Chapter 10 - The Grave That Was Empty
Rebecca did not tell Rosie about the message.
She increased security around the mansion and arranged for Elena to remain inside the protected residence with her.
Then she met Lena near the gates shortly before eleven.
“You are not going to the cemetery alone,” Lena said.
“I did not intend to.”
“Thomas may expect security.”
“He expects me to be afraid.”
“You should be.”
Rebecca looked at the photograph again.
Thomas appeared to be approximately twenty-five, though he would now be forty-six. Gideon stood beside him with one hand on his shoulder.
Rebecca was an infant in her father’s arms.
The image contradicted Martin’s story.
Thomas had not been hidden away before Rebecca’s birth. He had stood beside her. He had known her.
Someone had cut him out of every other family photograph.
“Have you confirmed the handwriting?” Rebecca asked.
“The message does not match Gideon’s records.”
“Thomas?”
“We do not have a verified sample.”
“What about the ink?”
“Ordinary. Purchased within the last year.”
Rebecca entered the vehicle.
The Alden family cemetery occupied a private hill behind an old stone church. Gideon’s grave stood beneath a cedar tree, surrounded by smaller memorials bearing names Rebecca barely remembered.
No one was waiting when she arrived.
Lena’s team searched the grounds.
The cemetery was empty.
At exactly midnight, the lights inside the church turned on.
Rebecca approached the doors with Lena beside her.
Inside, a projector illuminated the wall above the altar.
A live video feed showed Gideon Alden’s grave from above.
The image moved closer.
A mechanical digging device had already removed part of the soil.
“Stop it,” Lena ordered into her radio.
Her team ran toward the grave.
The video continued.
The top of the coffin appeared.
Rebecca felt her heartbeat in her throat.
A speaker inside the church activated.
Thomas’s voice was calm.
“You believed Blake was the man who entered your life to steal your inheritance.”
Rebecca looked around the empty church.
“Show yourself.”
“He was never close enough to understand what you possessed.”
The coffin lid was visible on the screen.
Lena’s team reached the grave but could not disable the machine. Its controls had been locked through the old Alden security network.
Thomas continued.
“Blake wanted money. Marissa wanted survival. Martin wanted forgiveness. They were all easy to predict.”
“What do you want?” Rebecca asked.
“The truth.”
“Then stop hiding.”
“I have been hidden since the day our father decided only one of his children could inherit his name.”
The machine stopped.
Lena’s team climbed into the grave.
Rebecca watched as they opened the coffin.
It was empty.
No remains.
No clothing.
Only a sealed metal box lay inside.
Thomas spoke again.
“Gideon Alden did not die in the plane crash.”
Rebecca’s body went cold.
“Where is he?”
“That is the question Martin was ordered to make sure you never asked.”
Rebecca looked at Lena.
“Bring Martin here.”
Lena contacted the security team stationed outside Martin’s home.
No one answered.
She tried again.
A different officer responded.
Martin was gone.
His house had been empty when they arrived.
The interior security system had been erased.
Rebecca faced the screen.
“You took him.”
“No.”
“Then where is he?”
“Martin has returned to the person he has served from the beginning.”
“My father?”
Thomas did not answer.
The video feed changed.
A hospital room appeared.
The walls were white, the windows covered, and the equipment bore old Alden Medical logos.
A silver-haired man lay in the bed with his face turned away from the camera.
Martin stood beside him.
Rebecca stepped toward the image.
“Turn him around.”
Thomas’s voice became almost gentle.
“You spent eighteen years believing you inherited an empire from a dead man.”
The patient slowly moved his hand.
On one finger was the matching half of Gideon Alden’s founder ring.
Rebecca could not breathe.
The man began turning toward the camera.
Before his face became visible, the feed cut to black.
The church doors locked.
A red light illuminated the metal box recovered from Gideon’s empty grave.
Lena carried it inside and placed it on the altar.
The box had two hand scanners.
One adult-sized.
One made for a child.
A new message appeared on the projector.
BRING ROSALIND ALDEN TO THE ARCHIVE.
Rebecca stared at the name.
Rosie’s legal surname was Hale.
Rebecca had never registered her as Alden.
She had never told anyone outside Northstar that Rosie might one day inherit the family trust.
Yet Thomas had called her Rosalind Alden.
Lena examined the box.
“There is something inside.”
“How do we open it?”
“The system requires two bloodline confirmations.”
Rebecca looked at the smaller scanner.
“No.”
Her black phone vibrated.
The call came from the mansion’s internal security line.
Rebecca answered immediately.
“Elena?”
There was no response.
Only the sound of the living room clock ticking.
Then Rosie’s voice came through the phone.
“Mommy?”
Rebecca gripped the device.
“I’m here. Where is Elena?”
“She fell asleep.”
“Rosie, listen to me. Go to your bedroom and lock the door.”
“But there is a man here.”
Rebecca looked at Lena.
Security vehicles were already moving toward the mansion.
“What man?”
Rosie whispered.
“The one from my drawing.”
A man’s voice came through the phone.
It was not Thomas.
It was older.
Weaker.
But Rebecca recognized it from the recording in the archive.
“Hello, Rebecca.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
The voice belonged to Gideon Alden.
Her father continued before she could speak.
“Do not open Thomas’s box.”
“Where are you?”
“There is no time.”
“Are you inside my house?”
“No.”
“Then who is with Rosie?”
The line became quiet.
When Gideon answered, fear had entered his voice.
“That is not your brother.”
The call ended.
On the projector, the hospital feed returned for one final second.
The man in the bed had turned toward the camera.
He was not Gideon.
He was Martin Ellison.
And standing behind him was the real courier, holding Gideon’s ring.
The screen went black again.
May you like
Rebecca’s phone received one final message.
You have until sunrise to decide which Alden child survives.
