Chapter 15 - The Daughter Victor Never Found
Agent Rebecca Sloan disappeared before sunrise.
Her apartment was empty.
Her department vehicle was found at an airport parking garage.
Her phone lay smashed beneath the driver’s seat.
No airline record showed her leaving the state.
For the first time in the investigation, Samuel Price appeared completely defeated.
Elena stood inside Victor’s study watching federal agents remove boxes of evidence.
“Rebecca helped us.”
Claire stood beside her.
“So did Raymond, eventually.”
“That doesn’t make him good.”
“No.”
“Marcus could have lied.”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at Claire.
“But you don’t think he did.”
Claire walked toward the window.
“At Bellweather there was one girl the handlers treated differently.”
Elena’s heartbeat changed.
“What girl?”
“Older than us.”
“How much older?”
“Maybe four years.”
Margaret’s daughter would have been born minutes after Elena and Claire.
“Then not her.”
Claire shook her head.
“I thought she was older. That doesn’t mean she was.”
“What do you remember?”
“Blonde hair. Quiet. She could enter areas the rest of us couldn’t.”
“Name?”
“They called her Rebecca.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Julian remained in the hospital.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
He would recover.
Serena entered a formal cooperation agreement and was expected to face prison, though prosecutors credited the information that prevented Julian’s replacement.
Raymond was charged with conspiracy, identity fraud, kidnapping-related offenses, and financial crimes spanning decades.
Peter Mallory agreed to testify.
Daniel Reed entered protective federal custody rather than being immediately charged. Records showed most of his crimes had occurred under coercion or false identity structures created when he was a child.
Caroline remained with Claire.
For the first time in thirty-four years, they were learning how to sit in a room without Northstar deciding who they were supposed to be.
And Elena?
Elena inherited an empire she no longer knew whether she wanted.
Three weeks after Victor’s funeral, she stood before the Vance Industrial board.
Nine directors watched her.
Some had expected Julian.
Some had expected Victor’s death to create chaos.
Elena placed a folder on the table.
“My father’s estate has recovered approximately 1.86 million dollars taken through unauthorized transfers.”
A director cleared his throat.
“What happens to Mr. Julian Vance?”
“He is cooperating with investigators.”
“And his position?”
“He doesn’t have one.”
The room went silent.
Elena continued.
“Neither does any relative simply because their last name is Vance.”
Several directors shifted uneasily.
“The company will undergo full forensic review.”
One director raised a hand.
“That could cost millions.”
Elena looked at him.
“My family spent decades hiding theft because honesty was expensive.”
She leaned forward.
“We’re done choosing the cheaper lie.”
No one challenged her.
Later that afternoon, Elena visited Julian.
He was standing beside the hospital window wearing a sling.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
“You sound like Dad.”
“So I’ve been told.”
He looked at her.
“Board meeting?”
“I fired Uncle Raymond from three committees he technically stopped attending after his arrest.”
“Productive.”
Elena smiled.
Julian’s expression softened.
“Samuel told me the recovered money is almost complete.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll repay anything missing.”
“I know.”
“And the trust?”
Elena looked at him.
“What about it?”
“I don’t want it.”
She stared.
“Four million dollars?”
“Apparently being shot by my substitute changes priorities.”
“Give it a week.”
He laughed.
Then grew serious.
“I want my portion transferred to the victim fund.”
Elena said nothing.
Julian looked uncomfortable.
“Don’t make that face.”
“What face?”
“The proud sister face.”
“I don’t have one.”
“You do.”
She sat beside him.
“I’m still angry.”
“I know.”
“I haven’t forgiven you for hitting me.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to skip consequences because you finally did something decent.”
“I know.”
Elena studied him.
He finally understood.
That was enough for today.
She kissed his forehead.
“Recover.”
Julian smirked.
“Yes, boss.”
Outside the hospital, Samuel waited beside his car.
He held an envelope.
Elena immediately disliked it.
“What now?”
“It arrived at my office.”
“From Rebecca?”
“No return address.”
Elena opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Rebecca Sloan stood beside Victor Vance.
The image was dated fourteen months before Victor died.
Victor looked healthy.
Rebecca looked frightened.
On the back, Victor had written:
MARGARET’S DAUGHTER CONFIRMED.
DO NOT CONTACT UNTIL I UNDERSTAND WHO SHE WORKS FOR.
Elena stared.
Samuel exhaled.
“So Marcus told the truth.”
“Partly.”
A second sheet of paper was inside.
Typed.
Elena read aloud.
