opposite end of the corridor.
He held a detonator.
"Beautiful, isn't he?"
Adrian raised his pistol.
Marcus smiled.
"Drop it."
"You'll die too."
"No."
Marcus pointed toward a service elevator.
"I have a way out."
"Then leave."
Marcus looked at Alexander.
"Give me the child."
Evelyn stepped backward.
"Never."
Marcus sighed.
"The boy doesn't belong to you."
Adrian moved in front of his family.
Marcus laughed.
"You still don't understand the blood test."
"What about it?"
"Alexander carries Bellmont blood."
"So do I."
"Yes."
Marcus's smile widened.
"But the paternal markers aren't yours."
Everything stopped.
Evelyn stared.
"That's impossible."
Marcus looked at her.
"You were unconscious for three days during your first week of captivity."
Evelyn's face emptied.
Adrian's stomach twisted.
Marcus said, "Dr. Vale performed a procedure."
Adrian raised the pistol higher.
"You lie."
"Perhaps."
Marcus held up a file.
"Then why was Vale recording fetal transfer records?"
Evelyn began crying.
Adrian's hand shook.
Marcus continued.
"Your child was conceived naturally, yes."
Relief almost came.
Then Marcus finished.
"But during Evelyn's confinement, the original fetus was removed."
Evelyn screamed, "No."
"And replaced."
Adrian stopped breathing.
Marcus lifted the detonator.
"The child she delivered belongs to another Bellmont father."
"Who?"
Marcus smiled.
A gunshot exploded.
Marcus's shoulder snapped backward.
Beatrice stood behind him.
She held a pistol.
For once, her hands were completely steady.
"I told you thirty years ago," she said.
Marcus collapsed.
"Never touch my family again."
The detonator fell.
Adrian kicked it away.
Marcus laughed despite the blood.
"You think this ends anything?"
Beatrice walked closer.
"No."
She looked at the imprisoned children.
"It begins with you answering for them."
The evacuation succeeded with ninety seconds remaining.
St. Catherine's exploded behind them as rescue vehicles descended the mountain.
All forty-three children survived.
Helena survived.
Gabriel survived.
Nicholas survived.
Marcus Vane survived his gunshot wound.
And by sunrise, the Council of Nine had lost its greatest secret.
But Evelyn sat inside the ambulance holding Alexander.
She stared at the baby she had loved from the instant he cried.
Adrian sat beside her.
Neither spoke.
May you like
Because Marcus's final accusation remained between them.
Was Alexander really their son?
