Chapter 13: The Blood of the Heir
The lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the tunnel.
Then came a sound.
A baby crying.
Noah.
My heart nearly stopped.
“Where is he?”
Reed's voice came from somewhere ahead.
“Still alive.”
I stepped forward.
“Give him back.”
“You know the rules.”
“What rules?”
“You want your son.”
“Yes.”
“Then give me the seal.”
I looked at Ethan.
He was staring into the darkness.
“Don't do it.”
Reed laughed.
“You always were the obedient one, Ethan.”
Ethan's voice became cold.
“Not anymore.”
A gunshot struck the wall beside us.
I flinched.
“Next one won't miss.”
I swallowed.
“What do you want the seal for?”
“You know.”
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“I genuinely don't know.”
Reed sighed.
“The Blackwood Trust cannot be opened without three things.”
He paused.
“Your judicial seal.”
“Ethan's blood.”
“And Noah's biometric authorization.”
My blood ran cold.
“What happens when you get them?”
“The archive opens.”
“And then?”
“The truth disappears.”
I understood.
He didn't want the evidence.
He wanted to destroy it.
“You're afraid.”
Reed laughed.
“Of what?”
“Of the archive.”
Silence.
I continued.
“Because it contains evidence that can destroy you.”
“No.”
His voice became colder.
“Because it contains evidence that can destroy the country.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“That's what you tell yourself.”
Reed ignored him.
“Give me the seal.”
I reached into my coat.
The seal wasn't there.
Reed waited.
“Where is it?”
“I don't have it.”
“Of course you do.”
“No.”
He laughed.
“You've carried it for years.”
I suddenly remembered.
My judicial identification case.
My personal seal.
It had been taken from my hospital room when Margaret threw my phone.
I looked at Daniel.
He understood immediately.
“The hospital security locker.”
“Yes.”
Reed's voice sharpened.
“Where is it?”
I smiled.
“You don't know.”
Silence.
For the first time, I had an advantage.
“You've been watching me.”
“Yes.”
“You saw me enter the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“You saw Margaret attack me.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn't know where my seal was.”
Reed said nothing.
I continued.
“Because you don't control everything.”
Daniel spoke.
“He's right.”
Reed's voice changed.
“Chief Ruiz.”
“You made one mistake.”
“What?”
“You assumed the hospital security system belonged to you.”
Daniel raised a small device.
“I've been inside your network for twenty minutes.”
Reed laughed.
“You think you can hack me?”
“No.”
Daniel smiled.
“I already did.”
Suddenly the lights returned.
The tunnel filled with bright white light.
Reed stood at the far end.
And he wasn't holding Noah.
I stared at him.
“Where's my son?”
Reed smiled.
“Safe.”
“You lied.”
“No.”
He pointed toward a monitor.
A live video appeared.
Noah was lying in a bassinet.
A nurse stood beside him.
He was crying.
But alive.
I nearly collapsed from relief.
“Bring him here.”
“Soon.”
“What does that mean?”
“You'll have to open the archive first.”
Ethan stepped toward him.
“You're afraid of what she'll find.”
Reed looked at him.
“No.”
“You are.”
Reed's expression hardened.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“I do.”
Ethan looked at me.
“My blood isn't just the key.”
Reed went silent.
“What is it?”
Ethan smiled.
“It's poison.”
Reed's face changed.
Karen stepped forward.
“He's right.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The trust wasn't designed to recognize Ethan's blood.”
She looked at Reed.
“It was designed to reject it.”
Reed's face went pale.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Karen pointed toward the ledger.
“Charles changed the succession protocol.”
Reed stared at her.
“Why?”
“To keep the trust from ever being opened.”
I suddenly understood.
Charles had been protecting something.
Not himself.
Someone else.
“Who?”
Karen looked at me.
“His wife.”
I frowned.
“Margaret?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Elena.”
Ethan's biological mother.
The witness.
The woman Black Compass had supposedly killed.
I looked at Ethan.
“She survived.”
He nodded slowly.
“My mother.”
Reed suddenly raised his gun.
“Enough.”
Daniel moved.
Reed fired.
Daniel ducked.
The bullet struck the wall.
Chaos erupted.
Ethan tackled Reed.
They crashed into the floor.
I ran toward the monitor.
Noah was still there.
Then the video changed.
A different camera.
A different room.
And my heart stopped.
Margaret was standing beside Noah.
She looked terrified.
A man stood behind her.
Charles Whitmore.
Alive.
Again.
I stared at the screen.
“How?”
Charles smiled into the camera.
“You're learning.”
He looked at Margaret.
“Tell her.”
Margaret began crying.
“I didn't know.”
“Tell her.”
“I swear.”
Charles grabbed her shoulder.
“Tell her what you did.”
Margaret looked into the camera.
“I signed the documents.”
“What documents?”
“The adoption papers.”
My heart tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Charles told me Ethan would die.”
Charles smiled.
“And he did?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Charles leaned closer to the camera.
“Because Ethan was never my son.”
Silence.
Ethan froze.
“What?”
Charles smiled.
“Your father isn't Charles Whitmore.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
“Then who is?”
Charles looked toward someone outside the camera.
A woman stepped into view.
My breath stopped.
She was older.
Gray hair.
Tired eyes.
But unmistakably alive.
Elena.
Ethan's biological mother.
Ethan whispered,
“Mom?”
She looked at him through the screen.
Tears filled her eyes.
“My son.”
He couldn't move.
For fifteen years, he had believed she was dead.
She looked at Charles.
“Let him go.”
Charles laughed.
“You know I can't.”
Elena looked at me.
“Judge Carter.”
I stepped toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
She hesitated.
“Inside the original Black Compass facility.”
“Where?”
She looked terrified.
“Under the presidential archive.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That facility was destroyed.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“They built another one beneath it.”
Charles stepped closer.
“You have one hour.”
“For what?”
“To bring me the seal.”
“And if I don't?”
Charles looked at Noah.
“Your son dies.”
I stared at the screen.
Then I noticed something.
Elena was moving her fingers.
Slowly.
Three taps.
Pause.
Two taps.
Three taps.
The same signal.
A distress code.
I understood.
She wasn't asking for help.
She was telling me something.
I watched carefully.
Three taps.
Two.
Three.
Then she touched her left shoulder.
I remembered the old Black Compass files.
Left shoulder meant:
BEHIND YOU.
I turned.
Nobody was there.
Then I heard a click.
A hidden panel opened in the wall.
Inside was a small metal box.
Daniel picked it up.
He opened it.
Inside was my judicial seal.
And a note.
I recognized the handwriting.
Mine.
Seven years ago.
The note contained only one sentence.
IF YOU FIND THIS, DO NOT TRUST ETHAN.
I stared at the words.
Ethan stared at me.
“What does it say?”
I couldn't answer.
He took the note.
Read it.
His face changed.
“Mara...”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“I don't understand.”
“You were the only person who knew the signal.”
He looked at me.
“I don't remember.”
“Neither did I.”
Then the lights flickered.
The monitor showing Noah went black.
Charles's voice came through the speakers.
“Time's up.”
A gunshot sounded.
Then silence.
The monitor came back on.
The bassinet was empty.
Noah was gone.
May you like
And on the screen was one final message:
HE IS WITH HIS REAL FATHER NOW.
