Chapter 13 - Saint Aurelia
They escaped through a cellar passage while armed men surrounded the cottage.
Rose had prepared the tunnel years earlier. It opened near an abandoned rail line on the opposite side of the hill.
Adrian led them to a maintenance truck hidden beneath a canvas sheet.
They drove deeper into the mountains.
By late morning, the ruins of Saint Aurelia appeared above the lake.
Blackened stone towers stood against the pale sky. Ivy covered broken windows. A chapel remained intact near the water, its bell tower leaning toward the cliff.
Mia stared at it.
“It looks haunted.”
“It is haunted,” Daniel said quietly. “Just not by ghosts.”
Adrian stopped the truck beneath the trees.
“No lights. No phones.”
Claire looked at Mia.
“You stay with Mrs. Finch.”
Mia shook her head immediately.
Claire crouched.
“This place is dangerous.”
“So was Grandma’s party.”
“That doesn’t make this safe.”
“What if my sister is scared?”
Claire could not answer.
Adrian knelt beside them.
“Mia, Evelyn has waited a long time to meet your mother. The best thing you can do is make sure Claire does not have to worry about losing you too.”
Mia looked at him.
“Will you stay with me?”
Adrian glanced toward the ruins.
He wanted to go with Claire.
Mia saw it.
“You always leave her.”
The words landed with brutal simplicity.
Adrian sat back.
“You’re right.”
He looked at Claire.
“I’ll stay.”
Daniel checked the weapon Adrian had given him.
“I’ll go with Claire.”
Mrs. Finch drew a map in the dirt.
“The old chapel connects to the medical wing through a tunnel. Rose used it to escape the fire.”
“Where would she hold Evelyn?” Claire asked.
“She would not call it holding.”
“Where would she protect her?”
“The hydrotherapy rooms beneath the east tower.”
Claire and Daniel entered through a collapsed side wall.
Inside, the air smelled of damp stone and ash that had survived three decades.
Faded words remained painted above the corridor.
SILENCE HEALS THE TROUBLED MIND.
Daniel shuddered.
“Rose lived here?”
“For six years.”
They descended into the lower level.
Fresh footprints marked the dust.
One set belonged to a small shoe.
Another belonged to heavy boots.
Richard’s men had arrived first.
Claire moved faster.
They reached a locked iron door.
A voice came from the other side.
“Claire?”
“Evelyn?”
Metal scraped.
A narrow viewing panel opened.
A girl’s eyes appeared.
Claire recognized them from the photograph.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Evelyn whispered, “You came.”
Claire pressed her hand against the door.
“I will always come now.”
Evelyn looked beyond her.
“Is Mia safe?”
“Yes.”
“And Dad?”
“With her.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“He really found you.”
“Open the door.”
“I can’t. Aunt Rose has the key.”
“Where is she?”
“She went to stop the men upstairs.”
Gunshots echoed through the building.
Evelyn flinched.
Claire examined the lock.
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Move back.”
He fired twice. The old mechanism broke.
Claire pulled the door open.
Evelyn stood in a small tiled room.
She was taller than Claire expected, thin beneath the blue dress she wore, with a healing cut near her eyebrow.
Claire stepped inside slowly.
She had imagined this child as an infant for twelve years. She had mourned a baby, not known how to prepare for the nearly thirteen-year-old girl standing before her.
Evelyn solved the uncertainty.
She ran into Claire’s arms.
Claire held her so tightly that they both stumbled.
“I’m sorry,” Claire whispered.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
“They made you believe I died.”
“I still should have found you.”
Evelyn pulled back.
“Grandpa said you would blame yourself.”
“Grandpa knew many things too late.”
A door slammed somewhere above.
Daniel looked down the corridor.
“We have to move.”
Evelyn held Claire’s hand.
“Aunt Rose said the lake tunnel is safest.”
They hurried through the underground rooms.
At the final stairwell, Rose appeared.
She was in her late sixties, tall and silver-haired, with Thomas’s blue eyes. Blood stained one side of her coat.
She aimed a rifle at Daniel.
“Step away from them.”
Claire moved in front of him.
“He helped me.”
“Every Ashcroft helps until the price rises.”
“I am an Ashcroft.”
“No. You are Thomas’s apology.”
Evelyn stepped toward Rose.
“Aunt Rose, they’re my family.”
Rose’s expression softened.
“Your family is the reason you have spent your life running.”
“She came.”
“Because the archive opened. Because now you are worth more than the company.”
Claire faced Rose.
“I came because she is my daughter.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
Rose reached into her coat and removed a document.
“Destroy Archive Eight.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“You said it could expose the people who hurt Grandpa Samuel.”
“It can. It can also place your name on every criminal network searching for the Vale research.”
Claire looked at the chip.
Destroying it might protect Evelyn.
It would also erase evidence against Eleanor, Victor, Richard, and whoever else had stolen the patents and killed to conceal them.
Daniel spoke quietly.
“Without that archive, they walk free.”
Rose raised the rifle toward him.
“I was not asking you.”
A slow clap came from the top of the stairwell.
Richard stepped into view.
May you like
Four armed men surrounded him.
“Well,” he said, “now we know who chose family and who chose revenge.”
