Chapter 10 - Vault Meridian
The monastery appeared at dusk.
Stone walls rose through dense trees.
No sign marked the road.
No power lines approached it.
Yet as their vehicles passed through the outer gate, hidden ground lights turned on.
Matteo stopped.
“Someone knows we’re here.”
Isabella looked at the building.
“Someone always knows.”
Meridian had once housed monks.
Then a Bellini retreat.
Then nothing, according to public records.
Underground, it held the most dangerous archive in the family’s history.
The front doors opened with Sofia’s palm against a scanner.
Elena hated every second of it.
“She’s five.”
No one answered.
Inside, the monastery smelled of stone and cedar.
Old religious paintings had been removed.
In their places hung black circles surrounded by gold.
The symbol.
Helena’s symbol.
Celeste touched one.
“She built this place.”
Isabella nodded.
“Parts of it.”
They descended a spiral staircase.
At the bottom was a round steel door.
Four scanners.
One labeled BELLINI.
One MORGAN.
One REED.
One VALE.
Matteo looked at Gabriel.
“Apparently family reunions were more complicated than I imagined.”
Gabriel did not laugh.
Isabella touched the Bellini scanner.
Red.
ACCESS DENIED.
She frowned.
Matteo tried.
Green.
BELLINI CONFIRMED.
Elena placed her hand on Morgan.
Green.
MORGAN CONFIRMED.
Gabriel touched Reed.
Green.
REED CONFIRMED.
The Vale scanner remained.
David stepped forward.
Red.
Celeste tried.
Red.
Isabella shook her head.
“Helena.”
Elena stared.
“We need her.”
Then Sofia walked forward.
Before anyone could stop her, she placed her small hand on the Vale scanner.
Green.
VALE CONFIRMED.
All four lights turned white.
Elena stared at her daughter.
“How?”
Isabella whispered, “The edited marker set.”
The door opened.
Inside were shelves.
Paper.
Film.
Blood samples.
Microfiche.
Hard drives.
Original documents.
No network access.
No remote destruction.
Matteo walked to a central desk.
A ledger lay beneath glass.
Bound in black leather.
Page numbers embossed in gold.
He opened it.
Page forty-seven.
His hands stopped.
MATTEO ADRIAN BELLINI.
DATE OF BIRTH.
MOTHER: ISABELLA VALE.
FATHER: THOMAS REED.
Matteo stared.
The room disappeared.
Isabella whispered, “Matteo.”
He looked at her.
“Vale.”
She closed her eyes.
“Your maiden name was Bellini.”
“No.”
Gabriel stared at the ledger.
“Thomas Reed was my father.”
Matteo looked at him.
Gabriel’s face had lost all color.
Isabella spoke.
“Thomas was not Gabriel’s biological father.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Of course not.”
Matteo turned back to Isabella.
“You told me Lorenzo was my father.”
“I told the world.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“Did Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Who was Thomas to you?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“A man I loved before Lorenzo.”
Matteo stepped away.
“So Lorenzo raised another man’s son.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he needed me.”
“For what?”
“Access to Helena.”
Matteo looked at the ledger.
Isabella continued.
“Helena was my older sister.”
Elena whispered, “Vale.”
Isabella nodded.
“Isabella Vale.”
Matteo stared.
“You were part of the program before you married him.”
“I was trying to destroy it from inside.”
“Then why is my name in the ledger?”
“Because Helena documented everyone.”
Matteo looked at Gabriel.
“If Thomas Reed was my biological father, then what are you to me?”
Gabriel walked to another section of the ledger.
He searched.
Found his name.
GABRIEL THOMAS REED.
MOTHER: ELAINE CARTER.
FATHER: MATTHEW REED.
Gabriel looked at Matteo.
“Thomas was my uncle.”
Matteo exhaled.
Cousins.
Somehow, the investigator he had trusted for seventeen years had been blood family without either of them knowing.
David walked farther into the archive.
“Guys.”
No one answered.
“Guys.”
Matteo looked.
David held a stack of files.
One had Sofia’s name.
Another had photographs.
He opened the first.
There were pictures of Sofia before birth.
Ultrasounds.
Embryonic scans.
A projection.
HEIR PROTOCOL COMPATIBILITY: 97.8%.
Elena grabbed the folder.
Then stopped.
A photograph underneath showed another infant.
Same birth date.
Same hospital.
Label:
SUBJECT S-2.
Elena whispered, “Other one.”
Matteo remembered her words from the first night.
Sofia isn’t the child they’ve been hunting.
The other one.
He looked at Elena.
“You knew about this.”
“I knew there may have been a second embryo.”
“Child?”
“I didn’t know if it survived.”
David flipped the page.
TRANSFER STATUS: SUCCESSFUL.
Male child.
Elena covered her mouth.
Sofia had a brother.
Where?
The next page had been removed.
Cut cleanly from the binder.
Celeste whispered, “Someone got here first.”
Footsteps echoed above.
Matteo looked up.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
More footsteps.
Several people.
Matteo moved Elena and Sofia behind a concrete column.
“Stay there.”
A voice came from the staircase.
“Please don’t shoot.”
Matteo froze.
The man who descended was in his early sixties.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
No weapon visible.
Isabella stepped forward.
Her face changed.
“Thomas?”
Matteo turned sharply.
The man stopped at the bottom.
He looked directly at Matteo.
May you like
Not like a stranger.
Like a father seeing his son.
