Chapter 13 - The Choice Elena Refused to Make
Thomas entered the room with the calm confidence of a man returning to his own property.
Vanessa pushed Lydia forward.
The elderly nurse was weak from blood loss, but conscious.
Elias raised his weapon.
Vanessa pressed the gun harder against Lydia’s temple.
“Lower it.”
“Are you acting freely?” Elias asked.
Her eyes flashed.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“No one in this family has ever acted freely.”
Thomas smiled.
“An intelligent answer.”
Sebastian stood.
“Release Lydia.”
Thomas looked around the room.
“You preserved it well.”
“You built this beneath my house.”
“Marcus began it. I improved it.”
Elias kept the gun aimed.
“What is inside the Continuity case?”
“The legal ownership structure of Meridian’s replacement network.”
“Names?”
“Names, bloodlines, trusts, contingency identities.”
“And the protected successor?”
Thomas glanced toward Vanessa.
“She believes it is her.”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“You told me Alexander’s child would control the network.”
“I told you Alexander’s bloodline was essential.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“You heard what you wanted.”
Vanessa shifted the gun toward Thomas.
Lydia immediately ducked.
Elias moved, but Thomas drew a smaller weapon and aimed at Sebastian.
Four people stood in a deadly circle.
Vanessa looked at Elias.
“Do not pretend you are different from them.”
“I am not holding a nurse hostage.”
“I brought her alive.”
“You helped burn the safe house.”
“I arrived after Victor’s men.”
“Lydia identified you.”
“I took the ledger before they could.”
“Why?”
“To learn what I am.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“I spent my entire life believing Charles and Diana were my parents. Then Victor told me I was selected before birth, raised for one marriage, and monitored through every school, friendship, and relationship.”
“That does not justify what you did at the wedding.”
Vanessa looked away.
“No.”
“You tripped the waiter.”
“Yes.”
“You arranged the public incident.”
“I was ordered to make you appear incompetent. Adrian made it violent.”
“And you encouraged him.”
Her silence admitted it.
Thomas grew impatient.
“This moral discussion is touching, but unnecessary.”
He pointed toward the silver watch in Elias’s pocket.
“Give me the film.”
“No.”
“The archive key has no value to you without the decoder.”
“Which is inside the Continuity case.”
“Correct.”
Sebastian understood.
“You need all three of them alive to open it.”
“For the moment.”
“What happens afterward?”
Thomas smiled.
“History becomes editable.”
Lydia struggled to stand.
“Elena already defeated you.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Elena died in this room.”
Elias went still.
“You said her body was close.”
“It remains beneath the floor.”
Sebastian’s face twisted.
Thomas continued casually.
“She refused to surrender the archive key. Victor lost control.”
Elias’s weapon shook.
“How did she die?”
“Victor struck her. The injury was not immediately fatal. She had an opportunity to cooperate.”
“You let her die.”
“She chose silence.”
Elias moved forward.
Vanessa blocked him.
“Do not give him what he wants.”
“He murdered my mother.”
“No,” Thomas said. “Victor did.”
“You built the room.”
“Yes.”
“You ordered the interrogation.”
“Yes.”
“You watched.”
“Yes.”
Each answer pushed Elias closer to firing.
Then Elena’s recorded words returned to him.
Anger reveals nature.
Thomas wanted proof that Elias could be controlled through rage.
Elias lowered the gun.
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
“You disappoint me.”
“Good.”
Sebastian suddenly drove his cane into Thomas’s wrist.
The gun fired into the wall.
Vanessa turned her weapon toward Thomas.
Elias pulled Lydia aside.
Thomas struck Sebastian and ran toward the stairs.
Vanessa fired.
The bullet hit Thomas in the shoulder.
He fell against the doorway.
“You ungrateful child,” he hissed.
Vanessa approached him.
“I was never your child.”
“No. You were my correction.”
She aimed at his head.
Elias caught her wrist.
“Do not.”
“He deserves it.”
“Yes.”
“Then release me.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Why should you decide?”
“Because killing him before he reveals the network protects everyone involved.”
Thomas laughed despite the blood spreading across his coat.
“Gabriel finally understands.”
Sirens sounded above the estate.
Ortiz and armed officers entered the passage.
Thomas looked surprised.
Elias had activated the emergency signal on Sebastian’s security device before entering the room.
Ortiz arrested Thomas.
Vanessa surrendered after a long silence.
Lydia was carried out by paramedics.
Sebastian remained beside the bed.
Elias found a seam in the concrete floor.
Police technicians opened it hours later.
They discovered a sealed compartment containing human remains wrapped in a blue hospital sheet.
A silver ring lay beside the bones.
Sebastian recognized it as Elena’s.
Elias did not cry.
Not there.
He stood silently while the remains of the mother he had searched for his entire life were removed from the room where his grandfather had abandoned her.
Before leaving, Lydia gave Elias the stolen ledger.
“Vanessa saved this from the fire,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the first name in it belongs to her mother.”
“Her biological mother?”
Lydia nodded.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I do not know. But she was not an ordinary research assistant.”
“Who was she?”
Lydia lowered her voice.
“Diana Bellamy’s younger sister.”
Elias looked toward Vanessa as officers led her away.
Vanessa had been raised by her own aunt without knowing the truth.
Lydia continued.
“There is something else. Adrian has the broken-circle birthmark.”
“Then he is Lucian.”
“Perhaps.”
“You sound uncertain.”
“Because Victor also placed the same mark on Baby C before the exchange.”
Elias stared at her.
May you like
“Why?”
“So no one could ever prove which boy was genuine without the archive.”
