Chapter 18 - Ten Years of LiesEverything collapsed after that.
Not literally.
Though the Bellwether came close.
Governments denied the files.
Then confirmed them.
Then launched investigations.
People whose names had vanished from records began appearing again.
Families found missing relatives.
Witnesses stepped out of hiding.
Halcyon executives were arrested.
Others fled.
Peter disappeared.
Dr. Vale was captured two days later.
The woman with the silver triangle was taken alive.
But the biggest revelation came from the archive.
My father wasn't innocent.
He had done terrible things.
He had helped Halcyon disappear people.
He had handed over names.
He had built systems that should never have existed.
But he had also spent ten years dismantling the organization from inside.
The truth was ugly.
It usually is.
Dad survived his injuries.
He went to prison before the trial.
The day he left the hospital, I visited him.
He looked older.
Small.
Almost like a stranger.
"You don't have to forgive me," he said.
"I know."
"I don't expect it."
"I know."
"I just want you to know something."
I waited.
"I was proud of you."
I looked at him.
"Not that night."
"No."
"Not for years."
"No."
"But now."
He smiled.
"I was always watching."
I looked away.
"I don't know what to do with that."
"You don't have to do anything."
He reached into his pocket.
He handed me the old photograph.
Jake and Maya.
The one that had started everything.
"I kept this because I thought you deserved to know."
I turned it over.
There was writing on the back.
Not Peter.
Not Mom.
Jake's handwriting.
I'M SORRY I LEFT YOU ALONE.
I looked up.
Dad had tears in his eyes.
"Jake did it because he thought he'd never see you again."
I folded the photograph.
"Where is he now?"
"Outside."
I left the room.
Jake was sitting on a bench in the hospital garden.
Maya stood beside him.
I stopped.
Jake looked up.
"Hey."
I smiled.
"Hey."
He nodded toward the photograph.
"You found it."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
I sat beside him.
"For ten years?"
"For ten years."
I looked at him.
"I hated you."
"I know."
"I missed you."
"I know."
We sat there.
Two twins.
Finally without secrets.
Then Maya said:
"There's still one problem."
I looked at her.
"What?"
She held up a newspaper.
The headline read:
HALCYON ARCHIVE RELEASED. UNKNOWN EXECUTIVE STILL AT LARGE.
Underneath was a photograph.
A woman.
I recognized her.
Immediately.
My former employer.
The woman who had rented the studio next door.
The woman who had recommended my career to hundreds of clients.
The woman who had always asked why I was so good at remembering faces.
I whispered:
"She was Halcyon."
Jake stood.
"She's gone."
I looked at the photograph.
She wasn't gone.
The picture was taken that morning.
At an airport.
And she was holding a passport under the name:
May you like
ELENA MARSH.
My mother's maiden name.
