Chapter 49 - The Door That Shouldn't Open
Everything changed in one sentence.
“At my father's house?”
Diane nodded.
“I didn't know it was his house then.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“Where?”
Diane gave an address.
David stared.
“No.”
“You know it?”
“Yes.”
“Whose house?”
David didn't answer.
Diane did.
“Thomas Brooks.”
My body went numb.
My father was alive.
And Margaret had been there.
Not years ago.
Last month.
The investigator immediately pulled out his phone.
“Send me the address.”
Diane did.
He stared at the screen.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
“There is no house at this address.”
Samuel frowned.
“Yes, there is.”
“Not anymore.”
He showed us the satellite image.
An empty field.
No building.
No driveway.
No structure.
I felt sick.
Diane stepped closer.
“I was there.”
“I believe you.”
“There was a house.”
“Was?”
“Yes.”
Samuel looked at David.
“Identity infrastructure.”
David nodded.
“The house itself may have been masked.”
I looked at him.
“You mean made invisible?”
“To legal systems.”
“So the property exists physically but not officially.”
“Yes.”
The investigator stared.
“That is insane.”
“No,” Elias said.
“It is the original purpose of the trust.”
Nobody looked at him.
I did.
“Then take me there.”
David stepped forward.
“No.”
I almost laughed.
“Not again.”
“It may be a trap.”
“Everything is a trap.”
“That's exactly why—”
“I am done letting everyone decide what I am allowed to know.”
Samuel looked at me.
“He's right about one thing.”
I turned.
“We can't go alone.”
“Then we don't.”
The group moved through the tunnel toward the surface.
Behind us, Elias remained in the archive.
The investigator stayed with him.
Jonathan was nowhere to be seen.
That worried me more than if he'd been standing in front of us.
At the mansion entrance, rain hammered the windows.
David looked at me.
“Before we leave, there's something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“When you restricted Elias, you didn't destroy the trust.”
“I know.”
“You divided it.”
“How?”
“Control is now distributed across the six beneficiaries.”
Lucas frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Each person now controls one protected function.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Which one?”
“That's what we don't know.”
The system answered.
“BENEFICIARY FUNCTIONS SEALED.”
Evan stared at the ledger.
“When do they open?”
“WHEN THE FOUNDER RETURNS.”
My stomach tightened.
“She wants us to find her.”
“No,” Samuel said.
“She wants us to choose whether to.”
I looked at him.
“What is the difference?”
“If we find her, she controls the next phase.”
“If we choose, the trust answers to us.”
I understood.
“She wants us to activate her.”
“Yes.”
Outside, a vehicle pulled up.
The investigator opened the door.
“We have ten minutes before local police arrive.”
“Why?”
“Someone called in the gunfire.”
David looked at the mansion.
“The police will find nothing.”
“Why?”
“Because half this place is legally nonexistent.”
We climbed into the vehicles.
As we drove, my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One message.
DO NOT GO TO THOMAS'S HOUSE.
I stared.
Another message appeared.
HE IS NOT YOUR FATHER.
A third.
AND MARGARET IS NOT THE FOUNDER.
I showed Evan.
His expression hardened.
“Someone wants us confused.”
Another message arrived.
YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG FAMILY.
Then a photograph.
It showed me as a child.
Standing beside Thomas.
But in the corner of the photograph was another woman.
Margaret.
Behind her was Elias.
And behind Elias was a fourth person.
I zoomed in.
My heart stopped.
The fourth person was Jonathan.
But the photograph was dated thirty-eight years ago.
Before I was born.
Before Evan.
Before Lucas.
Before most of the people in our story were even adults.
David looked at the image.
“No.”
“What?”
“That photograph shouldn't exist.”
“Why?”
“Because Jonathan was supposedly overseas that year.”
Samuel leaned forward.
“And Elias was in prison.”
I looked at the date.
Everything we'd been told was false.
Maybe none of our timeline was real.
My phone rang.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman whispered:
“Natalie.”
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Then:
“The woman you've been calling your mother isn't your mother.”
I looked at the woman sitting across from me.
My mother went completely still.
“What did you say?”
The caller continued.
“Ask her about the night you were born.”
The line went dead.
I stared at my mother.
She began to cry.
“No.”
“Mom?”
“I was there.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked at David.
He shook his head.
“Don't.”
My voice hardened.
“Tell me.”
My mother whispered:
“I wasn't the first woman to hold you.”
Nobody spoke.
The vehicle seemed to stop moving.
Evan looked at me.
“What does that mean?”
My mother covered her face.
“The woman who carried you wasn't the woman who gave birth to you.”
The vehicle swerved.
The investigator shouted.
David grabbed the steering wheel.
“What?”
My mother looked at me through tears.
“You were born through the founder's medical program.”
I stared.
“What program?”
“The original heirs weren't supposed to be born naturally.”
Silence.
Samuel whispered, “That's not possible.”
My mother answered:
“It was possible.”
I looked at the photograph in my hand.
Thomas.
Margaret.
Elias.
Jonathan.
All standing around me before I had even been born.
Then my phone rang again.
This time, the caller ID wasn't unknown.
It displayed a name.
THOMAS BROOKS.
I answered.
A man's voice said:
“Come alone.”
I held my breath.
“Where?”
He gave me an address.
Then added:
“And Natalie?”
“Yes?”
“Do not trust the woman sitting beside you.”
The line went dead.
My mother began sobbing.
And across from me, Evan slowly reached for my hand.
Then the vehicle's doors locked.
May you like
Automatically.
The system had activated.
