Chapter 8 - MY MOTHER WASN'T DEADI couldn't speak.
"My mother is alive?"
Victor nodded.
"She has been for twenty-two years."
"Where?"
Victor laughed softly.
"That's the question."
Flynn stared at him.
"You're lying."
Victor turned.
"You knew she was alive."
Flynn looked at me.
I felt something inside me collapse again.
"Did you know?"
"Mabel..."
"Did you know?"
He closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Clara clung to my coat.
I couldn't understand anything anymore.
My father.
My mother.
Flynn.
Selina.
The company.
The billions.
Everything I'd believed about my life was turning to smoke.
Victor continued.
"Your mother created the biometric key for the Hart Protocol."
"What key?"
"Your DNA."
I stared.
"Your DNA?"
"Your mother designed the Protocol so that only her descendants could unlock it."
Victor pointed at me.
"That's why your father was willing to destroy anyone who came near you."
I remembered the countless warnings my father had given me as a child.
Don't trust strangers.
Never sign documents without calling me.
Never give anyone your passport.
Never let doctors keep your medical records.
I'd thought he was paranoid.
Now it made sense.
Victor held up the black folder.
"Your father divided the key into three parts."
I frowned.
"Three?"
"One was physical."
He tapped the folder.
"One was financial."
He pointed to my accounts.
"And one was biological."
He looked at me.
"You."
Flynn stepped toward him.
"What do you want?"
Victor smiled.
"Access."
"And then?"
"Control."
"Of what?"
Victor's expression became cold.
"Every private reserve owned by the Hart family."
I stared.
"How much?"
Victor said:
"Enough to influence countries."
The room went silent.
Then a shot exploded.
Victor fell backward.
I screamed.
Flynn grabbed Clara.
Selina appeared in the doorway holding a gun.
"Move!"
She fired again.
The guards scattered.
Flynn pushed us through a side door.
We ran.
A bullet struck the wall beside my head.
We reached the alley.
A black SUV waited.
Richard was driving.
I climbed in.
"How are you alive?"
Richard looked at me.
"Your father taught me not to die easily."
We sped away.
I held Clara against me.
Flynn sat across from me.
I looked at him.
"Tell me everything."
He said nothing.
"Who is my mother?"
He swallowed.
"Her name is Eleanor Hart."
"I know that."
"She's alive."
"Where?"
He looked out the window.
"Paris."
I stared.
"Why did my father fake her death?"
"To protect her."
"From Victor?"
"From everyone."
"And you knew?"
"I found out six months after we married."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Eleanor ordered me not to."
I felt something cold settle inside me.
"She contacted you?"
"Several times."
"Why?"
Flynn reached into his coat.
He pulled out a letter.
"Because she knew the Black Ledger would eventually come for you."
I unfolded it.
The handwriting was elegant.
My mother's.
Dear Mabel,
If you are reading this, Flynn has finally run out of places to hide the truth.
I looked at Flynn.
The letter continued.
Don't forgive him yet.
My breath caught.
But don't hate him either.
I kept reading.
Because the man you married was never the greatest danger to you.
The next sentence was underlined.
Your greatest danger has always been your own blood.
I looked up.
Flynn was staring at me.
"Who is she talking about?"
He didn't answer.
Richard did.
"There is one other heir."
My heart stopped.
"Another heir to what?"
May you like
Richard's face was grim.
"Your mother had another child."
