Chapter 8 - The Suite Above the Ballroom
Executive Suite 1701 had been reserved under the name Mr. Gray.
No passport copy appeared in the hotel database.
Payment had been made through a corporate account belonging to a dissolved company once controlled by Victor Sloane.
Elias entered the Grand Aurelia through the underground parking level at two forty in the morning.
The hotel remained surrounded by police and reporters.
Miriam had refused treatment at a hospital. Instead, one of her contacts, a retired military medic, was treating her at a private apartment.
Elias carried the red suitcase and wore the jacket taken from the dead Meridian operative.
The access card opened the staff elevator.
He reached the seventeenth floor without being questioned.
The corridor was empty.
Suite 1701 stood at the end.
The card opened the door.
Inside, all the lights were on.
No one was present.
The dining table held photographs of every person at the wedding.
Sebastian.
Adrian.
Vanessa.
Charles.
Margaret.
Elias.
Lines connected their images to documents pinned across the wall.
A photograph of Elena was placed at the center.
Elias moved closer.
Beneath his own photograph, someone had written:
GABRIEL CANDIDATE.
Beneath Adrian’s:
LUCIAN CANDIDATE.
Beneath Vanessa’s:
M-01 CARRIER?
He stared at the final note.
Carrier.
Not candidate.
He searched the room.
Inside the bedroom closet, he found men’s clothing in several sizes, medical equipment, and a locked aluminum case.
The dead attacker’s key opened it.
Three glass tubes rested in refrigerated compartments.
Each contained a blood sample.
Labels identified them.
ELIAS MERCER.
ADRIAN WHITMORE.
VANESSA BELLAMY.
Someone had collected DNA from all three.
A laptop sat beside the case.
Elias opened it.
The screen requested a password.
He entered Elena’s birth date.
Incorrect.
He tried the date of the crash.
Incorrect.
Then he noticed the black crown symbol reflected in the mirror.
Three points.
Three infants.
He entered M-01.
The computer unlocked.
Files filled the screen.
Most were encrypted, but one video remained accessible.
The recording showed Victor Sloane seated in the suite.
The date was three days earlier.
He looked older than in the photographs. His hair had turned white. A scar crossed his jaw.
Vanessa stood near the window.
“You told me Adrian would inherit,” she said.
“He will, if Gabriel remains legally dead.”
“And if he does not?”
“Then the trust passes to Gabriel.”
“What about the second twin?”
“Lucian possesses no controlling claim.”
“Does Adrian know?”
“No.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“You expect me to marry a man who may soon own nothing.”
Victor smiled.
“You are not marrying him for ownership.”
“Then why?”
“To bring all three surviving subjects into the same building.”
Vanessa looked toward the camera.
“Three?”
“Gabriel. Lucian. And you.”
Her expression changed.
“What am I?”
Victor leaned back.
“The question you should ask is whose child you are.”
The video ended.
Elias opened another file.
A DNA comparison chart appeared.
The final result had not yet been completed.
Samples pending.
A floorboard creaked behind him.
Elias turned.
Sebastian stood in the doorway with his cane.
“How did you find me?” Elias asked.
“I did not. I came to the suite because Victor once used it.”
“You knew he was alive.”
“I suspected.”
“You have done a great deal of suspecting while telling me nothing.”
Sebastian entered and closed the door.
“I deserve that.”
“Lydia Crane said you questioned my mother after the crash.”
The old man’s expression darkened.
“She is alive?”
“Perhaps. Answer me.”
Sebastian sat.
“I did not question Elena.”
“She named you.”
“She may have seen someone she believed was me.”
“Do you have a twin?”
“No.”
“A brother?”
Sebastian looked toward the photographs on the wall.
“I had an older brother.”
Elias waited.
“Alexander?”
“No. Alexander was my son.”
“Who was your brother?”
“Marcus Hawthorne.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was removed from the family records after attempting to kill our father.”
“Did he die?”
“I watched his prison transport burn.”
“Did you see his body?”
Sebastian was silent.
Elias laughed without humor.
“Your family seems to create many convenient bodies no one actually sees.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“You are right.”
The admission surprised Elias.
Sebastian continued.
“Marcus believed inheritance should belong to the strongest descendant, not merely the firstborn. He founded the earliest version of the Meridian Circle.”
“The genetic program.”
“At first, it was presented as medical research. Later, Marcus began studying how children could be conditioned, replaced, and raised inside powerful families.”
“And you allowed it?”
“I exposed him.”
“But the program continued.”
“Victor revived it.”
Elias pointed toward Vanessa’s image.
“What does carrier mean?”
“I do not know.”
“You know more than you admit.”
“I know that Elena believed Marcus survived.”
“Did she tell you?”
“She left me a letter before the crash.”
“Where is it?”
“Stolen.”
“By Margaret?”
Sebastian lowered his eyes.
“By my son Alexander.”
Elias stared at him.
“You said Alexander died before Elena.”
“He did.”
“How?”
“He drove his car into the sea after learning that Elena was in love with Julian Mercer.”
Elias slowly understood.
“Alexander was obsessed with my mother.”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus used that obsession.”
“I believe so.”
“Did they create the third infant?”
Sebastian looked at the three blood samples.
“Perhaps the third child was Alexander’s.”
A soft click came from the bedroom.
The aluminum case had begun uploading its files remotely.
Elias unplugged the laptop, but the transfer continued through an internal device.
He opened the back panel and tore out the transmitter.
Too late.
A message appeared on the screen.
DNA ANALYSIS COMPLETE.
Three results loaded.
Subject Elias shared a biological parent with Subject Adrian.
Both were maternal descendants of Sebastian Hawthorne.
Elias exhaled.
They were truly twins.
Then the third result appeared.
Subject Vanessa shared a paternal bloodline with Sebastian Hawthorne.
Sebastian read it twice.
“That cannot be.”
Elias looked at him.
“Your son Alexander had a child.”
Sebastian’s face hardened.
“Vanessa is my granddaughter.”
May you like
The suite door locked automatically.
Gas began hissing from the ventilation system.
