Chapter 7 - The Archive Beneath the Chapel
Celia survived the gunshot.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder without striking an artery. She was transported to a secure federal medical facility under an assumed name.
Arthur and Beatrice escaped through an underground tunnel beneath the church.
Investigators found an abandoned vehicle three miles away, but no further trace of them.
Clara returned to the hospital with Lucas.
Julian remained beside her, but a new silence had formed between them.
His mother, Victoria Vance, had supposedly died of pneumonia when he was five. His father rarely spoke about her. Julian remembered a funeral, but children remembered what adults taught them to remember.
Daniel and Miriam worked through the night to secure access to Meridian House.
The silver key opened a hidden door beneath the abandoned chapel floor.
Behind it was a narrow staircase leading underground.
Federal investigators entered first.
They found a corridor sealed behind concrete blocks.
Beyond the corridor waited an archive untouched for more than twenty years.
Hundreds of boxes lined metal shelves.
Each box bore the silver emblem.
The circle divided by three lines.
The records included altered birth certificates, adoption files, drug trial reports, surgical photographs, and financial ledgers linking Meridian House to hospitals across six states.
Sterling Medical appeared on thousands of pages.
So did Vance Biomedical, the research company founded by Julian’s father.
Clara insisted on seeing the archive.
Her doctor protested.
Julian protested more strongly.
Clara went anyway.
She entered Meridian House in a wheelchair with Lucas remaining under armed protection at a nearby safe residence.
The building smelled of wet brick and old chemicals.
Celia’s hospital bracelet had been found in one of the upstairs rooms.
So had Clara’s.
Baby Girl March A.
Baby Girl March B.
Clara held the plastic band in her palm.
Her entire identity had once been reduced to a letter.
In the underground archive, investigators wore gloves and protective masks. Cameras documented every box before it was moved.
Daniel led Clara and Julian to a metal cabinet labeled 614.
Inside were Amelia Vance’s medical records.
Julian opened the first file.
Amelia had visited Meridian House secretly two weeks before her car accident.
She had interviewed two former nurses.
She had copied research documents.
She had also submitted a blood sample.
Clara read the laboratory report.
“Why would she test her blood?”
Julian turned the page.
The report identified a genetic match.
Amelia Vance and Celia March shared a maternal bloodline.
Clara stared at the result.
“That means Amelia was related to us.”
Julian looked toward the sealed boxes.
“Or the records were manipulated.”
Daniel opened another folder.
A birth certificate listed Amelia’s mother as Victoria Evelyn March.
Julian gripped the cabinet.
“My mother’s middle name was Evelyn.”
Clara felt the pieces shift.
Evelyn March, the woman Celia identified as their biological mother, might also have been connected to Julian’s mother.
Daniel found a handwritten family chart.
Evelyn March and Victoria March were sisters.
Clara looked at Julian.
“We’re not related, are we?”
Daniel quickly examined the dates.
“No. Evelyn gave birth to Clara and Celia. Victoria was Julian’s mother. You are connected through sisters, but there is no shared parentage.”
Relief passed through Clara, followed immediately by a deeper horror.
Their families had been linked before either of them was born.
Julian opened Amelia’s final recorded statement.
The audio was damaged, but technicians recovered several fragments.
Amelia’s young voice filled the archive.
“My father knows Victoria survived.”
A burst of static followed.
“He moved her after the trial failed.”
Another break.
“Arthur Sterling is not in charge. He answers to the Custodian.”
Julian stopped the recording.
“What custodian?”
No one answered.
Daniel found a ledger in the cabinet.
Payments from Sterling Medical and Vance Biomedical flowed into North Valley Preservation Holdings.
Every payment ended with a three-digit authorization code.
614.
Clara remembered Arthur’s warning in the hospital.
Ask Julian what happened in Room 614.
It was not only a room number.
It was an account.
A program.
Perhaps an organization.
At the bottom of the ledger, one final payment had been made three days earlier.
The recipient was a private security company.
The destination was listed as Vance Residence.
May you like
Julian’s home.
Where Lucas was waiting.
