Chapter 45 - The Voice
Nobody moved.
The phone remained against my ear.
I could still hear the static.
I pressed redial.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
“Who was it?” Evan asked.
“My father.”
David shut his eyes.
My mother sat down hard on the stone bench.
“Samuel.”
I stared at her.
“You knew he could call.”
“I knew he was alive.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
She looked at me.
“Because I didn't know whether he wanted you to find him.”
“He just called me.”
“I know.”
The investigator entered the room.
“Enough.”
He held a bloodstained sleeve.
“I found Jonathan.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“North passage.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Elias?”
The investigator looked toward David.
“Gone.”
David swore.
“How?”
“The old man had another exit.”
I looked at the walls.
“How many exits does this house have?”
The investigator gave me a tired look.
“Enough to lose an army.”
A monitor came to life.
A map of the mansion appeared.
Then the grounds.
Then a second structure.
Far beneath the estate.
A small red square blinked.
I pointed.
“What is that?”
David stepped closer.
“The original archive.”
“There's another chamber?”
“Yes.”
“Of course there is.”
Evan almost smiled despite everything.
“Apparently secrecy is a family tradition.”
My mother didn't smile.
“The archive is where Samuel would be.”
“Then we go.”
David blocked the map.
“No.”
“Stop telling me no.”
“You don't understand what the archive contains.”
“Then tell me.”
“Proof.”
“Of?”
“Every identity alteration.”
My stomach tightened.
“My birth?”
“Your birth. Evan's. Jonathan's records. Elias's transfers. The six beneficiaries' histories.”
The investigator looked at him.
“That would be enough to dismantle everything.”
David shook his head.
“Only if we can authenticate it.”
I looked at the trust ledger.
“That's why I'm needed.”
“Yes.”
“And Evan.”
“Yes.”
“And David.”
The room went quiet.
“Yes.”
I understood.
“The witness.”
David nodded.
“If we enter the archive, the system records every action.”
“And if you betray us?”
“The system locks us out.”
“And if I betray Evan?”
“Same.”
“And if Evan betrays me?”
“Same.”
Evan looked at me.
“So the system is forcing trust.”
“No,” my mother said.
“It is forcing accountability.”
That distinction mattered.
We moved through the lower tunnel.
The archive entrance required three keys.
Mine.
Evan's.
David's.
When David placed his hand on the scanner, the system paused.
“WITNESS VERIFIED.”
Then:
“LIAR DETECTED.”
David recoiled.
My heart stopped.
The investigator raised his weapon.
“Who is the system calling a liar?”
David looked at me.
“Me.”
A new message appeared.
“STATEMENT INVALID.”
“What statement?”
David swallowed.
“The statement that Samuel is the missing sixth.”
I stared.
“It's false?”
David said nothing.
“David!”
“I never said I knew who the sixth was.”
“You just told us.”
“I told you what I believed.”
My mother stood.
“Then what is the truth?”
The system displayed a new line.
“FAMILY RECORD CORRUPTED.”
Then another.
“ORIGINAL PATERNITY UNRESOLVED.”
I stared at the word.
Paternity.
Evan stepped back.
“Wait.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“My record was altered.”
“Yes.”
“So was yours.”
“Yes.”
“What if Samuel isn't your father?”
My mother looked at him.
“He is.”
“Then why doesn't the system recognize it?”
No one answered.
Then the archive doors opened.
Inside was a room lined with servers.
Old drives.
Paper files.
Photographs.
Boxes.
And one chair.
Samuel sat in it.
He was older than I remembered from the family photographs.
His hair was almost completely gray.
His face was thinner.
But his eyes were the same.
My mother whispered his name.
“Samuel.”
He stood.
She ran to him.
They embraced.
David looked away.
I couldn't move.
My father looked at me.
“Natalie.”
I finally stepped forward.
“You called me.”
“I did.”
“Why now?”
“Because Elias activated the trust.”
“He said I activated it.”
Samuel nodded.
“You did.”
“How?”
He looked at the ring on my hand.
“That ring isn't your inheritance.”
I frowned.
“Then what is it?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
He looked toward a locked cabinet.
“To the part of the trust Elias never found.”
David stepped forward.
“I thought that chamber was destroyed.”
Samuel smiled sadly.
“You were always very good at believing what I needed you to believe.”
David looked hurt.
“Samuel…”
“No.”
Samuel's voice hardened.
“You don't get to hide behind regret.”
David dropped his gaze.
Samuel turned toward me.
“Your father…”
He stopped.
Then shook his head.
I felt my entire body tense.
“What?”
He looked at my mother.
“She deserves to know.”
My mother nodded.
Samuel took a breath.
“Jonathan was never your biological father.”
I looked at him.
“I know.”
“No.”
His eyes filled with sadness.
“You don't.”
Evan stepped closer.
“Then who is?”
Samuel looked at me.
“Your father was the founder's son.”
“The founder?”
“My mother.”
I stared.
“Margaret?”
He nodded.
“Margaret was not the first trustee.”
She was the founder's daughter.
And the founder's first child.
Samuel reached into the cabinet.
He removed a file.
On the front was my name.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Not the altered one.
Not the official one.
The original.
I read the father's name.
My knees nearly gave out.
It was not Jonathan.
It was not Samuel.
It was a man I had never heard of.
A man named Thomas Brooks.
Samuel whispered:
“The person who created the trust died believing Thomas had been murdered.”
My mother began to cry.
“Because he hadn't.”
I looked up.
May you like
Samuel's face had gone white.
“Thomas was the one who survived.”
