Chapter 6 - A Name That Did Not Belong to Him
Evelyn backed toward the desk.
Marcus removed his gloves.
There was no panic in his face. No uncertainty.
Only exhaustion.
“You set the fire,” Evelyn said.
“No.”
“You were in the east wing.”
“Yes.”
“You helped Victoria lock Noah inside.”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To stop you from misunderstanding what Eleanor built.”
He glanced at the machine.
“My aunt was brilliant. She was also paranoid.”
“Your aunt?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Robert Blackwood was not my father. You heard the recording.”
“Who was your father?”
“That answer has killed enough people.”
He moved farther into the room.
Evelyn’s hand closed around a metal letter opener on the desk.
Marcus noticed.
“If I wanted to hurt you, I would not have entered through the door.”
“Stay back.”
“The file you opened is incomplete.”
“I haven’t opened it yet.”
“But you were going to.”
He looked at the drawer.
“The machine gives people pieces of truth without context. That was Eleanor’s favorite weapon.”
“You knew this room existed.”
“I knew there was a room. I never found the entrance.”
“Until Noah did.”
“Until Victoria found his key.”
Evelyn’s grip tightened.
“Victoria told you?”
“She came to me three weeks ago. She said Noah had discovered something beneath the east wing. She wanted help understanding the trust.”
“And you agreed.”
“I wanted to know why my entire life was based on a lie.”
Marcus’s voice changed.
For the first time, anger broke through his calm exterior.
“I was raised as Robert Blackwood’s son. I was trained to protect the company, serve the family, and accept that Charles would always stand above me. Then I learned Robert purchased me from a private clinic after Eleanor hid Adrian.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Purchased you?”
“I was meant to replace the missing child.”
“Why?”
“Because the family required two heirs.”
“To control the second inheritance?”
“I didn’t know the inheritance existed until recently.”
He looked at the portrait of Eleanor.
“Robert believed Eleanor would eventually bring Adrian back. When she refused, he created another son and falsified the records.”
“So you have no Blackwood blood.”
“Apparently not.”
“And Victoria knew.”
“She discovered the hospital records.”
Evelyn considered his words.
“Then why would she work with you?”
“Because she thought I could help her reach the hidden assets.”
“You had motive to kill Noah.”
Marcus laughed once, without humor.
“If Noah dies, the inheritance goes to Adrian. Not me.”
“Unless everyone believes you are Adrian.”
He said nothing.
That silence answered her.
Evelyn opened the file.
Marcus stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
She raised the letter opener.
He stopped.
The first page contained a protocol written by Eleanor.
If a fire begins in the east wing before Noah turns thirteen, assume the hidden inheritance has been discovered.
The fire is not meant only to kill the boy.
It is meant to destroy the proof that the second child was exchanged.
Evelyn turned the page.
A list of names followed.
Robert Blackwood.
Dr. Simon Vale.
Chief Inspector Daniel Cross.
Margaret Vale.
And one final name:
Evelyn Hart.
Her breath caught.
Marcus saw it.
“You understand now.”
“No.”
“Your name is in a fourteen-year-old file.”
“That’s impossible. I never met Eleanor.”
“Are you certain?”
Evelyn looked again.
Beside her name was a date from her childhood.
Subject relocated at age nine.
Memory intervention successful.
She felt the floor tilt beneath her.
“I was nine when my parents died.”
Marcus watched her carefully.
“How did they die?”
“A car accident.”
“Did you see their bodies?”
“Yes.”
But the answer came too slowly.
She remembered a hospital corridor. A woman holding her shoulders. A bright light. Then months of fragmented dreams.
She had always believed trauma explained the gaps.
Marcus reached into his coat and produced a folded photograph.
He placed it on the floor between them.
Evelyn did not lower the letter opener.
“Pick it up,” he said.
She did.
The photograph showed Eleanor Blackwood standing beside two children.
One was a dark-haired boy of about five.
The other was a girl of nine.
The girl was Evelyn.
Written on the back were the words:
Adrian trusts her. Move them separately.
Evelyn stared at her younger face.
“This is fake.”
“I found it in Victoria’s safe.”
“I had never seen this house before I came to work here.”
“That is what someone wanted you to believe.”
A heavy impact shook the ceiling.
Dust fell across the green room.
Marcus looked toward the door.
“We need to leave.”
Evelyn grabbed the Fire Condition file.
He caught her wrist.
“The file stays.”
She struck him with the letter opener’s handle and pulled free.
Marcus stumbled.
Evelyn ran toward the stairs.
The green-room machine activated behind her.
“Emergency sequence,” Eleanor’s voice announced.
A hidden compartment opened in the wall.
Inside stood a reel of film and a sealed black envelope.
Marcus saw it.
His face drained of color.
Evelyn reached the stairs, but the door slammed shut above her.
Someone locked it from the other side.
Then smoke began pouring through the ventilation shaft.
Marcus looked at Evelyn.
“That isn’t part of Eleanor’s system.”
A speaker crackled.
May you like
Victoria’s voice filled the room.
“I warned you both not to search beneath the ashes.”
