Chapter 14 - The Apology in the Hospital Room
Adrian woke after surgery to find Elias standing near the window.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Adrian’s face was pale. A bandage covered his side. Behind his left ear, visible beneath the hospital dressing, was the broken-circle birthmark.
Elias looked at it.
Adrian noticed.
“So I am Lucian?”
“We do not know.”
“Lydia said the real Lucian had the mark.”
“Victor copied it onto the third infant.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Of course he did.”
Elias set the red suitcase on a chair.
“Margaret was instructed to take both boys. She took one.”
“She said Victor gave her only one.”
“One of them remained inside the program.”
“Which?”
“We need the archive.”
Adrian looked toward him.
“Ortiz said the Continuity case needs our signatures and Vanessa’s.”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa is under arrest.”
“She may cooperate.”
“Do you trust her?”
“No.”
“Do you trust Sebastian?”
“No.”
“Do you trust me?”
Elias did not answer.
Adrian gave a weak smile.
“At least you are honest.”
Rain struck the hospital windows.
News helicopters circled outside.
Adrian’s expression became serious.
“I remember seeing you before.”
“At the wedding?”
“No. When we were children.”
Elias stepped closer.
“What do you remember?”
“A glass wall. You were crying. A woman carried you away.”
“Which woman?”
“I cannot see her face.”
“Anything else?”
“A song.”
“What song?”
Adrian hummed four quiet notes.
Elias froze.
Their mother had sung the same melody every night in the house near the sea.
He sat beside the bed.
“We were together.”
“Apparently.”
“You remembered me when I served your table.”
“I thought your face was familiar.”
“So you hit it.”
Adrian looked away.
“Yes.”
The shame in his face was real.
“I have no excuse.”
“You thought I was beneath you.”
“I thought everyone was beneath me.”
“That is worse.”
“I know.”
Adrian struggled to sit straighter.
“At the banquet, Sebastian forced me to kneel because of who you were.”
“He forced you to kneel because you assaulted me.”
“No. If you had been an ordinary waiter, the room would have let me continue.”
Elias said nothing.
Adrian looked directly at him.
“That is what I cannot stop thinking about. Every person there watched. I watched myself. I saw the kind of man I had become only after I learned the person I struck might be powerful.”
He swallowed.
“I do not want my apology to depend on you being a Hawthorne.”
Elias waited.
Adrian lowered his head.
“I am sorry for striking you. I am sorry for humiliating you. I am sorry I believed money gave me the right to decide who deserved dignity.”
The words were simple.
No cameras recorded them.
No guests applauded.
Elias studied his brother’s face.
“I accept that you understand what you did.”
Adrian looked up.
“That is not forgiveness.”
“No.”
“Fair enough.”
A small silence followed.
Adrian pointed toward the suitcase.
“What is inside?”
“The evidence from Lydia’s locker.”
Elias showed him the photographs and bracelets.
Adrian touched the image of Elena holding two infants.
“Our mother.”
“Perhaps.”
Adrian looked at him sharply.
“The DNA confirmed we share a mother.”
“It confirmed we share a biological parent and descend through Sebastian’s maternal line. Meridian altered records for decades. Until the archive is decoded, I trust nothing completely.”
Adrian’s hand tightened around the photograph.
“Do you think one of us is Baby C?”
“Yes.”
“Which?”
“I do not know.”
Adrian looked toward the rain.
“And what happens to the one who is not Elena’s son?”
“Nothing.”
“You say that now.”
“What do you expect me to say?”
“That the Hawthorne inheritance belongs to the real child.”
“I do not want Hawthorne Global.”
Adrian laughed.
“Neither did I until I learned it might not be mine.”
Elias almost smiled.
A nurse entered.
“You have another visitor.”
Sebastian appeared in the doorway.
Adrian’s expression closed.
The old man entered alone.
“I came to see both of you.”
Elias stood.
“You found me.”
Sebastian looked at Adrian.
“And nearly lost you.”
Adrian’s voice was cold.
“You did not know I existed.”
“I should have.”
“That seems to be your answer for many things.”
Sebastian accepted the insult.
“The board will meet tomorrow. They intend to appoint an interim controller.”
“Who?” Elias asked.
“Margaret.”
Adrian stared at him.
“She is under investigation.”
“She is still the legal temporary successor until your identity is confirmed.”
“Victor will reach her,” Elias said.
“He already has.”
Sebastian placed a phone on the bed.
A video message appeared.
Margaret sat in a dark room.
Victor stood behind her.
He held a gun near her shoulder.
“Gabriel. Lucian. Sebastian,” Victor said. “At noon tomorrow, bring the Continuity case and Elena’s archive key to the old Bellamy research center.”
Adrian tried to rise.
Pain forced him back.
Victor continued.
“If police enter the property, Margaret dies. If Vanessa is not brought with you, Margaret dies. If Thomas speaks to investigators before noon, Margaret dies.”
The camera moved closer.
Margaret’s face was bruised.
“I am sorry,” she whispered.
Victor gripped her hair.
“Tell them the rest.”
She began crying.
“The woman buried beneath Hawthorne House was not Elena.”
Elias went still.
Sebastian grabbed the phone.
Victor smiled.
“That body was placed there to end your search.”
“Where is my daughter?” Sebastian demanded.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
May you like
“Elena Hawthorne is alive.”
The video ended.