Victor Vance believed Northstar was the organization.
He was wrong.
Northstar was only one branch.
Samuel went still.
Elena kept reading.
There are six continuity networks.
Northstar handled inheritance families in the eastern United States.
The others remain active.
Victor discovered three.
He died before finding the rest.
Elena’s fingers tightened.
At the bottom was a handwritten sentence.
Rebecca’s handwriting.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I DISAPPEARED, ASK SAMUEL WHAT HIS BROTHER DANIEL WAS REALLY INVESTIGATING IN 1993.
Elena slowly looked up.
Samuel had gone completely pale.
“You said Daniel died in a car accident.”
Samuel stared at the note.
“I believed he did.”
“That isn’t what Rebecca asked.”
“Elena.”
“What was he investigating?”
Samuel looked toward the hospital entrance.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he whispered:
“Your father.”
Elena stepped back.
“My father?”
“Before Daniel disappeared, he believed Victor was secretly financing something overseas.”
“Northstar?”
“No.”
Samuel’s voice shook.
“Something older.”
Elena stared at him.
“What was it called?”
Samuel did not answer.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
They looked at each other.
Samuel answered on speaker.
Nobody spoke for three seconds.
Then a woman’s voice came through.
“Elena?”
Elena recognized it immediately.
Rebecca Sloan.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere Victor told me never to return.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because Marcus wasn’t the only Northstar operative inside law enforcement.”
Elena looked around the parking lot.
“Are you safe?”
“No.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“Rebecca, are you Margaret’s daughter?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
Elena shut her eyes.
Her sister.
Another one.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know whether Victor had made you part of it.”
Elena’s eyes opened.
“Part of what?”
Rebecca breathed shakily.
“The thing Daniel Price discovered.”
Samuel gripped the car door.
Rebecca continued.
“Victor didn’t create Northstar.”
“I know.”
“But he helped create the network that Northstar broke away from.”
Elena felt the ground beneath her shift.
“No.”
“I have documents.”
“Victor spent years trying to destroy them.”
“Because he knew what he had helped begin.”
Samuel whispered, “Rebecca.”
She heard him.
“Samuel?”
“Yes.”
A long silence.
Then Rebecca said something that drained the color from his face.
“Your brother is alive.”
Samuel nearly dropped the phone.
“What?”
“Daniel Price is alive.”
Caroline had claimed she spoke to Daniel after his supposed funeral.
Peter had described dead people walking under new identities.
Elena gripped the phone.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca’s breathing changed.
“I found him two hours ago.”
“Where?”
“He’s with the people who built the first continuity program.”
Samuel leaned closer.
“Let me speak to him.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
Rebecca did not answer.
A sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Footsteps.
Then Rebecca whispered:
“Oh God.”
“Elena.”
“What?”
“They know I called you.”
The line crackled.
Elena heard a man’s voice in the distance.
Calm.
Older.
Familiar enough to make Samuel freeze.
Rebecca spoke quickly.
“Go back to Victor’s house.”
“Why?”
“His study.”
“We searched it.”
“Not the wall behind the safe.”
Elena stared.
“What’s there?”
“The original register.”
Samuel whispered, “Victor’s drive was only partial.”
Rebecca continued.
“And Elena?”
“Yes?”
“If you find a file marked VANCE CONTINUATION, do not open it alone.”
“Why?”
Rebecca’s voice broke.
“Because your family replacements didn’t end with you, Claire, Julian, or Daniel.”
Elena’s skin went cold.
“How many are there?”
The distant male voice came closer.
Rebecca whispered one final sentence.
“Victor prepared a replacement for himself.”
The call ended.
Elena and Samuel stared at the silent phone.
Then Samuel’s face changed.
“What?”
Elena asked.
He looked toward the hospital entrance.
“The voice behind Rebecca.”
“What about it?”
Samuel swallowed.
“I know that voice.”
“Who was it?”
He did not answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, Elena felt every mystery of the previous month open again.
“That was Victor.”
Far across the city, inside the Vance mansion, the steel safe stood open in the empty study.
Behind it, hidden machinery clicked for the first time in twenty-four years.
A narrow section of wall slowly released.
Inside the darkness was a second vault.
And on its center shelf waited one black folder.
VANCE CONTINUATION.
Beneath the title were two photographs.
The first showed Victor Vance at age sixty-eight.
The second showed another man with the same face.
And underneath both images was a single handwritten status:
May you like
ONE OF THEM DIED.
IDENTITY OF SURVIVOR UNCONFIRMED.
