Chapter 14 - The Brother in the Glass
Police arrived before the guests could leave.
Cassandra was taken into custody, still wearing the gold gown that had made her appear untouchable an hour earlier.
Liam agreed to testify. His sister had been found in a Beaumont-owned apartment, frightened but unharmed. The second server was arrested near the service elevators.
Reginald Beaumont was detained after financial investigators discovered that his bank had processed Project Winter payments for more than two decades.
For the guests, it was a scandal.
For Adrian, it was the collapse of his family history.
Elena was examined in a private room upstairs. The doctor confirmed that she and the baby were safe, but ordered immediate rest.
Adrian remained beside her.
“I should have protected you.”
“You came when I needed you.”
“I should have come sooner.”
“You did not know.”
“I knew enough to cancel the ball.”
“And then we would not have found Elias’s account.”
Adrian looked toward the dark window.
“We have not found Elias.”
“No. But someone wanted us to know he exists.”
“Someone also pushed you.”
“Cassandra ordered that.”
“Cassandra ordered one attack. She did not create the Project Winter release. She did not forge my signature. She did not move the shares.”
Adrian took Elena’s hand.
“And she did not know about the message in the east wing.”
Elena remembered the final warning.
Do not trust the man who confessed too easily.
Victor waited in the adjoining study under guard.
When Adrian entered, his uncle was seated beneath a portrait of Evelyn Vale.
“You let me believe I was an only child,” Adrian said.
“I was ordered to.”
“You were an adult.”
“I was twenty-six and afraid of your father.”
“You helped him.”
“I helped your mother first.”
Adrian stopped.
Victor removed the silver ring and placed it on the table.
“The ring did not belong to Richard. It belonged to Evelyn.”
The inside carried a tiny engraved date.
The night of the fire.
“She gave it to me when she asked me to get Elias out,” Victor said.
“You rescued him?”
“I tried.”
“Where did you take him?”
“A clinic in Vermont operated under a false name. When I returned two days later, the building had been emptied.”
“And you never told me.”
“Richard threatened to place you back inside the program if I searched openly.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“You chose one child.”
“I chose the child I could still reach.”
Victor’s guilt appeared real.
That did not make it forgivable.
“Did you order anyone to take Elena’s file?”
“No.”
“Did you forge my voice on the recording?”
“No.”
“Did you move the shares?”
“I did not know Elias’s succession account remained active.”
Adrian studied him.
“Who did?”
Victor looked toward the glass doors overlooking the ballroom.
“Your mother.”
“She died twenty-two years ago.”
“I saw her body.”
“Did you?”
Adrian remembered a closed coffin. A funeral held under heavy security. His father refusing to let him say goodbye.
Victor rose slowly.
“Evelyn’s medical records were controlled by Project Winter.”
A movement appeared in the reflection behind him.
A man stood on the far side of the glass corridor.
He had Adrian’s height.
Adrian’s posture.
Adrian’s face.
Only the expression was different.
The stranger watched them for one silent second.
Then the lights went out.
Security rushed into the corridor.
When emergency power returned, the man was gone.
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On the glass, written through the winter condensation, were five words.
YOU WERE NEVER THE FIRSTBORN.
