## CHAPTER 8: THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S LIE
Everyone in the room turned toward Lena Holloway.
She stared at the photograph in Kiora’s hand.
Her face revealed nothing at first.
Then she slowly lowered her weapon.
“My father worked for Mercer Dominion,” she said.
“You never mentioned that,” Kiora replied.
“You never asked.”
“That is not an answer.”
Lena looked toward Victor, who was being restrained by Owen’s officers.
“My father was general counsel during the company’s first decade.”
“And he knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did he help her?”
“I believed he did.”
Kiora held up the photograph.
“The note says the Holloways know where the final page is buried.”
Lena’s eyes moved toward Silas.
He remained tied to the chair.
Mara worked to free his hands while pressing a cloth against her wounded shoulder.
“You knew about this?” Kiora asked Silas.
“I knew Benjamin Holloway helped Elena hide evidence. I did not know where.”
Lena crossed the room.
“My father died when I was twenty.”
“So did my mother,” Kiora said. “Apparently death does not prevent anyone in this family from maintaining secrets.”
Adrian placed a hand on Kiora’s shoulder.
She was exhausted, bruised, and fighting the return of another contraction.
But anger kept her upright.
“Where is the page?” she asked.
Lena looked toward the photograph again.
“I don’t know.”
The secure phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
ASK HER ABOUT SAINT ORION.
Kiora showed Lena.
The district attorney’s face changed.
“What is Saint Orion?” Adrian asked.
Lena took a slow breath.
“A cemetery.”
“Where?”
“Behind the church where my father is buried.”
Kiora understood.
“The final page is in his grave.”
“Possibly.”
“Why did you warn me not to trust you?”
“I didn’t send that message.”
“Then who did?”
No one answered.
Police arrived at Blackridge moments later.
This time Lena personally verified every officer before allowing entry.
Victor was transported under armed guard.
Cassandra was arrested again for the courthouse assault, but Kiora saw something different in her expression as the officers led her away.
The arrogance was gone.
In its place was humiliation and rage directed not at Kiora, but at Victor.
Silas refused an ambulance until he had examined the blue ledger.
“You were shot less than four hours ago,” Kiora said.
“And I am still capable of reading.”
“You are bleeding through your bandage.”
“Then I will read quickly.”
Adrian took the book from him.
“You’re going to the hospital.”
Silas glared.
Adrian did not move.
For the first time since his return, Kiora saw the familiar grandson confronting the man who had raised him.
“You taught me never to negotiate with someone using emotion instead of reason,” Adrian said. “Medically, you are a disaster. Strategically, you are the only living person who understands Vivienne’s network. Therefore, keeping you alive is essential.”
Silas considered him.
“Your bedside manner remains appalling.”
“Thank you.”
They left Blackridge before dawn.
Mara underwent surgery for her shoulder.
Silas returned to a private protected ward.
Kiora was admitted again after Dr. Shaw threatened to have security physically carry her into the maternity unit.
Adrian remained beside her.
For the first time in six months, they sat together in silence without walls, chains, or missing-person reports between them.
Kiora studied his hands.
There were scars around his wrists.
“Did Victor do that?”
“His guards.”
“Why keep you alive?”
“They needed access codes.”
“To Mercer Dominion?”
“To Silas’s private network. They believed he had given them to me.”
“Had he?”
“No.”
Kiora raised an eyebrow.
Adrian smiled faintly.
“He gave them to Mara.”
“That woman contains more weapons and secrets than the rest of your family combined.”
“Our family,” Adrian corrected.
The words settled between them.
Kiora looked away.
“I don’t know what that means anymore.”
“It means Silas is your grandfather and mine in every way that matters. It means Elena was your mother and my aunt by adoption. It means Vivienne tried to design our lives before either of us met.”
“And Cassandra thought you belonged to her.”
“I never did.”
“Did you ever kiss her?”
Adrian hesitated.
Kiora stared.
“We were nineteen.”
“You said you did not love her.”
“I didn’t.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“One kiss.”
“More than one?”
“Two.”
Kiora folded her arms.
He looked almost amused.
“You are interrogating me about something that happened fifteen years ago while we are hiding from an international criminal network.”
“I spent six months believing you were dead. I am allowed several unrelated questions.”
