Chapter 13 - The Name Hidden in the Will
Dominic sealed the hotel before sunrise.
No employee was permitted to leave.
Every security badge was disabled except those belonging to Lucas and three trusted officers.
Someone had entered the vault using Dominic’s biometric authorization.
The system showed his fingerprint, retinal pattern, and voice command.
Dominic had been at Saint Catherine’s when the vault opened.
Lucas replayed the access log.
A perfect copy of Dominic’s voice said, “DeLuca authorization seven.”
Grace listened twice.
“That is not a recording.”
“No,” Lucas said. “The system requires a live response.”
“Then someone has his biological patterns.”
Dominic looked at the surgical marker behind Grace’s shoulder.
“Or someone was designed to match them.”
They searched the vault.
The missing letter had remained sealed for sixteen years. Dominic had never opened it because Elena instructed him to wait until Margaret was safe.
Now it was gone.
Only the black envelope remained.
Inside was a copy of Anthony DeLuca’s private will.
The document contained a clause omitted from the public estate records.
Upon verification of the surviving child of Saint Catherine’s Program E.V.E., all controlling shares of the DeLuca voting trust would transfer immediately to that person.
Grace reread the name.
“E.V.E.”
Lucas pulled up the hospital files.
“The initials on the child list were G.M., D.D., and E.V.”
Dominic looked at Margaret.
“Evelyn Vale.”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“The program may have been named after her.”
“Or she was named after the program,” Grace said.
Anthony’s will included a verification method.
Not DNA.
A sequence of encrypted medical markers located within the subject’s bone marrow.
Only one person possessed the full sequence.
Dr. Sebastian Vale.
Officially, Sebastian had died in Switzerland twenty-two years earlier.
Vale’s body had never been returned to the United States.
Grace examined the signature on the death certificate.
The certifying physician was Conrad Vale.
“He is alive,” she said.
Dominic looked at her.
“You think Conrad faked his brother’s death.”
“I think everyone connected to this has faked something.”
Margaret turned toward the city.
“Sebastian was obsessed with creating a child who could survive any hereditary disease.”
“Why involve the DeLuca inheritance?” Lucas asked.
“Anthony funded him. Sebastian offered him an heir who could not be challenged.”
Dominic’s expression turned bitter.
“A manufactured heir.”
Grace returned to Elena’s warning.
Do not trust the third child.
“Why would my mother say that?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Perhaps she discovered who the child became.”
Lucas searched the names of people born near the hospital date with sealed or amended records.
Thousands of results appeared.
Dominic looked at the will again.
“The heir would need to know enough to claim the trust.”
“And someone entered the vault using your identity,” Grace said.
“So the third child may already be here.”
A knock sounded at the penthouse door.
All three guards raised their weapons.
Lucas checked the monitor.
A young server stood outside.
Mia.
Grace opened the intercom.
“What is it?”
Mia looked terrified.
“I found something in the staff lockers.”
“What?”
“A man.”
The locker room had been cleared.
Harold Crane sat on the floor between two cabinets, his side heavily bandaged. He had disappeared from the medical suite before surgery.
Grace knelt.
“You should be in a hospital.”
“There is no safe hospital.”
Dominic stood over him.
“How did you enter the vault?”
Harold laughed weakly.
“I can barely stand.”
“You worked for Victoria.”
“I worked for Conrad.”
Lucas searched him and found a metal drive taped beneath the bandage.
Harold winced.
“Elena gave that to my father.”
“Who was your father?” Grace asked.
“The detective assigned to her death.”
Grace’s anger flared.
“He declared the fire accidental.”
“He was threatened. Conrad showed him photographs of my mother and me.”
“Why keep the drive?”
“My father hated himself for what he did. Before he died, he told me to get a job inside the DeLuca hotel and wait for Elena’s daughter.”
“You knew who I was when I applied?”
“Yes.”
“The forged recommendation?”
“I approved it.”
Grace stared at him.
“You brought me here.”
“I needed you to find the camera. Margaret would only reveal herself to someone connected to Elena.”
Dominic’s voice became dangerous.
“You staged the records office footage.”
“Victoria ordered it. I made sure the emerald ring was visible.”
“You wanted us to suspect her.”
“I wanted Grace to survive.”
Grace pointed to the drive.
“What is on it?”
“The final recording from Elena’s apartment.”
Lucas connected it to an isolated computer.
The video began with smoke filling the small kitchen.
Elena held the camera close to her face.
“Grace is not in the apartment,” she said. “You will never find her.”
Conrad Vale entered the frame.
He was younger but unmistakable.
“Elena, give me the facility records.”
“No.”
“The girl you took is not your daughter.”
“She is now.”
“You do not know what she is.”
“She is a child.”
“She is evidence.”
Victoria appeared behind him.
“Enough.”
A third figure entered the apartment.
His face remained outside the camera angle.
Elena looked at him.
“You.”
The man spoke.
“I warned you to stop searching.”
Grace’s breath caught.
She knew the voice.
She had heard it recently.
The camera fell sideways.
Through the smoke, Elena struggled with Victoria. Conrad moved toward the door, shouting that the fire had not been part of the plan.
The third man picked up the camera.
For one instant, his face appeared.
Lucas paused the recording.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Margaret made a broken sound.
May you like
Grace whispered the name.
“Lucas.”
