Chapter 23 - The Man Behind the Man
We returned to the city with the recording playing over and over in my head.
Lucas was never the one Victor wanted.
Then who?
The investigator had the audio analyzed before we reached the station.
“No edits,” he said. “Original recording.”
Evan stood beside the window.
“Play it again.”
“I've already played it six times.”
“Play it.”
The investigator sighed and hit the button.
David's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, then Richard has failed.”
Again.
“Lucas is alive.”
Again.
“But there is one thing you must understand.”
Again.
“Lucas was never the one Victor wanted.”
The silence afterward was brutal.
Anna spoke first.
“He wanted Natalie.”
I looked at her.
“Why me?”
Anna didn't answer.
Evan did.
“Because you're the trustee.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“The trust lists you.”
“But I'm not family.”
“That may be exactly why.”
The investigator opened the original documents.
He spread them across the table.
“There's something strange about the legal structure.”
“How strange?”
“David created the trust with multiple classes of beneficiaries.”
Evan leaned in.
“And?”
“Your name, Natalie, appears in a different section.”
I stared at the page.
“Where?”
“Trustee succession.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your authority activates if the original beneficiary structure fails.”
Evan looked at me.
“So if one of the heirs dies…”
“Or disappears,” the investigator said, “Natalie becomes controlling trustee.”
Anna whispered, “David planned for someone to come after the family.”
I looked at the trust.
All those years.
Every argument.
Every disappearance.
Every lie.
It had all been building toward one moment.
The investigator turned another page.
“And there's more.”
He pointed.
“Here.”
A handwritten clause.
If four beneficiaries are not simultaneously present, control remains suspended.
Samuel looked confused.
“But there were only three of us.”
“Three recognized heirs,” Evan said.
“Until Lucas.”
Exactly.
The investigator nodded.
“Lucas doesn't merely inherit.”
“What does he do?”
“He activates the trust.”
Silence.
Evan stared at the paper.
“What is in it?”
“We don't know yet.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That's convenient.”
The investigator didn't smile.
“I mean it literally. The assets are held in a blind structure.”
“Blind to whom?”
“Everyone except the final beneficiary group.”
Anna's face tightened.
“Even David?”
“David created it. He knew the structure. But the actual inventory is sealed.”
“Where?”
“Probably inside the original trust archive.”
“Richard said he wanted the trust.”
“And now we know why.”
Evan suddenly stood.
“Where is Victor?”
The investigator looked at him.
“We don't know.”
“Then find him.”
“We're trying.”
“He has Lucas.”
“We know.”
“No. You don't.”
Evan pointed at the phone.
“My brother called us from somewhere. That means Victor allowed the call.”
The investigator nodded.
“That is important.”
“No,” Evan said. “It's terrifying.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Victor wants us to know Lucas is alive.”
The room went silent.
Evan continued.
“He could have hidden the boy.”
“He did.”
“But he let Lucas call.”
Anna understood first.
“He wants something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Evan looked at me.
“You.”
My phone rang again.
This time it was not an unknown number.
It was a local hospital.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A woman spoke.
“Ms. Lane?”
“Yes.”
“This is St. Matthew's pediatric records department.”
I frowned.
“Why are you calling me?”
“We found an old file connected to a patient named Lucas Brooks.”
My heart stopped.
“Where did you get it?”
“The archive.”
“Who requested it?”
The woman hesitated.
“A man named Victor.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
The investigator stood.
“Put her on speaker.”
I did.
“What did Victor ask for?”
“The original neonatal record.”
Diane gripped the edge of the table.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Lucas wasn't born there.”
The woman went silent.
Anna looked at her.
“What?”
The clerk spoke slowly.
“The file says he was.”
Diane began shaking.
The investigator asked, “What is the mother's name?”
The clerk turned a page.
“Diane Brooks.”
Diane closed her eyes.
The room went silent.
Then she whispered:
“I was there.”
Evan stared.
“What?”
Diane looked at him.
“I remember the room.”
Her voice broke.
“I remember the nurse.”
“You told us they never let you see him.”
“I didn't.”
“Then what happened?”
“I woke up.”
She swallowed.
“My baby was gone.”
“Mom…”
“I was told he had died.”
“Who told you?”
She looked at me.
“The doctor.”
“What doctor?”
Diane's lips trembled.
“Dr. Marcus Bell.”
The investigator immediately wrote the name down.
“Was he the attending?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
Diane squeezed her eyes shut.
“Yes.”
Everyone waited.
“There was a second woman in the room.”
“Who?”
“She wasn't hospital staff.”
“What did she say?”
Diane opened her eyes.
“She said, ‘Take him before David changes his mind.’”
Anna's face went white.
“David was there?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Diane looked toward Richard's empty chair.
“I don't know.”
The investigator made a call.
Thirty seconds later, he looked at us.
“Dr. Marcus Bell died twelve years ago.”
Evan exhaled.
“Convenient.”
“But,” the investigator continued, “his medical practice was sold.”
“To whom?”
A pause.
“Victor Lane.”
Anna stood.
“Victor didn't just take Lucas.”
She looked at us.
“He erased him.”
I felt cold all over.
And then a printer in the corner started running.
Nobody had touched it.
One sheet slid out.
The investigator grabbed it.
It was a medical record.
Lucas Brooks.
Born at 2:14 a.m.
Mother: Diane Brooks.
Father: David Brooks.
Status at discharge:
Deceased.
But beneath that word was a second line.
Correction issued twelve years later.
Alive.
May you like
The correction had been made yesterday.
By Victor.
