Chapter 11 - The Last BetrayalLauren walked into the house with Judith.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
“Lauren?”
She looked devastated.
“I didn't have a choice.”
Judith laughed bitterly.
“Everyone says that.”
Lauren pressed the gun against her back.
“Where is the microfilm?”
Eleanor stood perfectly still.
“You know where it is.”
“I want it.”
“Why?”
Lauren looked at me.
“Because Evan is going to kill everyone.”
My heart pounded.
“He told me he loved me.”
“He does.”
“Then why?”
“Because he believes killing you is the only way to stop the trust from opening.”
Eleanor nodded slowly.
“He's being manipulated.”
“By whom?”
Lauren's eyes filled with tears.
“Your mother.”
I felt dizzy.
“But she's dead.”
“No.”
Lauren pointed toward the fireplace.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was a monitor.
A video appeared.
My mother.
Older.
Alive.
Sitting in a chair.
I stopped breathing.
“Caroline,” she said.
Her voice.
My mother's voice.
I hadn't heard it in twelve years.
“You need to understand.”
I stepped toward the screen.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had to protect you.”
“You abandoned me.”
“No.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I wanted you out of the network.”
“But you kept Evan in my life.”
Her expression broke.
“I thought he could protect you.”
“He almost killed me.”
“I know.”
The words were ice.
I turned toward Lauren.
“She knows everything.”
My mother continued.
“Your forty-second birthday was supposed to be the end.”
“What?”
She looked directly at the camera.
“The trust isn't opened at forty.”
I looked at Eleanor.
She looked shocked.
“What are you talking about?”
My mother smiled.
“It opens at forty-two.”
Eleanor whispered:
“That wasn't in the original agreement.”
“Because the original agreement was altered.”
I suddenly understood.
All of them had been working from incomplete information.
Evan.
Judith.
Eleanor.
My father.
They had been fighting over the wrong deadline.
My mother had known the real one.
“When is my birthday?” she asked.
I swallowed.
“Three weeks.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Forty-two.”
My stomach dropped.
I was thirty-nine.
“I altered your records,” she said.
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
A gunshot shattered the monitor.
Lauren fell.
Judith turned.
Evan stood in the doorway.
He fired again.
Eleanor screamed.
Megan pulled me down.
The room exploded into chaos.
Evan stared at me.
“I'm sorry.”
He pointed his gun.
Then stopped.
His eyes shifted toward the screen.
My mother was still alive.
And she was smiling.
“Evan,” she said.
He froze.
She spoke one sentence.
“You still don't know who your father is.”
May you like
Evan lowered his weapon.
And for the first time, I watched my husband look truly afraid.