“Two kisses. Both regrettable.”
“Why two if the first was regrettable?”
“I was young and slow to learn.”
Kiora tried not to smile.
Adrian reached for her hand.
“I chose you before I knew who your mother was. Before the golden share. Before any of this.”
“I know.”
“I need you to believe that.”
“I do.”
“Then what don’t you believe?”
Kiora looked at him.
“That you will stop sacrificing yourself without discussing it with me.”
Adrian was silent.
“That,” she said, “is the problem.”
A nurse entered to check the monitors.
The baby’s heartbeat remained strong.
The contractions had stopped again.
After the nurse left, Adrian leaned closer.
“I cannot promise I will never put myself in danger.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“I can promise I will not lie to you about it.”
“Even if the truth scares me?”
“Especially then.”
Kiora rested her head against his shoulder.
They stayed that way until Lena arrived at sunrise.
She placed a small wooden box on the table.
“I went to Saint Orion.”
“You opened your father’s grave?” Kiora asked.
“I opened the family memorial compartment. The groundskeeper remembered my father leaving instructions for me to receive the box when I turned thirty.”
“You’re older than thirty.”
“I never received it.”
“Someone intercepted the instructions.”
“Apparently.”
Lena opened the box.
Inside was a silver fountain pen, a folded letter, and a key shaped like a star.
No final page.
Lena unfolded the letter.
“My dearest Lena,” she read. “If this has reached you, Elena Mercer is dead and I have failed to protect her.”
Her voice weakened.
Kiora touched her arm.
Lena continued.
“The Orion page cannot remain in one place. I divided its meaning among three records. The ledger contains the payments. The film contains the confession. The final key rests with the child Elena saved.”
“What child?” Adrian asked.
Lena scanned the remaining lines.
“My father did not name them.”
Kiora thought of the film.
Elena had been investigating Vivienne and Victor.
She had saved someone.
“Cassandra?” she asked.
Adrian frowned.
“Why would Elena save Cassandra?”
“Maybe from Victor.”
Lena turned the letter over.
There was a line written on the back.
The child carries a silver compass.
Adrian went still.
Kiora noticed.
“What?”
He reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a chain.
A small silver compass hung from it.
“Silas gave this to me when I was three.”
Kiora stared at him.
“You were the child.”
Adrian opened the compass.
Inside the lid were engraved numbers.
Lena compared them to the star-shaped key.
“They might be coordinates.”
“To where?”
Adrian rotated the compass.
A hidden compartment opened beneath the needle.
Inside was a strip of old microfilm.
Kiora held it toward the light.
Tiny lines of text covered the surface.
At the bottom was a handwritten name.
Before she could read it, every television in the hospital room switched to a breaking-news broadcast.
A reporter stood outside Mercer Dominion headquarters.
“Following the sudden return of Adrian Mercer and the arrest of Victor Voss, the board has announced an emergency leadership decision.”
Cassandra appeared on-screen at a podium.
She was no longer in police custody.
A narrow bandage covered the cut on her neck.
“I have been cleared of all charges related to the courthouse misunderstanding,” Cassandra announced. “Effective immediately, I am assuming full control of Mercer Dominion.”
Kiora looked toward Lena.
“How was she released again?”
Lena checked her phone.
“The arresting documents were rejected by Judge Reeve.”
On the broadcast, Cassandra continued.
“Silas Mercer is medically incapacitated. Adrian Mercer is under investigation for corporate sabotage. And Kiora Mercer has fraudulently claimed ownership of a company to which she has no lawful connection.”
Cassandra looked directly into the cameras.
“We have also received evidence that Kiora orchestrated her own attack to manipulate public sympathy.”
Kiora’s mouth fell open.
The screen changed.
Edited courthouse footage showed Kiora moving toward Cassandra before the briefcase struck her.
It made the attack look almost accidental.
Then another image appeared.
A hospital record.
CONFIRMED PATIENT IDENTITY: KIORA LANE.
PREGNANCY PATERNITY REPORT: ADRIAN MERCER EXCLUDED.
Adrian stood abruptly.
“That’s false.”
Kiora stared at the screen.
May you like
Cassandra delivered the final blow with a composed smile.
“The child Kiora is carrying is not Adrian Mercer’s.”
