Chapter 7 - THE OTHER VALE
Lena gripped the phone.
“Then who?”
Her mother did not answer immediately.
“Mom.”
“Victor.”
Lena looked at Adrian.
“What?”
Evelyn’s voice trembled.
“They thought Victor would be in your car.”
Lena struggled to process it.
“Why would Victor be in my car?”
“Because he had been helping me.”
Across the room, Adrian heard enough to understand.
He stepped closer.
Lena turned slightly away.
“Helping you do what?”
“Collect evidence against Richard.”
Lena closed her eyes.
Another piece of Victor suddenly made sense.
His secret work for Richard.
His presence behind Lena’s car.
His attempt to remove sedatives from her hospital line.
He had been moving between both sides.
“How long?”
“Four years.”
“You trusted Victor?”
“No.”
“But I needed him.”
“Where are you?”
“I’ll tell you when you’re alone.”
Lena looked directly at Adrian.
“He saved my life tonight.”
“That doesn’t make him safe.”
“Neither does abandoning your daughters for eight years.”
Silence.
Lena immediately regretted the cruelty.
She did not apologize.
Evelyn accepted it.
“You’re right.”
The answer hurt more than defensiveness would have.
“Why was someone trying to kill Victor?”
“Because he found the Silent Registry.”
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“The night of my crash?”
“Yes.”
Lena’s heartbeat quickened.
“Was it in my car?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Inside the spare tire compartment.”
Lena remembered nothing about it.
“Who knew?”
“Richard.”
“Crane.”
“Daniel.”
“And Bianca?”
“No.”
“Adrian?”
“No.”
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“The person who cut your brakes believed Victor would drive your car away from the lake house.”
“But I did.”
“Yes.”
“And Bianca got inside.”
“Yes.”
“So someone almost killed both of us because of Victor.”
“Yes.”
Lena’s anger changed direction.
“Who?”
“Daniel Hayes.”
Lena froze.
The missing doctor.
The man her mother had warned her to find.
“Why would Daniel kill Victor if he created the registry?”
“Because Daniel changed.”
“What does that mean?”
“He stopped trying to expose Crown.”
“He began selling what he knew.”
“To whom?”
“Anyone frightened enough to pay.”
Blackmail.
The entire mystery shifted.
Daniel Hayes had not disappeared because he was afraid.
He had disappeared because secrets were more profitable than truth.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you hiding?”
“Because Daniel found me three weeks ago.”
Lena’s grip tightened.
“He knows you’re alive?”
“Yes.”
“Does Dad?”
“He does now.”
“Is Richard with you?”
Another silence.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“I know where Daniel took him.”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
Lena’s anger flared.
“You call me after eight years and you’re still deciding what I’m allowed to know?”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“That excuse is getting old.”
Evelyn began crying quietly.
“I know.”
Lena shut her eyes.
There were a thousand things she wanted to say.
Why did you leave me?
Why didn’t you come back?
Did you watch my graduation?
Did you know when Adrian proposed?
Did you know Bianca hated me?
Did you know Dad was destroying us?
Instead Lena asked, “Where do I meet you?”
Evelyn gave her an address in Sleepy Hollow.
An abandoned railway station.
“Midnight.”
“Come alone.”
The line disconnected.
Adrian had heard enough.
“You’re not going alone.”
Lena almost laughed.
“Did you miss the part where everyone keeps telling me not to trust you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I’m still going.”
“Then you’ll follow me.”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“I’m learning.”
Mara hated the plan.
She hated it more when Lena insisted.
“This could be a setup.”
“I know.”
“Your mother could be compromised.”
“I know.”
“Daniel Hayes could be there.”
“I know.”
“You say that as though knowing makes this less dangerous.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then why?”
Lena looked at the detective.
“Because I have buried my mother for eight years.”
“I’m done talking to ghosts.”
At 11:58 p.m., Lena walked onto the abandoned platform alone.
Cold wind moved through the broken station.
An old clock above the ticket window had stopped at 4:17.
Mara’s officers waited beyond sight.
Adrian waited too.
Lena knew because she had seen his car three blocks away.
At midnight exactly, a figure appeared at the far end of the platform.
Gray coat.
Dark scarf.
Slow steps.
Lena stopped breathing.
Evelyn Mercer entered the weak yellow light.
Age had changed her.
Fear had changed her more.
But she was Lena’s mother.
There was no doubt.
For several seconds, neither woman moved.
Then Evelyn whispered.
“You look like me.”
Lena’s throat tightened.
“You look alive.”
Evelyn began crying.
Lena did not move toward her.
Not yet.
“I’m sorry.”
Evelyn said.
“You don’t get to start with that.”
“I know.”
“You missed eight birthdays.”
“I know.”
“My engagement.”
“I know.”
“My funeral.”
Evelyn’s eyes closed.
“I was there.”
Lena froze.
“What?”
“I watched from the trees.”
Anger exploded through her.
“You watched?”
“I couldn’t let Richard see me.”
“So you watched me get buried and still did nothing?”
“I knew you were alive.”
“Then why didn’t you come to the hospital?”
“I did.”
“Once.”
“I came once.”
“And then disappeared again.”
Evelyn could not defend it.
Lena was suddenly glad.
