Chapter 12 - THE SECRET WRITTEN INTO THE TRUST
Celeste refused to explain.
Her attorney ended the meeting and demanded that she be returned to custody.
But the words remained.
Sophie is not your daughter.
Adrian ordered private DNA testing.
Elena objected to doing it without preparing Sophie, but Adrian insisted that uncertainty was more dangerous.
The results arrived forty-eight hours later.
Adrian opened the envelope alone.
Then he called Elena into his office.
He placed the report on the desk.
Probability of biological paternity: 99.998 percent.
“Sophie is mine,” he said.
Elena read the result.
“Celeste wanted to destabilize you.”
“Or she meant something else.”
Julian entered carrying documents recovered from the Blackwood files.
“We found the original trust language.”
He placed several pages beside the DNA report.
Their father’s will divided power in an unusual way.
Adrian controlled Vale Holdings until Sophie turned eighteen.
At eighteen, Sophie would receive the largest voting block.
But another heir was listed.
A beneficiary identified only by initials.
E.V.
“Who is E.V.?” Elena asked.
Julian shook his head.
“The name is sealed in a separate schedule.”
“Do we have it?”
“No.”
Adrian examined the signatures.
“My father added this six months before Isabel’s accident.”
“Did he have another child?” Elena asked.
Julian laughed without humor.
“With our father, anything is possible.”
Sophie entered the office carrying the repaired photograph from Isabel’s room.
“Elena, I remembered something.”
She placed the picture on the desk.
It showed Isabel standing outside Blackwood House.
A teenage girl stood partly hidden behind her.
The girl wore a red scarf.
Mrs. Hart was not the first woman in the red scarf.
On the back of the photograph, Isabel had written:
ELLA, AGE 16.
Julian stared at it.
“E.V.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“Ella Vale.”
“You know her?” Elena asked.
“My cousin.”
Julian looked confused.
“Father said she died.”
Adrian shook his head.
“He said she disappeared.”
Ella was the daughter of Adrian’s uncle, Victor Vale.
Victor had died in a boating accident when Ella was ten.
Afterward, Adrian’s father became her guardian.
At sixteen, Ella vanished from boarding school.
The family claimed she had run away.
No body was ever found.
“If Ella was alive when Father changed the trust,” Adrian said, “she may be the second heir.”
Elena looked at Sophie.
“And the woman who met Isabel at Blackwood may have been protecting both of them.”
“Mrs. Hart knew Ella,” Julian said.
“Or helped hide her,” Adrian replied.
A message arrived on Elena’s phone.
Unknown sender.
It contained a photograph of Hannah sitting inside a train station.
Alive.
Beneath the image were coordinates and one sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT HER TO STAY THAT WAY.
Elena immediately showed Adrian.
“You are not going alone,” he said.
“They will kill her if they see security.”
“They may kill you regardless.”
“Hannah risked her life to preserve the evidence.”
Adrian stood.
“I am not allowing another person to disappear because of this family.”
Elena met his eyes.
“You don’t allow me to do anything.”
Julian stepped between them.
“Arguing is charming, but perhaps we could lie to the kidnappers.”
The coordinates led to Grand Central Terminal.
Elena arrived alone, visibly.
Adrian and Julian monitored from separate locations through security cameras arranged by federal investigators.
At exactly six fifteen, a woman in a red coat approached Elena.
She handed her a luggage ticket.
“Locker 317.”
“Where is Hannah?”
“Locker 317.”
The woman walked away.
Agents followed her.
Elena reached the locker.
Inside was a phone.
It rang.
She answered.
A distorted voice said, “Adrian’s security team is positioned near the west entrance, the lower concourse, and the taxi level.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
They could see everything.
“If you want Hannah alive, board the train leaving Track 24.”
“Where does it go?”
“Blackwood.”
“There is no train to Blackwood.”
“There is tonight.”
The call ended.
Elena looked toward the departure board.
Track 24 displayed no destination.
Only one word.
PRIVATE.
The doors opened.
May you like
Inside the otherwise empty train sat Mrs. Hart.
And beside her was Hannah.
