Chapter 9 - The Mother’s Warning
Russell’s retrieval team returned to the medical residence before dawn.
They had found the bridal suite empty.
The letter was gone.
Thomas listened to the report without interruption.
Olivia stood by the window, still wearing Russell’s overcoat over her ruined wedding dress.
“Victor has it,” she said.
“Or Kendra,” Russell replied.
Thomas looked at Olivia.
“Do you remember anything your mother said when she gave it to you?”
“She told me to read it when I understood that love and forgiveness were not the same thing.”
Thomas closed his eyes briefly.
“That sounds like Eleanor.”
Olivia turned.
“You say her name like you knew her better than I did.”
“I knew her differently.”
“You abandoned both of us.”
Thomas did not defend himself.
Olivia hated that.
Part of her wanted him to fight back so she could keep hating him cleanly.
“What happened between you?” she asked.
Thomas looked toward Russell.
Russell quietly left the room.
Celia followed, closing the door.
Thomas remained seated.
“Your mother discovered I had concealed information about the Hayes investigation.”
“What information?”
“That Daniel Hayes had contacted me months before his death.”
Olivia stared at him.
“Why would he contact you?”
“He wanted help shutting down the behavioral program.”
“So you worked together?”
“For eleven weeks.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
“Did you cause the crash?”
Thomas’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Did you know it would happen?”
“No.”
“Did you benefit from his death?”
Thomas did not answer quickly enough.
Olivia felt cold.
“How?”
“After Daniel died, several Hayes patents were sold through bankruptcy. Hartwell companies acquired some of them.”
“You bought technology from the man you failed to protect.”
“I bought it to keep it away from Sebastian Vale.”
“Did you tell Mother?”
“Not until years later.”
“That’s why she left you.”
“That was one reason.”
“What was the other?”
Thomas stood and walked to a locked cabinet.
He removed a small metal box.
Inside were photographs, newspaper clippings, and a child’s bracelet.
Olivia recognized the bracelet.
She had worn it when she was seven.
Thomas placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Olivia as a child standing beside another girl of similar age. The second girl had dark hair and serious eyes.
“Who is she?”
“Her name was Mara.”
“I don’t remember her.”
“You were not supposed to.”
Olivia looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas sat down again.
“When you were seven, your mother volunteered at a pediatric rehabilitation center funded by Hartwell Foundation. Mara was a patient there.”
“What was wrong with her?”
“Nothing physical.”
“Then why was she there?”
“She had been placed in a behavioral conditioning trial without her parents’ knowledge.”
Olivia’s stomach tightened.
“The Voss program.”
“An early version.”
Thomas pointed to the photograph.
“You and Mara became friends. You saw each other almost every day for two months.”
“I don’t remember any of this.”
“That is because after Mara disappeared, you suffered nightmares, panic attacks, and memory gaps.”
Olivia touched the pendant.
“Disappeared how?”
“She was removed from the facility the night before investigators arrived.”
“By whom?”
“We never proved it.”
“Was she found?”
“No.”
Olivia pushed the photograph away.
“What does this have to do with Mother?”
“She discovered that your friendship with Mara was not accidental.”
Olivia’s voice became quiet.
“What are you saying?”
“You were observed.”
The room seemed to narrow around her.
“Observed by whom?”
“Elias Voss.”
Olivia remembered the photograph of Voss outside her apartment.
“He studied me when I was seven?”
“He studied how you responded to Mara. Whether you would protect her. Whether your loyalty could be predicted.”
“Why me?”
“Because you were my daughter.”
Thomas’s voice broke slightly.
“And because I was funding part of the center without knowing what the program truly was.”
Olivia stared at him.
“You financed it.”
“I financed rehabilitation research. Sebastian Vale redirected the money.”
“And Mother found out?”
“Yes.”
“Then she wrote the letter.”
“She wrote several.”
“What happened to them?”
“One was sent to a federal prosecutor. It disappeared.”
“Another?”
“Stored in our private archive. Taken tonight.”
“And the one she gave me?”
“Her final copy.”
Olivia looked at the dark city beyond the glass.
“Victor has it now.”
Thomas’s phone rang.
He answered.
A woman’s voice spoke rapidly through the speaker.
Thomas looked at Olivia.
“What is it?” she asked.
He ended the call.
“Victor has requested a private meeting.”
“With you?”
“No.”
May you like
Thomas’s eyes remained on Olivia.
“With his wife.”