She did not want explanations polished into innocence.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“I have no right to ask forgiveness.”
“Then don’t.”
“I only want to finish what I should have finished years ago.”
She opened her coat.
Inside was a leather-bound ledger.
Black.
Not blue.
“The Silent Registry.”
Lena stared.
“You have it.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Mom’s letter say Daniel had it?”
“He created it.”
“I stole it.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“That’s why he found you.”
“Yes.”
Lena accepted the book.
It was heavier than expected.
She opened it.
Names.
Hundreds.
Not forty-seven.
Hundreds.
“Oh my God.”
“Crown never stopped.”
Evelyn said.
“Richard moved it.”
“Other companies joined.”
“Private hospitals.”
“Military contractors.”
“International clinics.”
Lena looked up.
“How many people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Deaths?”
“At least eighty-six.”
Lena felt nauseated.
“This is bigger than Mercer.”
“Much bigger.”
“Vale?”
“Yes.”
Adrian heard that from behind the wall where Mara had ordered him to remain.
His face hardened.
Evelyn continued.
“The early program ended after Charles died.”
“But Richard restarted it five years later.”
“He used a new name.”
“Project Aurelia.”
“Who financed it?”
Evelyn looked at Lena.
“Victor.”
Lena stared.
“No.”
“He helped you.”
“And helped Richard.”
“He told me he moved money.”
“Not all of it.”
Evelyn pointed at the ledger.
“Look at the coded accounts.”
Lena saw initials.
V.V.
Victor Vale.
Tens of millions.
The brother who had saved her might also have financed the crimes he claimed to hate.
Lena whispered, “Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel knows.”
“Where is Daniel?”
Evelyn looked toward the tracks.
“There’s an abandoned hospital north of Albany.”
“Richard is there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel sent me proof.”
“Why keep Richard alive?”
“Because Richard knows where the original Aurelia files are stored.”
Lena closed the ledger.
“We go to Mara.”
Evelyn grabbed her wrist.
“No.”
Lena looked at her hand.
Evelyn released it.
“Daniel has people inside law enforcement.”
“Mara?”
“I don’t know.”
Lena almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Apparently nobody knows anything.”
A sound came from the darkness.
Metal striking metal.
Evelyn turned.
“Someone followed you.”
Lena looked toward Adrian’s hiding place.
Then a red laser dot moved across Evelyn’s coat.
“Down!”
Lena threw herself into her mother.
A shot cracked through the station.
Glass shattered.
Mara’s officers moved instantly.
Adrian ran onto the platform despite every order he had been given.
Another shot struck a steel column.
Evelyn grabbed Lena.
“Tunnel.”
They ran toward the old maintenance stairs.
Adrian followed.
“Lena!”
“Go back.”
“Not happening.”
Mara shouted into her radio.
The shooter disappeared toward the northern embankment.
Inside the tunnel, Evelyn stopped.
Her face had gone pale.
Lena saw blood on her sleeve.
“Mom.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re hit.”
“Grazed.”
Adrian removed his jacket and pressed it against the wound.
Evelyn stared at him.
For a moment, something passed across her face.
Recognition.
Not ordinary recognition.
Fear.
Adrian noticed.
“You know me.”
“Of course I know you.”
“No.”
“You looked at me like you’ve seen me somewhere else.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Lena watched both of them.
“Mom.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“You were six years old.”
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“When I first met you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“My family didn’t know the Mercers then.”
Evelyn looked at Lena.
Then back at Adrian.
“Your father did.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What are you talking about?”
Evelyn whispered.
“Charles Vale brought you to the Crown laboratory once.”
“I was treating you.”
Adrian laughed in disbelief.
“I was never a Crown patient.”
“Yes.”
“You were.”
Lena stared at him.
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“You suffered a severe seizure disorder as a child.”
“Your father hid it.”
“Daniel treated you experimentally.”
“The treatment worked.”
Adrian’s face went blank.
Evelyn continued.
“You were Crown’s first successful patient.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Lena remembered something from the ledger.
Patient One.
No name.
Only initials.
A.V.
She slowly opened the Silent Registry.
The first page confirmed it.
PATIENT 001.
ADRIAN CHARLES VALE.
Treatment status: successful.
Long-term observation required.
Lena looked at him.
Adrian looked as though the ground had disappeared.
Evelyn whispered.
“That is why Charles funded Crown.”
“He wasn’t chasing profit.”
“He was trying to save his son.”
A phone vibrated inside Evelyn’s pocket.
She answered.
Her face immediately changed.
Daniel Hayes’s voice came through the speaker.
“Hello, Evelyn.”
Lena stared.
Daniel continued.
“I see you finally gave them the book.”
Evelyn looked around the tunnel.
“How can you see us?”
Daniel laughed softly.
“Because your daughter brought something from the wedding that doesn’t belong to her.”
Lena looked down at her trench coat.
Her bandages.
Her shoes.
Then Adrian noticed the black folder still tucked beneath Lena’s arm.
He grabbed it.
Inside the spine was a tiny tracking device.
Lena’s blood ran cold.
Daniel’s voice continued.
“And now that I know where all of you are, I think it’s time Adrian learned why his treatment worked.”
Adrian stared at the phone.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Daniel answered.
“It worked because another child died in your place.”
