Chapter 10 - The Grave Without a Body
They emerged near a frozen river half a mile from the institute.
Smoke rose above the trees.
Daniel immediately called the hospital.
A nurse answered Sophie’s room phone.
Emily nearly collapsed with relief.
“Sophie is safe,” the nurse said. “The security team outside her room changed twenty minutes ago under Dr. Bennett’s orders.”
Daniel asked to speak to the hospital’s security chief.
Marcus’s men had been removed after one guard attempted to access Sophie’s medical cabinet.
Dr. Bennett had grown suspicious and ordered them escorted out.
Emily closed her eyes.
For once, they had been fortunate.
Police and fire crews were already heading toward the institute, but Daniel did not trust local authorities to reach the archive before Marcus escaped.
They drove directly to the cemetery where Richard Whitmore was buried.
Rain began falling as they arrived.
Victoria stood before her husband’s monument.
She had not visited in years.
Daniel knew because fresh flowers had never appeared on the grave.
The mausoleum door was sealed by a family lock.
Victoria entered the code.
Inside, marble plaques marked generations of Whitmores.
Richard’s name was engraved at the center.
Brooke looked at the date of death.
It was two months before her first birthday.
“You let me grow up believing he was a stranger,” she said.
Victoria’s voice was flat.
“I believed distance would keep you safe.”
“Safe from whom?”
“From everyone who wanted the Saint Catherine children.”
“You included yourself in that group.”
Victoria did not deny it.
Daniel found a small keyhole beneath Richard’s plaque.
Emily inserted Arthur’s key.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was not the ledger.
It held a single cassette recorder and a note addressed to Victoria.
Her hands trembled as she pressed play.
Richard’s voice filled the mausoleum.
“Victoria, if you are hearing this, Arthur finally told you where to look.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
“I am sorry I lied about the program. I believed I could stop it quietly. I was wrong.”
The recording crackled.
“The six children are not experiments. They are victims. I intended to identify and protect them all.”
Brooke stood motionless.
“Linda’s daughter, Alexandra, is mine. I did not consent to her conception, but she is still my child. I have arranged financial protection for her.”
Daniel looked at Brooke.
She wiped tears from her face.
Richard continued.
“There is another truth. One of the six children was registered as our son.”
Victoria whispered, “No.”
“The infant we buried as Alexander did not die from heart failure. The hospital told us he died. I believed them for years.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
Victoria’s knees weakened.
Emily caught her arm.
The recording continued.
“Alexander survived. His identity was changed and he was placed with a family connected to the program. Arthur found evidence when Daniel was sixteen.”
Victoria sobbed.
“My son.”
“I tried to locate him. Someone inside the foundation discovered the search. If I die before I find Alexander, trust no official records.”
Daniel’s eyes burned.
He had grown up beneath the shadow of a dead brother who was not dead.
Richard’s voice became quieter.
“The ledger is not in this grave. It is where Daniel hid from storms as a child.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He knew the place.
The boathouse at the Whitmore lake property.
The recording ended with one final message.
“Victoria, the greatest danger is not Arthur. Arthur is guilty of pride, secrecy, and terrible choices. But he tried to end the donor program after learning what it became.”
Victoria looked at the recorder.
“Then who continued it?”
Richard answered from the past.
“My sister, Eleanor.”
The tape clicked off.
Daniel stared into the darkness.
Aunt Eleanor had helped raise him after Richard’s death.
She had sat beside him at the funeral.
She had comforted Victoria.
She had later moved to Europe and rarely returned.
Victoria shook her head.
“Eleanor hated the foundation.”
“Perhaps she wanted us to believe that,” Daniel said.
Emily checked the time.
They had to return to the hospital.
Sophie’s treatment decision could not wait.
But the ledger might contain the medical identities of relatives capable of helping her.
Daniel called for a car and arranged for a company helicopter to meet them near the cemetery.
As they stepped outside, Brooke’s phone rang.
The number was blocked.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
“Brooke, do not go to the lake house.”
She stopped walking.
“Who is this?”
“My name is Adrian.”
Victoria turned sharply.
May you like
The voice continued.
“Victoria knows me as Alexander Whitmore.”
