Chapter 12 - The Brother Who Remembered Everything
Julian looked directly into the camera.
He was in his early forties, with dark hair streaked by gray and a thin scar running from his left temple to his jaw.
Victoria struggled against the rope binding her to the chair.
“Do not listen to him,” she said. “He set the fire.”
Julian placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You locked Noah’s door.”
“You told me the room would be empty.”
“You wanted him dead.”
“You said Adrian would inherit.”
Julian smiled.
“I said Adrian was necessary. You assumed the rest.”
Charles stepped toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
Julian ignored him.
His gaze remained fixed on Evelyn.
“Do you remember the lake?”
Evelyn felt a flash of sunlight on water.
A small hand in hers.
A boy pulling her beneath a dock while adults searched the shore.
“No,” she said.
“You remember enough.”
“Why did you call yourself Julian Hart?”
“Because Evelyn Hart needed a brother in the records after Evelyn Vale ceased to exist.”
“You created my identity?”
“I protected what remained of it.”
“You abandoned me.”
His expression changed.
“I was twelve.”
The words struck her.
She had imagined him as an adult manipulating her childhood.
But Adrian had also been a child.
“They separated us,” he continued. “Eleanor removed you from Armitage. Robert kept me inside.”
“Why?”
“Because I remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
“Everything they put into us.”
Noah moved closer to Evelyn.
Julian saw him.
“There you are.”
Charles stepped in front of the boy.
“Do not speak to him.”
Julian laughed softly.
“You still believe fatherhood is a position you can defend by standing in front of a screen.”
“You touched him when he was born.”
“I saved him.”
“You kidnapped him.”
“I removed him from a clinic where Victoria’s allies planned to test him.”
Victoria twisted in the chair.
“I did not know you then.”
“No. But your father did.”
Victoria went still.
Evelyn looked at her.
“Your father was involved?”
Victoria’s voice became cold.
“My father invested in Blackwood Technologies. That doesn’t make me responsible for what happened before I was born.”
Julian leaned down beside her.
“Your father financed the continuation of Armitage after the official closure.”
Marcus studied the equipment visible behind them.
“This room is not at Armitage.”
“No,” Julian said. “You are standing in the old site. I’m in the new one.”
Cross moved toward the laptop.
“Can the signal be traced?”
Julian smiled.
“Hello, Lena.”
Her hand stopped.
“You knew my father.”
“He helped move Evelyn. Then he tried to return her.”
“He died because of you?”
“No. He died because Robert Blackwood discovered regret is contagious.”
Evelyn forced herself to focus.
“Why did you return Noah to the clinic?”
Julian looked at the boy.
“Because Amelia begged me.”
Charles stared at the screen.
“You knew my wife.”
“I knew the truth she kept from you.”
“What truth?”
Julian’s eyes hardened.
“Amelia was not killed because she discovered Noah’s altered birth record. She was killed because she discovered what Charles did during the missing forty minutes.”
Charles looked confused.
“I was at the hospital chapel.”
“No,” Julian said. “That is the memory they gave you.”
Evelyn turned toward Charles.
He looked genuinely shaken.
“I remember the chapel.”
“So did Evelyn remember her parents’ funeral,” Julian replied. “Memory is the least reliable witness in this family.”
Noah stepped around Charles.
“What happened in the forty minutes?”
Julian’s expression softened.
“You woke up.”
“I was a baby.”
“You spoke a sequence of numbers no newborn should know.”
Charles shook his head.
“This is madness.”
“Eleanor heard the recording. She ordered Amelia to remove you from England before thirteen.”
“Why thirteen?” Noah asked.
“Because that is when the inherited archive stabilizes.”
“What archive?”
Julian looked toward the seven doors surrounding them.
“The Blackwood Confession.”
Marcus moved closer to the first open door.
“What does it contain?”
“Names. Accounts. Government agreements. Medical trials. Every person who funded Armitage and every child who disappeared through it.”
Cross looked at the carved crown.
“Why hide it inside children?”
“Because documents can burn.”
Behind them, the building creaked in the wind.
Julian continued.
“Noah is not the archive. He is the key that organizes it. Evelyn is the guardian who can prevent the process from destroying him.”
Charles looked at Evelyn.
“And Adrian?”
“I am what happens when the guardian is removed.”
For the first time, pain entered Julian’s voice.
“I remember hundreds of lives that are not mine.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You’re Adrian.”
“I was.”
“Then who are you now?”
He smiled without warmth.
“The sum of what the Blackwoods buried.”
Victoria began laughing.
Everyone looked at her.
“You still don’t understand,” she said.
Julian’s hand tightened on her shoulder.
Victoria looked into the camera.
“He thinks he found Noah first.”
A warning alarm sounded inside Armitage House.
Red lights illuminated the circular chamber.
One of the security officers checked the corridor.
“Vehicles approaching.”
“How many?” Charles asked.
“Six. Maybe seven.”
Marcus looked at the live feed.
“Who did you bring?”
Julian’s expression darkened.
“No one.”
Gunfire echoed from the entrance above.
The laptop image flickered.
May you like
Victoria smiled.
“My father’s people have been waiting twenty years for that door to open.”
