Chapter 29 - THE FOUNDING VAULTTheodore insisted the warning was another manipulation.
Samuel was not convinced.
“Evelyn knows more about Orpheus than she admitted.”
“She was trapped inside a coffin,” Theodore said.
“Or placed there to make us trust her.”
Cassandra looked between them.
Evelyn had been her mother for most of her life.
Yet every family relationship around Orpheus had become suspect.
They gathered at the Hart estate before dawn.
The house stood empty beneath a storm-dark sky.
Amelia had not entered since childhood.
Her memories of the place arrived in fragments: Helen playing piano, Theodore arguing behind closed doors, Sebastian watching from the staircase.
Lucy remained close to Helena.
Nathaniel noticed, but said nothing.
The founding vault was hidden beneath the library.
Theodore pressed his palm to a portrait of Sebastian.
The wall opened.
Evelyn stood on the other side.
She held a weapon against Theodore’s chest.
“I warned you.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“Put it down.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You still believe I am your wife.”
Samuel stopped.
Cassandra whispered, “Mother?”
Evelyn’s expression softened.
“I raised you. That part was real.”
She revealed that the woman named Evelyn Kane had died when Julian was an infant.
The current Evelyn was an Orpheus continuity operative named Margaret Shaw.
She had been assigned to monitor Julian and Samuel.
“Does Julian know?” Amelia asked.
“He discovered it at seventeen.”
That was why he had never seemed shocked by false identities.
He had grown up beside one.
Evelyn—Margaret—explained that Theodore’s biometric access would not merely open the vault.
It would transfer the Correction Protocol to him.
Sebastian had registered Theodore as the final custodian.
“If Theodore touches the door,” she said, “Gabriel loses control.”
“That sounds useful,” Nathaniel replied.
“Until you understand the custodian’s command.”
Theodore looked toward the vault.
“What command?”
Margaret answered.
“Kill the successors before anyone else can control them.”
Theodore’s face went pale.
Sebastian had ensured his son would eventually be ordered to murder his own children.
A sound came from inside the sealed vault.
Three slow knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Pause.
Three.
The same distress code Samuel had used at the coffin.
Someone was trapped inside.
Lucy touched the metal door.
A child’s voice whispered from beyond it.
“Amelia?”
Amelia froze.
The voice sounded exactly like her at seven years old.
May you like
Then it said:
“Mom says you took my place.”
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