Chapter 10 - The Second Recording
The video could not be traced.
The signal had passed through servers in six countries before reaching the hidden room. By the time investigators isolated the final connection, it had vanished.
Julian watched the recovered footage repeatedly.
The woman’s face appeared for only four seconds. Age had changed her, and the image quality was poor, but certain details felt impossible to dismiss.
The slight tilt of her head.
The narrow scar near her left eyebrow.
The way she touched the white rose before turning toward the camera.
Julian remembered that gesture.
Helena had touched flowers gently, as though apologizing for picking them.
Agent Monroe remained cautious.
“Memory is vulnerable when hope is involved,” she said.
“I know what my mother looked like.”
“You know what she looked like seventeen years ago.”
Julian shut the laptop.
“Then test the image.”
“We are.”
“Find the location.”
“We are.”
“Find whoever sent it.”
“We are.”
The investigator’s patience only made him feel more powerless.
Evelyn found him later in Helena’s old office on the eleventh floor. Conrad had converted most of the room into storage, but one bookcase and a green velvet chair remained.
Julian stood by the window.
“You should not be here alone,” Evelyn said.
“I am surrounded by federal agents.”
“That is not what I meant.”
He looked at her reflection in the glass.
“Do you think it was her?”
“I think someone wanted you to believe it was.”
“That was not my question.”
“No.”
He turned.
Evelyn stepped farther into the room.
“I do not know if it was her,” she said. “I know the person who sent the video understood exactly what you wanted to see.”
Julian sat in the green chair.
“My father told me she was dead. Miriam says she created a secret trust. Daniel watched a woman who looked like her. Now someone sends a live video.”
“All of those things may be connected without meaning Helena is alive.”
“And if she is?”
“Then we find out why she stayed hidden.”
The question Julian had been avoiding settled between them.
If Helena had survived, why had she never returned for him?
Evelyn understood abandonment too well to offer comfort built on guesses.
Instead, she handed him a folder.
“The forensic team found this behind the recording device.”
Inside was a transcript of a conversation dated two days before Evelyn’s car crash.
Daniel’s voice was identified.
The other speaker was Conrad.
Daniel had reported that Evelyn discovered the Northstar transfer.
Conrad instructed him to control her.
Daniel asked what would happen if she refused.
Conrad answered, “Use the Mercer protocol.”
“What is the Mercer protocol?” Julian asked.
“I believe it meant the crash.”
He read the transcript.
Daniel had asked about police attention.
Conrad assured him that the accident would be presented as emotional instability following marital stress.
Julian closed the folder.
“My father ordered your death.”
“Yes.”
“And you came to my wedding knowing he might do it again.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel had already taken my marriage, my reputation, and my mother’s trust. I was not going to let him take my certainty too.”
Julian studied her.
“You were not certain you would survive.”
“No.”
“Then why did you trust Lila’s message?”
“I did not trust her. I trusted the evidence she gave me.”
A knock sounded.
Agent Monroe entered with Miriam.
“We identified the pharmacy in Maine,” Monroe said. “The annual payments purchased medication for a patient registered under the name Eleanor Reed.”
“Is she the woman in the video?” Julian asked.
“We do not know. The pharmacy records were deleted this morning.”
“By whom?”
“A remote administrator using credentials belonging to the Vale Foundation.”
Miriam looked shaken.
“Only Conrad and I had those credentials.”
“You have not used them in seventeen years,” Monroe said.
“No.”
“Then someone preserved your access.”
They returned to the hidden office.
The forensic team had recovered deleted files from Daniel’s computer.
One was a second recording.
This time, the voices belonged to Daniel and Lila.
The date was the night before the wedding.
Daniel said, “You will complete the ceremony.”
Lila answered, “Julian will learn the truth.”
“After midnight, the truth will not matter.”
“I will give Evelyn the ledger.”
“You do not have the original.”
“I know where Miriam keeps it.”
Daniel paused.
Then he said, “You brought Miriam back?”
“No. Someone else did.”
“Who?”
Lila’s answer was nearly inaudible.
Agent Monroe increased the volume.
The final words filled the hidden room.
“Helena Vale.”
Everyone turned toward Lila.
She stood in the doorway.
“I never said that,” she whispered.
Monroe replayed the recording.
It was unmistakably Lila’s voice.
“I never had that conversation with Daniel,” Lila insisted. “Someone created it.”
Evelyn looked at the monitors.
A fabricated recording could discredit Lila’s testimony, redirect the investigation, or convince Julian that his mother was orchestrating events.
Someone was not merely hiding evidence.
They were manufacturing reality.
The same way Daniel had done to Evelyn.
A foundation employee entered the office holding a sealed package.
“This was delivered downstairs for Mr. Vale.”
There was no return address.
Julian opened it.
Inside was a small music box.
It had belonged to Helena.
When he lifted the lid, it played the lullaby she used to sing to him.
Beneath the mechanism was a handwritten note.
May you like
Julian recognized the handwriting immediately.
Do not trust the woman in red.
