Chapter 19 - Victor’s First NameThe passage ended beneath an abandoned chapel two streets from the estate.
Police vehicles surrounded the area.
Elena Ward waited beside an unmarked car.
She looked at Mara and stopped breathing.
“Celeste?”
“No,” Victor said. “Her name is Mara.”
Elena recovered quickly.
“You need to leave. The mansion’s electrical system is burning from the inside. Someone designed the damage to destroy evidence.”
“What happened to August’s men?”
“Two were arrested. The others disappeared into the tunnels.”
Victor handed her Celeste’s files.
“Protect these.”
Elena opened the first folder.
Her face changed when she reached Victor’s birth record.
“What?”
She showed him the page.
VICTOR ORCHARD.
No surname.
A second document recorded his placement with Thomas and Evelyn Hale at eleven months old.
Adrian read over his shoulder.
“That cannot be real.”
Mara spoke quietly.
“It is.”
Victor looked at her.
“You knew?”
“I knew there was a Hale child in the program. I did not know which brother.”
Adrian searched the files until he found his own birth certificate.
It appeared legitimate.
Victor’s did not.
Ethan touched his father’s coat.
“Are you still Daddy?”
Victor looked down.
The question cut through every name on the page.
“Yes.”
“Then why are you scared?”
Victor folded the document.
“Because someone lied to me for a long time.”
Elena closed the file.
“There is something else. The placement authorization was signed by August Hale.”
“He selected me?”
Mara shook her head.
“He selected your parents.”
A telephone rang inside the abandoned chapel.
There was no telephone connected to the building.
Yet the sound continued.
Victor entered alone.
An old receiver rested on the altar.
He answered.
August said, “Now you understand why the trust belongs to Ethan.”
“Because I am not a Hale?”
“No.”
May you like
August paused.
“Because Ethan is the first Hale child born without my permission.”
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