Chapter 6 - A Voice Beneath the HotelThe emergency lights flickered red.
Richard grabbed Ethan's arm.
“Who's there?”
No answer.
Detective Mason drew his weapon.
“Police! Come out!”
A metal sound echoed from somewhere behind the walls.
Richard heard a whisper.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
Mason moved toward them.
Suddenly the door unlocked.
It swung open.
The corridor was empty.
“Search the basement!” Mason shouted.
Two officers ran in different directions.
Richard remained beside the table.
The red folder was gone.
Only one sheet remained.
Richard picked it up.
A handwritten sentence crossed the page.
Julian Cole was never the victim.
Ethan stared.
“What does that mean?”
Richard handed him the paper.
Then he noticed blood on the floor.
Fresh.
A single drop.
Then another.
They followed the trail toward the end of the corridor.
It stopped beside an old service elevator.
The elevator doors were open.
Inside lay a torn black glove.
Mason examined it.
“Someone was injured.”
“Or staged it,” Richard said.
Mason looked at him.
“You're learning.”
They searched the basement for an hour.
Nothing.
Back upstairs, Ethan found Olivia waiting in a private recovery room.
She looked exhausted.
“Where did you go?”
Richard sat beside her.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“Your father's files.”
Olivia frowned.
“Why are you talking about my father?”
Richard looked at Ethan.
Ethan finally told her everything.
About Julian.
The trust.
The death certificate.
The hidden hospital record.
Olivia listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she said,
“I knew.”
Richard stared.
“You knew Julian survived?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Olivia reached beneath her pillow.
She pulled out a tiny black flash drive.
“Julian gave me this.”
Richard's heart jumped.
“When?”
“Five months ago.”
“You've had it this whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Julian said giving it to my father would put him in danger.”
Richard looked at the drive.
“Why?”
“He said my father wasn't investigating the Cole family.”
Richard frowned.
“Then what was he investigating?”
Olivia whispered,
“Me.”
Silence.
Richard couldn't speak.
“Explain.”
“Julian said someone had been tracking me since before I met Ethan.”
“For what?”
“I don't know.”
Richard took the drive.
Mason connected it to a secure laptop.
There were forty-seven files.
Most were encrypted.
One folder wasn't.
PROJECT OLIVIA.
Richard felt ice spread through his chest.
He opened it.
The first document was dated twenty-one years earlier.
Before Olivia was born.
It contained a photograph of a woman holding a newborn baby.
Richard recognized the woman immediately.
His wife.
His late wife, Maria.
The baby was Olivia.
Richard whispered,
“This can't be.”
Beneath the photograph was a medical record.
Subject transferred from St. Vincent Children's Hospital.
Then a second line.
Biological parentage contested.
Richard looked at Olivia.
She shook her head.
“No.”
He scrolled.
Another document appeared.
Payment issued to Bellamy Trust representative.
Richard's face drained of color.
A final note appeared.
The child must never learn who her real father is.
Olivia began to cry.
“Dad…”
Richard couldn't look at her.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Richard.”
Richard pushed away from the desk.
“Don't.”
“You need to hear me.”
“No.”
“Your daughter may not be my family's target.”
Richard turned sharply.
“Then whose?”
Ethan looked at the screen.
“The person who created Project Olivia.”
The laptop suddenly went black.
Then a message appeared.
HELLO, OLIVIA.
She froze.
A second message appeared.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE TONIGHT.
Richard grabbed the laptop.
“Trace it!”
Mason's team worked frantically.
The screen flickered.
A live video appeared.
A dark room.
A wooden chair.
Someone sat inside it.
The face remained hidden.
Then the person leaned forward.
A woman's voice spoke.
“Richard.”
He stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
It belonged to his wife.
Maria.
His wife had been dead for seventeen years.
Olivia stared at the screen.
“Mom?”
The woman smiled.
And said,
May you like
“Tell my daughter the truth.”
Then the transmission ended.
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