Chapter 20 - The Child August Could Not NameThe chapel doors locked behind Victor.
He pulled at them, but the handles would not move.
August’s voice filled the old speakers.
“Thomas believed raising you as his son would make you loyal.”
“You ordered him to adopt me.”
“I gave him a purpose.”
“You gave him a stolen child.”
“Every family begins by choosing which truth to preserve.”
Victor looked toward the stained-glass windows.
Outside, Marcus attempted to break the doors.
“What is Ethan supposed to open?”
“The original registry.”
“Why can’t you open it?”
“Celeste changed the access conditions.”
“To Ethan?”
“To a child born from two Orchard lines.”
Victor tightened his grip on the receiver.
“Celeste was one of you.”
“She was created for us. She forgot that.”
“What happens if Ethan opens the registry?”
“Every identity, every transfer and every living replacement becomes visible.”
“Then why do you want it?”
“Because Celeste added a second command.”
August’s voice lost its amusement.
“She gave Ethan the power to erase us.”
Victor understood.
August did not want the archive.
He wanted control of Ethan before anyone else could use that power.
The chapel doors burst inward.
Marcus entered with Adrian and Lily.
Victor set down the receiver.
“Where is Ethan?”
Lily turned.
He had been standing beside her seconds earlier.
Now the space was empty.
Mara was gone too.
A small white card lay on the floor.
On it was a sentence in Celeste’s handwriting.
Trust the woman who remembers the blue room.
Victor looked toward the road.
An ambulance moved away from the chapel.
No emergency lights.
No siren.
Marcus ran to the police car.
Victor called Elena.
She did not answer.
Then a message appeared from her number.
A photograph showed Ethan sitting beside Mara inside the ambulance.
He was unharmed.
May you like
Beneath it were four words.
She is taking him home.
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