Chapter 12 - The Room Behind the Study
Back at the estate, I locked Marcus in the study with me.
Not literally.
But I stood between him and the door.
"What happened the night I was born?"
He looked exhausted.
"I don't know."
"Patricia thinks you do."
"Patricia weaponizes uncertainty."
"That is not an answer."
"No. It is the truth."
Victoria sat near the broken window.
Daniel was in custody again.
Patricia too.
Sophie had gone with protective services and an attorney.
The house was quiet for the first time.
I hated it.
Marcus opened the hidden archive.
"Jonathan left more recordings."
"Then we watch all of them."
"Emily-"
"All."
We started with the oldest.
Jonathan talking about Samuel.
Peter.
Michael Cross.
Patricia.
How the companies formed.
How Samuel discovered Patricia siphoning funds.
How Michael helped her.
How Peter tried to expose them.
How Jonathan hid records.
Then a video dated four months after my father's official death.
Jonathan looked weaker.
"I have confirmed the poisoning."
My hands went cold.
"Who?"
He answered.
"Dr. Porter administered a compound under Patricia's instruction."
Marcus whispered, "We suspected."
I turned.
"You did not know."
"No."
Jonathan continued.
"Patricia believed I was dead. Keep it that way."
I closed my eyes.
He had been alive.
Fighting.
While I cried in an empty cemetery.
The next video.
Six months after his death.
"If Daniel has married Emily, the contingency remains active."
I looked at Marcus.
He looked away.
Then:
"I do not know whether Daniel will choose Patricia or Emily."
My throat tightened.
"He may surprise us."
He had.
Too late.
Next recording.
Nine months.
"Peter contacted me."
I leaned forward.
"He claims Emily's birth file is connected to the original Cross-Vance structure."
Marcus stared.
"This is new."
Jonathan continued.
"I do not believe him."
Then he coughed.
Hard.
When he looked back up, his face had changed.
"But I checked the hospital archive."
My fingers dug into the desk.
"Someone accessed Emily's newborn records three times after her birth."
Victoria whispered, "Who?"
The video continued.
"Michael Cross."
Silence.
Daniel's father.
At the hospital the night I was born.
I turned to Marcus.
"You knew?"
"No."
Jonathan said, "There is one more name."
The screen distorted.
Then:
"Samuel Vance."
Victoria stood.
"What?"
Her father too.
My birth.
Their money.
The deed chain.
All of it converging before I had a name.
Jonathan leaned toward the camera.
"If Patricia ever learns I found this, she will move Daniel faster."
My phone buzzed.
A message from county jail.
Daniel requesting emergency contact.
I ignored it.
Jonathan continued.
"Emily, if you are watching this, there is something about your birth I chose not to tell you."
My breath stopped.
He reached off-screen.
Lifted a file.
Original Birth Record.
The same title Patricia had thrown at us.
Then the power cut.
The monitor went black.
Not the house.
Only the archive.
Marcus swore.
Victoria checked the cables.
Someone had remotely disabled the system.
A red light blinked on the network panel.
External access.
User:
PETER HALE.
My phone rang.
Peter.
I answered.
"Turn it back on."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because Jonathan was wrong about one thing."
"What?"
"You were never supposed to be a Hale."
May you like
CUT.
