Chapter 7: The Son I Never Knew Existed
"Dad?""
The voice came from beyond the archive door.
For a moment, I couldn't move. I had spent fourteen months mourning my wife, five years trying to be the father my daughters needed, and eighteen years trusting a man who might have engineered every tragedy that had shaped my life.
Now a stranger was calling me Dad.
"Who are you?"" I demanded.
"My name is Ethan.""
The door opened another inch.
A young man stepped into the room, his wrists bound with plastic restraints. He looked about twenty-six, with dark hair, gray-green eyes, and a thin scar above his left eyebrow.
My scar.
He stared at me as if he were afraid I might disappear.
"I've been trying to find you for six years," he said.
I raised my pistol toward the hallway behind him.
"Where's Vincent?""
"Upstairs. He's waiting for you to surrender the key.""
"How did you get past him?""
Ethan gave a bitter laugh.
"I didn't. He brought me here.""
Raymond moved toward him, but Ethan recoiled.
"Don't touch me.""
Raymond stopped.
I lowered my weapon slightly.
"Who is your mother?""
"Mara Voss.""
Elena made a strangled sound.
Ethan turned toward her.
"You know her?""
"I'm your aunt.""
He stared at Elena, then at the photograph on the desk.
"You're Elena?""
She nodded, tears running down her cheeks.
Ethan looked back at me.
"My mother told me you were dead. She said Vincent had killed you before I was born. When I discovered the truth, I went looking for you.""
"How did you find out?""
"Six years ago, I found a box in my mother's apartment. It contained your photographs, letters, and a birth certificate with your name on it."" He swallowed.
"I confronted her. She told me she had been involved in something terrible, and that finding you would put me in danger.""
"Why didn't you come to me then?""
"Because she disappeared three days later.""
The words hung in the room.
Mara had vanished. Isabelle had been murdered. Vincent had controlled my security network. And now Ethan stood before me, carrying a history that had been hidden from me for more than two decades.
I wanted to believe him.
But I had trusted the wrong man before.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?""
Ethan nodded as though he had expected the question.
He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small envelope attached to a chain around his neck.
"Because my mother gave me this before she disappeared.""
Inside was a photograph of a younger Mara holding a newborn baby.
Beside her stood a younger version of me.
I recognized the jacket I was wearing. I recognized the hospital bracelet on my wrist.
And I remembered the night.
Twenty-six years earlier, before I became the man everyone feared, I had been twenty-three and desperate to save my father's failing business. I had been involved with a woman whose family was connected to one of my father's rivals.
Mara.
We had loved each other, but our relationship had been dangerous. My father threatened to disown me if I continued seeing her. When she told me she was pregnant, I promised I would find a way to protect them both.
Then I was called overseas for a business emergency.
When I returned, Mara was gone.
My father told me she'd taken money and left the country.
I had spent years believing she had abandoned me.
"Your mother didn't leave because she wanted to," I whispered.
Ethan shook his head.
"She was forced to disappear.""
A loud bang echoed from the corridor.
Vincent's voice followed.
"Dominic, stop wasting time.""
I moved Ethan behind me.
"Why does he want the key?""
Ethan glanced at Olivia, Sophie, and Nora.
"Because it opens the room where Isabelle hid the original recording.""
"What recording?""
"The one proving Vincent ordered the murder.""
Elena gripped the edge of the desk.
"You've seen it?""
Ethan nodded.
"My mother found it. She gave it to Isabelle before she disappeared. Isabelle hid it in the archive, but she made a second copy and sent it somewhere else.""
"Where?""
Ethan looked at the girls.
"She told me the location was encoded in a nursery rhyme.""
Olivia stepped forward.
"The sunshine song?""
Ethan nodded.
"Your mother changed one line. She said the answer was hidden in the words she taught you.""
I looked at my daughters.
For fourteen months, I had believed their silence meant they had forgotten everything.
Now I understood that they had been protecting something.
Perhaps someone had taught them that speaking would bring danger. Perhaps they had witnessed something so terrifying that silence had become their only refuge.
"Can you remember the changed line?"" I asked Olivia.
She stared at the floor.
Then she sang softly.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray...""
She paused.
"Mommy changed the next part.""
"What did she say?""
Olivia looked toward the ceiling.
"She said, 'If the stars go dark at night, find the place where mothers hide.''"
Elena gasped.
"The old chapel.""
I turned toward her.
"What chapel?""
"The little chapel behind the east gardens. Isabelle used to take the girls there when they couldn't sleep. There's a wooden box beneath the altar.""
Vincent struck the door again.
"Time's up, Dominic.""
A sharp click sounded from the hallway.
Raymond's eyes widened.
"He's armed.""
I looked at Ethan's bound wrists, then at my daughters.
I could surrender the key and hope Vincent kept his word.
Or I could fight the man who had betrayed me for eighteen years.
I pulled a knife from my pocket and cut Ethan's restraints.
"You're coming with us," I said.
Ethan rubbed his wrists.
"I thought you'd never ask.""
We moved toward the hidden passage.
Behind us, the archive door burst open.
Vincent stood in the doorway with a pistol in his hand.
His eyes settled on Ethan.
For the first time since I'd known him, Vincent looked genuinely angry.
"You should have stayed buried," he said.
Ethan stepped beside me.
"Funny. My mother said the same thing about you.""
May you like
Vincent raised his gun.
And before I could react, he pulled the trigger.
