Chapter 12 - MICHAEL ASHFORDHarper couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Michael was alive.
Older.
Scarred.
But unmistakably Gabriel's brother.
Gabriel stepped forward.
"You let me believe you were dead."
Michael nodded.
"I had to."
"You watched me bury an empty grave."
"I know."
"You watched our mother break."
Michael looked away.
"She was never innocent."
Gabriel grabbed his collar.
"Tell me the truth."
Michael didn't resist.
"I killed no one."
"Then who did?"
Michael looked at Harper.
"Your father."
Harper felt numb.
Richard Lawson.
But her mother had claimed Richard wasn't her father.
Michael noticed.
"You're thinking about the bloodline."
Harper nodded.
"Richard isn't your father."
"Then who is?"
Michael hesitated.
"Your father was my father's partner."
"Who?"
"A federal investigator."
Harper stared.
"What?"
Michael nodded.
"Your mother was placed inside the police department as an informant."
"Then why did she lie?"
"Because she fell in love."
"With my father."
"Yes."
Harper closed her eyes.
All her memories were collapsing into each other.
"Then who kidnapped me?"
Michael's expression darkened.
"Richard's wife."
Harper looked up.
"Mrs. Lawson?"
"She believed you were evidence."
"Evidence of what?"
Michael placed a folder in front of her.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Not one.
Two.
Harper's name.
But the second had another name.
SARAH VALE.
Harper stared.
"That's me?"
Michael nodded.
"Your legal identity before Richard changed it."
"Why Sarah?"
"Because Sarah Vale was the daughter of a federal agent who disappeared."
Harper understood.
Her father had not been corrupt.
He had been undercover.
Richard killed him.
Her mother tried to expose everything.
And Harper had been hidden.
But there was another file.
Michael slid it toward her.
"Read the last page."
Harper did.
It contained one sentence.
SUBJECT HARPER QUEEN SHOWS NO MEMORY OF THE VAULT.
Harper looked up.
"The vault?"
Michael nodded.
"The original evidence was never destroyed."
"Where is it?"
Michael pointed toward her.
"You know."
Harper shook her head.
"No."
"You've known since you were eight."
A memory surfaced.
Her mother kneeling in front of her.
Holding a small red box.
"Where did you put it?"
Harper whispered:
"Under the floor."
Michael shook his head.
"Not your old house."
"Then where?"
Harper closed her eyes.
Another memory.
A room.
A mirror.
A child's drawing.
A hidden compartment.
She gasped.
"The Ashford bathroom."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Which one?"
"The third floor."
Michael's face changed.
"The original vault is inside this house."
Suddenly an alarm sounded.
Michael looked at the monitor.
Police surrounded the estate.
Richard had called them.
Michael cursed.
"We have six minutes."
Harper turned to Gabriel.
"Then let's end this."
Gabriel nodded.
They ran upstairs.
The third floor door was already open.
The bathroom waited in darkness.
Harper approached the mirror.
She remembered her mother.
She pressed the exact corner shown in her memory.
The mirror clicked.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a red metal box.
Harper reached for it.
Before she could touch it, someone whispered behind her.
"Don't."
She turned.
Derek stood in the doorway.
Blood covered his shirt.
He held a gun.
But he was pointing it at himself.
"Harper..."
His voice was weak.
"Richard lied to all of us."
Then Derek collapsed.
May you like
And inside the red box, Harper found a photograph that proved something impossible.
Derek Lawson had been protecting her all along.
