Chapter 10 - VICTORIA’S CONFESSION
Victoria arrived alone.
That was more frightening than if she had brought ten armed men.
She entered Black Harbor wearing the same ivory coat.
Her eyes moved immediately to Adam.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Victoria whispered:
“You survived.”
Adam’s expression remained cold.
“Disappointed?”
Victoria looked almost emotional.
“No.”
Dylan stepped forward.
“You knew he was alive?”
“I suspected.”
“You told me North Winter found him.”
“I didn’t know who found him first.”
Adam responded.
“Michael did.”
Victoria closed her eyes briefly.
“Of course.”
Olivia stood at the foot of the stairs.
“Noah is asleep.”
Victoria looked at her.
“I’m glad.”
Olivia laughed.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Victoria accepted the hatred.
“I know.”
Dylan pointed toward a chair.
“Sit.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You wanted control for eight months.”
He pointed again.
“You don’t have it anymore.”
Something shifted in Victoria’s expression.
She sat.
Adam remained near the door.
Margaret placed Michael’s letter on the table.
Victoria read only the first lines.
Then pushed it away.
“He always was dramatic.”
Olivia stared at her.
“My father was right about you.”
“Yes.”
The blunt answer silenced everyone.
Victoria looked at Dylan.
“You want everything?”
“Yes.”
“You may regret that.”
“Try me.”
Victoria removed her coat.
“I met Rebecca when we were twenty-three.”
Margaret sat opposite her.
“You were friends.”
“Best friends.”
Olivia looked at the photograph.
“Then why did you never mention her?”
“Because I spent twenty-nine years pretending she never existed.”
Victoria’s voice weakened.
“Rebecca was brilliant. Reckless. Impossible.”
A faint smile appeared.
“She made people feel ashamed for being afraid.”
Dylan watched his mother carefully.
“Dad loved her.”
Victoria nodded.
“I married your father because our families expected it. Charles tried to be loyal.”
“But he wasn’t.”
“No.”
“Did you know about them?”
“Eventually.”
“Did you hate her?”
Victoria thought.
“Yes.”
Olivia’s expression hardened.
“But not enough to kill her,” Victoria added.
“Convenient,” Adam said.
Victoria looked at him.
“You have her eyes.”
Adam went still.
For the first time, the resemblance Victoria saw was not Charles.
It was Rebecca.
“You believe she was my mother?”
“I know she was.”
Adam’s face lost all expression.
Olivia whispered:
“How?”
Victoria reached inside her handbag and removed a photograph.
Rebecca lay in a hospital bed holding a newborn.
The photograph was faded.
The baby’s face was partially turned away.
On the back was a date.
August 4, 1997.
Adam took it with shaking fingers.
“Where did you get this?”
“Rebecca sent it to me.”
“When?”
“Two days before she disappeared.”
Adam stared at the photograph.
Victoria continued.
“She asked me to protect you.”
His eyes lifted.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“I tried.”
Adam laughed.
“By letting me grow up under another name?”
“Because North Winter was already looking for you.”
Dylan interrupted.
“Who is North Winter?”
Victoria finally answered clearly.
“Originally? Six families.”
She named them.
Hayes.
Wren.
Colton.
Mercer.
Vale.
Sterling.
Margaret whispered:
“Sterling?”
“Yes.”
Olivia noticed her reaction.
“You know that name.”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“My first hospital director was Gregory Sterling.”
Victoria continued.
“North Winter began as a private medical consortium after World War II. Wealthy families funded studies into inherited disease.”
“That doesn’t sound criminal,” Dylan said.
“It wasn’t.”
“At first?”
Victoria nodded.
“Then the families realized the data could do more than prevent disease.”
Adam finished.
“They could select heirs.”
“Yes.”
Olivia looked horrified.
“Select?”
Victoria’s voice became colder.
“Families with billions at stake do not always leave succession to chance.”
Dylan stood.
“You’re talking about eugenics.”
“I’m talking about people who never used that word because it sounded ugly.”
Margaret whispered:
“But that is what it was.”
“Yes.”
Dylan looked at Noah’s empty carrier near the table.
“And what does my son have to do with it?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with something Dylan had never seen.
Guilt.
“The original archive was designed with genetic safeguards after one member tried to expose the organization.”
“Rebecca?”
“No.”
Everyone froze.
Victoria looked at Adam.
“Your mother wasn’t the first.”
“Who was?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Charles’s mother.”
Dylan stared.
“My grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“She was part of North Winter?”
“She founded the system that later trapped all of us.”
Dylan sat back down.
Victoria continued.
“Rebecca stole evidence. Charles tried to help her. Michael tried to expose the network. I tried to keep you away.”
Olivia’s eyes flashed.
“You could have told us.”
“No.”
“You destroyed us instead.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victoria looked at Dylan.
“Because Charles told me something before he died.”
Dylan waited.
“He said North Winter had one final protocol.”
“What protocol?”
“If a Carter and a Hayes ever produced a child…”
She looked toward the upstairs bedroom.
“The archive would identify the baby automatically through hospital genetic screening.”
Olivia’s face went white.
“They were waiting for him?”
“For someone like him.”
“Why?”
Victoria whispered:
“Because the combined bloodline can open the Founders Vault.”
Adam stared.
“And what is inside?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Dylan leaned forward.
“But someone does.”
Victoria nodded.
“Someone has been waiting almost thirty years.”
“Who?”
Victoria looked at the window.
“There’s only one man I know who still has enough power.”
Adam asked:
“Name.”
May you like
Victoria’s lips parted.
Before she could answer, the glass exploded.
