CHAPTER 10 — THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
The video lasted only forty-two seconds.
It was enough to tear open eighteen years of grief.
Rebecca stood inside Victoria’s office wearing a dark coat and carrying one of the Nightfall archive boxes.
She looked older, but it was her.
The same eyes.
The same way she held her shoulders when she was afraid but refused to show it.
Lily reached for the screen.
“Mom.”
I couldn’t speak.
Daniel sat beside the computer.
“Could this be manipulated?”
Naomi shook her head.
“Facial structure, movement, and voice are consistent. We’ll run full verification, but I believe it’s real.”
The video continued.
Rebecca placed the box on Victoria’s desk.
“You’ve lost control of Marcus.”
Victoria replied, “You helped create him.”
“I helped hide the evidence. I didn’t know what he would become.”
“You knew enough to abandon your family.”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“I disappeared to keep them alive.”
The recording ended.
Lily turned toward me.
“You knew nothing about this?”
“Nothing.”
For the first time since I carried her out of Richard’s mansion, she looked uncertain around me.
Not afraid.
Wounded.
Everything she believed about our family had been constructed from partial truths.
Naomi interrogated Victoria again.
At first, she refused to answer.
Then Lily entered the room.
Victoria’s composure broke.
“Where is my mother?”
Victoria looked at her bruises.
Something close to guilt appeared.
“Rebecca was supposed to take you away before Easter.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Marcus discovered the plan.”
Victoria explained that Rebecca had survived the bridge crash. Nightfall loyalists pulled her from the water before authorities arrived.
Marcus convinced her that Arthur and Lily would be killed if she returned.
For eighteen years, Rebecca worked inside the network, secretly copying accounts and protecting witness identities.
“She stayed away to protect you,” Victoria said.
Lily’s eyes filled with tears.
“And you knew?”
“For years.”
“You ate at my wedding.”
Victoria looked down.
“I tried to stop Richard from marrying you.”
“No, you didn’t. You wanted me close because of my mother.”
Victoria didn’t deny it.
Richard had married Lily because Rebecca’s access codes were partially based on Lily’s biometric identity.
The entire relationship had been engineered.
The proposal.
The estate.
The business shares.
Even the abuse had a purpose beyond control.
They needed Lily frightened, isolated, and legally discredited.
Naomi received a location trace from Elena’s pendant.
An abandoned freight terminal near the river.
Thermal surveillance showed several people inside.
Marcus.
Elena.
And a woman matching Rebecca’s appearance.
A live broadcast timer was counting down on a computer network connected to the building.
Thirty-six minutes.
Daniel analyzed the outgoing connections.
“He’s preparing to release the archive publicly.”
Naomi frowned.
“That would expose thousands of people.”
“Not publicly,” Daniel said. “It’s being sent to targeted buyers.”
Foreign intelligence services.
Criminal organizations.
Private military contractors.
Marcus was auctioning every protected identity Nightfall had ever collected.
Then a message appeared on Lily’s phone.
It came from her mother.
COME ALONE OR MARCUS RELEASES THE FIRST LIST.
A photograph followed.
Rebecca sat beside Elena.
Both women were bound.
But in the corner of the image, Rebecca’s fingers formed an old Nightfall signal.
May you like
Not surrender.
Attack.
