Chapter 6 - THE DEAD WOMAN'S SECRETVictor couldn't breathe.
The photograph showed his mother standing outside the old chapel.
His mother had been dead for fifteen years.
Unless the date was wrong.
He grabbed the photograph.
“What is this?”
Nora stared at it.
“I've never seen that woman.”
Chloe disagreed.
“She met Mom.”
“When?”
“Before I was born.”
Victor looked at Chloe.
“What did your mother tell you about her?”
“She said Grandma knew the truth.”
“Which grandmother?”
“Yours.”
Victor closed his eyes.
His mother.
The woman he had worshiped.
The woman who had told him Amelia was dead.
Could she have been involved?
He hated the thought.
But evidence was piling up.
Too quickly.
Then a gunshot came from the tunnel.
Marcus pushed Victor down.
Bullets struck the wall.
Security returned fire.
The attacker disappeared through a side passage.
Victor shouted:
“Don't let him escape!”
The team pursued.
They found a room at the end of the tunnel.
Inside sat a desk.
A computer.
And dozens of files.
Victor opened the first.
BLACKWOOD SUCCESSION PROJECT.
He opened another.
AMELIA BLACKWOOD: SUBJECT A.
Another.
CHLOE BLACKWOOD: SUBJECT B.
His hands shook.
“Subject?”
Marcus stared.
“This isn't accounting.”
Victor opened a medical report.
Genetic compatibility.
Bloodline analysis.
Psychological profiling.
Then he saw something horrifying.
Objective: Determine hereditary musical response.
Victor looked toward Chloe.
“They've been studying you.”
The little girl nodded.
“Mom knew.”
“How?”
“She said someone wanted to know whether I inherited her father's gift.”
Victor stared.
“Her father's?”
Chloe looked confused.
“Grandpa.”
Victor felt a strange pain.
“Your mother called me Grandpa?”
“Yes.”
His eyes filled.
After twenty years, he had a granddaughter standing before him.
He had never known.
Then the computer beeped.
A live video appeared.
Amelia.
Victor froze.
She looked older.
Thinner.
But alive.
“Dad.”
Victor staggered toward the screen.
“Amelia.”
Her voice trembled.
“You weren't supposed to find this.”
“Where are you?”
“I don't have much time.”
“Who did this to you?”
She looked away.
“I made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“I trusted someone.”
Victor waited.
“Who?”
Amelia whispered:
“Your wife.”
Victor stopped.
He didn't understand.
His wife, Elena, had died six years earlier.
Amelia continued.
“Dad, the person behind everything isn't Richard.”
Victor's heart began pounding.
“It isn't Mother.”
“Then who?”
Amelia looked directly into the camera.
“It's someone you still call family.”
The screen went black.
Victor turned.
Every person in the tunnel stared at him.
Then Chloe whispered:
“Mom always said the worst secrets hide behind the happiest faces.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“I agree.”
Victor spun.
A woman stood there.
Elegant.
Calm.
Smiling.
She was the head of the Blackwood Foundation.
Evelyn Cross.
Victor had trusted her for twenty-five years.
May you like
Evelyn raised a gun.
“Now we can stop pretending.”
