Chapter 29 - The Blue Door
We reached the old courthouse at midnight.
The building had been closed for years.
Rain hammered the stone steps.
The investigator wanted to send a tactical team.
I refused.
Not because I trusted Victor.
Because the message had been explicit.
Come alone.
Evan wouldn't let me go.
Neither would Anna.
Finally, the investigator made a compromise.
Two officers would be hidden inside the building.
Everyone else would stay outside.
I carried the trust deed.
A recorder was attached beneath my coat.
Evan stood beside me.
“Don't do anything stupid.”
I looked at him.
“You're asking the wrong person.”
He almost smiled.
Then he became serious.
“If Lucas is there…”
“I know.”
“No.”
He took my hand.
“If he asks you to choose between him and the trust, choose him.”
I stared at him.
“You don't understand.”
“I do.”
He squeezed my hand.
“David built that thing. Victor destroyed lives for it. Richard killed for it.”
He looked at the building.
“Lucas is a kid.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
We entered.
The courthouse was dark.
The blue door wasn't hard to find.
It was behind the old records room.
Painted blue.
Exactly as Rachel had described.
The investigator whispered through my earpiece.
“We're in position.”
I opened the door.
Stairs descended into darkness.
At the bottom was a concrete corridor.
A light flickered.
Then a voice.
“Natalie.”
Victor.
I stopped.
“You came.”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“No.”
I felt the trap immediately.
A screen turned on.
Rachel appeared.
She was sitting in a chair.
Lucas sat beside her.
Alive.
Safe.
And beside them stood Victor.
He looked older than the photographs.
But calm.
“Put the trust on the table.”
I did.
Victor stared at it.
“You know what this means?”
“I know you want it.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I want what it controls.”
“What does it control?”
“The merger.”
Evan's voice crackled in my earpiece.
I looked at Victor.
“You need Lucas.”
Victor nodded.
“I need all four beneficiaries.”
“Then why keep us apart?”
“Because one of them is compromised.”
I froze.
“Who?”
Victor looked directly at the camera.
“Evan.”
My stomach dropped.
Evan's voice came through my earpiece.
“Don't listen to him.”
Victor smiled.
“Ask him about the account.”
“What account?”
Evan was silent.
I turned toward him.
He wasn't there.
I spun around.
The corridor behind me was empty.
My heart pounded.
“Where is Evan?”
Victor laughed.
“He never came inside.”
The screen changed.
A second camera angle showed Evan outside the building.
Two men had him.
One gun pressed against his head.
Anna screamed through my earpiece.
“Natalie!”
Victor continued.
“Your brother is not the man you think he is.”
I stared at Evan on the screen.
He was fighting.
One of the men struck him.
“Stop!”
Victor smiled.
“Then ask him.”
The microphone was turned on.
I could hear Evan breathing hard.
“Evan.”
He looked at the camera.
“Natalie, don't…”
Victor grabbed him.
“Tell her.”
Evan closed his eyes.
Victor whispered something in his ear.
Evan's expression changed.
Then he looked straight into the camera.
“I remember.”
I felt my blood run cold.
“Remember what?”
Evan swallowed.
“The night Lucas disappeared.”
Victor stepped back.
Evan continued.
“I was there.”
Anna screamed.
“What?”
I couldn't breathe.
“You were six.”
“I know.”
“Where?”
“Under the hospital.”
Evan looked at me.
“Dad took me.”
The screen shook.
Victor stepped closer.
“Tell her what you saw.”
Evan whispered:
“Lucas wasn't taken.”
Silence.
“He was traded.”
Diane screamed through the speaker.
“No!”
Evan continued.
“David gave Lucas to Victor.”
I couldn't process it.
“Why?”
Evan looked broken.
“Because Lucas wasn't safe with Mom.”
Diane's voice cracked.
“Why?”
Evan looked away.
Victor smiled.
“There it is.”
The lights inside the room suddenly came on.
A wall opened behind Lucas.
Another room appeared.
Inside were shelves filled with files.
Photographs.
Birth certificates.
Trust documents.
And dozens of names.
Some were crossed out.
Some were circled.
I stepped closer.
Victor said:
“David wasn't protecting the family.”
He pointed to the files.
“He was building a network.”
I looked at the wall.
Every file had the same symbol.
A blue circle.
Then I saw one name.
Natalie Lane.
My file.
Beside it:
Activated.
Date: yesterday.
I felt sick.
“You knew about me.”
Victor smiled.
“Of course.”
“How long?”
“Since before you met Evan.”
Evan shouted:
“Don't believe him!”
Victor looked at him.
“Your brother finally remembers.”
I turned.
“Evan, what does he mean?”
Evan struggled against the men holding him.
“My father didn't choose the trust.”
“What?”
“He inherited it.”
The room went silent.
“From who?”
Evan looked at Lucas.
“His father.”
I stared.
“David's father?”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Your father.”
I stopped breathing.
Victor smiled.
“Finally.”
My father.
The trust.
Natalie Lane.
Lucas.
The blue room.
Everything I thought I knew about my family began collapsing at once.
Then the hidden wall opened completely.
And behind it was another door.
A second blue door.
Victor looked at it.
“You wanted to know what David was protecting his children from.”
He smiled.
“Open it.”
The door clicked.
Someone inside spoke.
“Please.”
The voice was a child's.
Lucas.
But the Lucas standing beside Victor was still there.
I looked from one boy to the other.
My blood froze.
There were two children.
Same age.
May you like
Same face.
And both of them were Lucas.
