Chapter 13 - the names on the wall)
The facility beneath the hangar contained thirty-two rooms.
No children were there.
Not anymore.
But the walls remembered them.
Height marks.
Numbers.
Dates.
Initials.
Ava walked through the underground corridor wearing an evidence suit while police photographed everything.
Julian followed several feet behind.
One room contained old medical equipment.
Another contained filing cabinets.
A third contained dozens of photographs of children from different decades.
Ava could not look for long.
"What was this place?"
Nathan had explained from custody.
Halcyon had called it a verification center.
Children connected to disputed inheritances were brought there for private testing.
Some with parental consent.
Some without it.
Some under false medical pretenses.
Ava stopped in front of a wall covered with names.
Most were written in faded marker.
She scanned them.
Then froze.
AVA BENNETT.
Her own name.
Age 4.
She stepped backward.
Julian stared.
"You were here."
Ava could not breathe.
"I don't remember."
Marcus photographed the writing.
Beside Ava's name was a number.
HB-17.
Owen's hidden file had contained the same letters.
Bennett lineage.
Risk lineage.
Tracked across generations.
Ava pressed her palm to the wall.
Fragments of childhood memory moved somewhere beyond reach.
A white room.
A woman with silver hair.
Orange juice.
A needle.
A sticker shaped like a star.
Margaret.
Ava whispered, "She knew me."
Julian stepped closer.
"Who?"
"Margaret."
"How?"
"I think she was here."
Marcus found another record.
"Ava."
She turned.
He held a photograph.
A four-year-old girl stood beside a medical chair.
Dark hair.
Serious eyes.
Ava recognized herself.
Beside her stood Margaret Voss.
Younger.
But unmistakable.
Ava felt tears rise.
On the back of the photograph someone had written:
HB-17 CONFIRMED.
DIRECT THOMAS LINE.
Julian read it.
"So Nathan was right."
Ava shook her head.
"I don't care."
She looked at the hundreds of names.
"How many children?"
Marcus did not answer.
Too many.
At the end of the corridor, police found a recently used office.
Margaret had been there hours earlier.
A laptop remained open.
One file had been deliberately left visible.
OWEN MERCER.
Ava rushed forward.
Detective Walsh stopped her from touching the keyboard.
A technician opened the file.
Inside were photographs.
Owen at birth.
Owen at six months.
Owen's first birthday.
Owen at preschool.
Owen asleep in Ava's home.
Owen playing in Julian's garden.
Years of surveillance.
At the bottom was a status line.
CURRENT CUSTODIAL TRANSFER FAILED.
Ava's blood went cold.
"They were going to take him."
Walsh nodded.
"Looks that way."
Another line appeared.
SECONDARY RECOVERY PROTOCOL ACTIVE.
Julian looked at Marcus.
"What does that mean?"
Before anyone answered, Ava's phone vibrated.
A video call.
Unknown number.
Walsh immediately instructed the technicians to trace it.
Ava answered.
Margaret appeared.
She sat in the back of a moving vehicle.
Silver hair perfectly arranged.
Expression calm.
"Hello again, Ava."
Ava's voice shook with rage.
"You knew me when I was four."
Margaret smiled.
"You remembered."
"You tested me."
"I protected you."
"From what?"
"People worse than me."
Ava nearly laughed.
"You put cameras in my son's room."
"Not personally."
"You helped Sebastian."
"Temporarily."
"You stood inside the winter room."
Margaret's smile disappeared.
"That was not authorized."
Ava froze.
"What?"
"Sebastian became emotional."
"He tortured a child."
"Yes."
"And you did nothing."
"I removed myself from the project."
Ava could barely contain herself.
"You call my son a project again and I swear..."
Margaret interrupted.
"You still believe this is about money."
"Isn't it?"
"No."
"What is it about?"
Margaret looked out the vehicle window.
"Thomas Bennett stole more than documents from Halcyon."
"What?"
"He stole a key."
Ava stared.
"To what?"
"An archive."
"We already found Richard's archive."
"Richard's archive is a copy."
Ava looked toward Walsh.
Margaret continued.
"The original contains everything Halcyon ever did."
"Then expose it."
Margaret laughed softly.
"Do you think governments, dynasties and corporations want thirty years of hidden parentage made public?"
"I don't care what they want."
"You will."
"Why?"
"Because your family is inside it."
Ava's stomach tightened.
"So?"
"Not as victims."
Ava went still.
Margaret's voice softened.
"Ask your mother why she never told you who her father was."
Ava's anger sharpened.
"Thomas Bennett."
"No."
The word landed hard.
Ava stared.
Margaret continued.
"Thomas raised her."
"You're lying."
"He loved her."
"You're lying."
"But he was not her biological father."
Ava shook her head.
Margaret almost looked sympathetic.
"Your mother knows."
Ava's phone felt slippery in her hand.
"Who is her father?"
Margaret smiled sadly.
"That is the question Richard spent thirty years trying to answer."
The call ended.
Technicians began shouting about the trace.
Ava barely heard them.
Julian moved beside her.
"Ava."
She looked toward the wall.
AVA BENNETT.
DIRECT THOMAS LINE.
If Thomas was not her mother's biological father, then either the genetic file was wrong...
Or someone had falsified the results again.
Nothing could be trusted.
Not records.
Not graves.
Not blood.
Then Marcus opened a drawer inside Margaret's desk.
He found a photograph.
Recent.
It showed Celeste standing beside Margaret.
Both women were looking directly at the camera.
Behind them stood Sebastian.
The photograph had been taken three days after Celeste supposedly escaped from him.
May you like
Ava stared.
Celeste had lied again.
