Chapter 10 - The Traitor Inside)
No one left Hawthorne Lake alone.
Gabriel separated every member of the security team.
Phones were confiscated.
Vehicles searched.
Federal command was notified through an encrypted line.
Alexander hated every second.
He hated suspicion.
He hated looking at people who had protected him for years and wondering whether Charles’s warning applied to them.
Most of all, he hated the possibility that the threat was inside the tiny circle he had begun trusting.
Pike volunteered to be restrained.
“Smartest thing you’ve done,” Alexander told him.
Pike almost smiled.
Adrian refused to suspect Eleanor Shaw.
“She kept me alive.”
Alexander replied, “People can do two things at once.”
Mara heard the bitterness.
He was thinking about Victoria.
Back in Manhattan, the boys were relocated again.
This time Alexander did not tell even his corporate security chief the address.
Only Mara, Gabriel, Alexander, and the federal case supervisor knew.
Twelve hours later, a package arrived at the building.
No courier record.
Inside were four toy lions.
Exactly like the ones Alexander bought at the Singapore airport six years earlier.
Mara stared at them.
“How?”
Alexander’s face went pale.
He had never told anyone about the lions.
Except Victoria.
He called the detention center.
Victoria agreed to another interview.
Alexander placed one lion on the table.
Her expression cracked.
“Where did you get that?”
“You know what it is.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Victoria stared at him.
“You bought four.”
“In Singapore.”
“Yes.”
“I never gave them to anyone.”
“I found them in your penthouse after Mara disappeared.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“What did you do with them?”
“I put them in storage.”
“Where?”
“Whitaker House.”
Mara whispered, “Someone took them.”
Victoria looked toward the lion.
“No.”
“What?”
“I burned them.”
Silence.
Alexander frowned.
“Why?”
Victoria looked ashamed for the first time.
“Because you kept asking about Mara. I thought removing reminders would help.”
Mara laughed in disbelief.
“You really believe destruction is love.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Sometimes it is.”
Alexander pushed the lion closer.
“Then explain this.”
Victoria touched it.
Her eyes widened.
She turned it over.
A tiny seam ran along the stomach.
She tore the stitching open.
Inside was a micro-storage chip.
Gabriel examined it.
The chip contained a single audio recording.
Alexander recognized his father’s voice.
“Victoria, if you are hearing this, then they found the children.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
Charles continued.
“I know what you did to Mara.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“And I know why.”
Mara stared.
Charles’s voice became softer.
“You were wrong.”
Victoria’s face changed.
“You thought legal death would make the boys invisible.”
A pause.
“It made them valuable.”
The recording ended.
Victoria whispered, “He knew.”
Alexander said, “Apparently.”
“No.”
She looked terrified.
“You don’t understand.”
Mara had heard those words enough.
“Then make us understand.”
Victoria looked at the camera.
Then at the guard.
Then back at them.
“The death certificates created estates.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Infant estates?”
“Yes.”
“With no assets.”
“That’s what I believed.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“What did Charles do?”
Victoria swallowed.
“When each child was declared dead, an automatic contingency clause redirected dormant Whitaker holdings into memorial trusts.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened.
“How much?”
Victoria answered.
“Approximately twelve billion dollars.”
Mara nearly laughed from shock.
“For dead babies?”
“For four legal identities.”
Alexander understood.
“And now that DNA establishes they’re alive…”
“The assets don’t disappear.”
“They belong to them.”
Victoria nodded.
“Eventually.”
Gabriel asked, “Who controls the memorial trusts currently?”
Victoria looked at Alexander.
“That is the problem.”
“Who?”
“No one knows.”
Silence.
Mara frowned.
“How can nobody know?”
“Charles designed them.”
Victoria’s voice dropped.
“He created anonymous trustees.”
Alexander laughed bitterly.
“Of course he did.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Your father weaponized succession.”
Gabriel said, “Someone has been administering twelve billion dollars for six years.”
“Yes.”
“And if that person belongs to the Circle…”
Victoria nodded.
“They will do anything to prevent the boys from being legally restored.”
Mara’s face tightened.
“Vale.”
“Possibly.”
A guard entered.
“Counsel is requesting termination.”
Victoria stood.
Then she looked directly at Mara.
“The notebook.”
“What about it?”
“You think a nurse gave it to you.”
Mara felt cold.
“She did.”
“What was her name?”
“Rebecca.”
Victoria shook her head.
“There was no nurse Rebecca.”
Mara stared.
“I spoke to her.”
“I reviewed every employee after you escaped.”
“She helped me reach a shelter.”
“I know.”
“Then who was she?”
Victoria replied quietly.
“That is what Charles spent years trying to discover.”
Alexander stood.
“What?”
Victoria looked toward the lion again.
“Rebecca was connected to a group inside the Circle that wanted it destroyed.”
Mara frowned.
“An ally.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Victoria’s voice turned dark.
“Three people who worked with Rebecca later turned up dead.”
Alexander stared.
“What was her last name?”
Mara answered automatically.
“Reed.”
Gabriel went completely still.
Everyone looked at him.
Alexander’s voice changed.
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel stared at Mara.
“What did she look like?”
Mara described her.
Mid-thirties.
Dark blonde hair.
Green eyes.
Small scar near her eyebrow.
Gabriel slowly sat down.
Alexander asked, “You know her.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“She was my sister.”
Silence.
Mara whispered, “Was?”
Gabriel’s eyes filled with something she had never seen in them.
“She died seven years ago.”
Mara shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
“I identified her body.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“That sentence means very little in this family.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“When did you see Rebecca?”
Mara answered.
“Six years ago.”
Gabriel stood.
“My sister died before you met her.”
Mara looked at Alexander.
Alexander looked at Victoria.
Victoria looked almost amused by the horror.
Then Gabriel’s phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
One photograph.
A woman standing outside an airport.
Dark blonde hair.
Green eyes.
Scar near her eyebrow.
Alive.
Timestamp: seven minutes earlier.
May you like
Beneath it:
TELL MARA I KEPT MY PROMISE.
