CHAPTER 13 THE THIRD CHILD
The woman standing in the doorway looked at Dominic as though she had known him all her life.
She had Harper's eyes.
Emily's face.
Eleanor's features.
But there was something different in her expression.
No fear.
No confusion.
Only certainty.
Dominic raised his gun.
“Who are you?”
The woman smiled.
“You really don't recognize me?”
Dominic glanced at Harper.
Then Emily.
Then back at the stranger.
“Should I?”
She stepped into the Archive.
“My name is Ava.”
Eleanor's face went white.
“No…”
Ava looked at her.
“Hello, Mother.”
Eleanor took a step backward.
“You died.”
Ava smiled.
“That's what you were told.”
Dominic's grip tightened.
“Another daughter.”
Ava nodded.
“The third.”
Dominic looked at the monitors.
91%
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
Ava laughed.
“Because you weren't supposed to know I existed.”
“Who hid you?”
She looked at Alexander.
“He did.”
Alexander remained silent.
Ava pointed at him.
“He took me when I was three.”
Dominic stared.
“Why?”
“Because I was the only one who could remember everything without the Archive.”
Elias frowned.
“That isn't possible.”
Ava looked at him.
“You've spent your entire life believing what they told you.”
She walked toward the central chamber.
“That's why you failed.”
Dominic stepped in front of her.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Ava smiled.
“Which one?”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Harper.”
Ava looked at the little girl.
“She isn't just your daughter.”
“She is my sister.”
Dominic froze.
Ava's expression softened.
“I was born from the same genetic sequence.”
Dominic stared.
“Then why do you look older?”
“Because I wasn't created at the same time.”
“How old are you?”
Ava smiled.
“Twenty-two.”
Dominic's mind raced.
Harper was four.
Emily was four.
Ava was twenty-two.
The timeline made no sense.
Unless...
He looked at Eleanor.
“You created them before Harper was born.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Years before.”
Dominic's voice became cold.
“Why?”
Eleanor looked toward the Archive.
“To end Alexander's control.”
Alexander laughed.
“You still blame me.”
“You kidnapped my children.”
“I protected them.”
“You experimented on them.”
“I preserved the bloodline.”
Dominic looked at Ava.
“Where have you been all these years?”
Ava answered:
“Underground.”
“Here?”
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“In the first Archive.”
Dominic frowned.
“The first?”
Ava nodded.
“There are three.”
Dominic looked at the endless shelves.
“This is the second?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the first?”
Ava smiled.
“Under your mother's grave.”
Dominic remembered Claire's warning.
The chapel.
The grave.
The key.
Everything connected.
He turned toward Eleanor.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You sent me there.”
“I needed you to find the key.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Alexander was listening.”
Dominic looked around.
“Listening how?”
Ava pointed toward the ceiling.
“Every wall in this estate has microphones.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“For seventeen years?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward Nathan.
“You knew?”
Nathan shook his head.
“Not all of them.”
Ava smiled.
“Some of them were installed before you were born.”
Dominic looked at the monitors.
94%
Harper screamed.
“Daddy!”
Dominic ran to her.
She was clutching her head.
“I can hear them again.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“What are they saying?”
Harper began crying.
“They want to come out.”
Dominic looked at Ava.
“What does that mean?”
Ava's expression became serious.
“The Archive is no longer storing memories.”
“Then what?”
“It's releasing them.”
The lights flickered.
One by one, the monitors displayed faces.
Dead men.
Dead women.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Police officers.
Criminals.
People Dominic recognized.
People he had believed had died naturally.
People he had personally ordered killed.
Their voices filled the room.
“You betrayed me.”
“You killed my brother.”
“You lied.”
“You took everything.”
Dominic stepped backward.
Elias covered his ears.
“This is impossible.”
Ava shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Dominic.
“This is the truth.”
Then one face appeared on the largest screen.
Dominic's mother.
Eleanor.
But this wasn't the woman standing beside him.
It was Eleanor twenty years earlier.
She was crying.
A man stood behind her.
Victor.
The recording began.
“If you're watching this…”
Eleanor looked directly into the camera.
“…then Alexander failed.”
Dominic froze.
The recording continued.
“Dominic, if you survived, listen carefully.”
Dominic moved closer.
“Your father will tell you he loved you.”
Victor looked down.
“He will tell you he protected you.”
“He will tell you everything he did was necessary.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“It's a lie.”
Dominic looked at Victor.
The real Victor lowered his eyes.
Eleanor continued.
“Your father didn't create the Black Archive.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“He inherited it.”
Ava whispered:
“Exactly.”
Eleanor continued.
“The Archive was created by the first Vale woman.”
Dominic stared.
“Her name was Seraphina.”
The screen changed.
An old photograph appeared.
A woman from more than a century ago.
Dominic recognized the same eyes.
The same face.
The same scar.
The same bloodline.
Eleanor said:
“Every generation, the Archive chooses one heir.”
“Not the strongest.”
“Not the richest.”
“The one capable of remembering.”
Dominic looked at Ava.
Ava nodded.
Eleanor continued.
“I had three children because the Archive rejected the first two.”
Dominic stared.
“Rejected?”
“Yes.”
“It rejected Dominic.”
His heart stopped.
“It rejected Elias.”
Elias stepped backward.
“But it accepted Isabella.”
Isabella's eyes widened.
Eleanor continued:
“Then I discovered something.”
“The Archive wasn't choosing the heir.”
“It was choosing the prison.”
Dominic looked at Harper.
“What does that mean?”
Ava answered softly:
“The Archive doesn't want a master.”
“It wants a host.”
The recording continued.
Eleanor's voice became weaker.
“If Alexander discovers this, he will try to transfer the Archive into one of my children.”
“He will destroy whoever resists.”
“I tried to stop him.”
“I failed.”
Dominic's eyes filled with tears.
Then Eleanor looked directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, Dominic…”
A pause.
“I'm sorry.”
“I couldn't protect you.”
“I couldn't protect Isabella.”
“And I couldn't protect the third child.”
Dominic's eyes widened.
“The third child?”
The screen went black.
Ava whispered:
“Me.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“Then why were Harper and Emily created?”
Ava looked at the girls.
“To finish what I started.”
“What did you start?”
“The destruction of the Archive.”
Dominic looked at the monitors.
97%
Ava stepped closer.
“When the transfer reaches one hundred percent, Harper and Emily will absorb the Archive.”
Dominic frowned.
“You said the Archive wants a host.”
“Yes.”
“Then why two?”
Ava's expression changed.
“Because there is too much information for one mind.”
Dominic stared.
“And if they absorb it?”
“They'll remember everything.”
“Everything?”
“Every murder.”
“Every betrayal.”
“Every secret.”
“Every memory.”
Dominic looked at Harper.
“What happens to her?”
Ava hesitated.
“She may never be the same.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“No.”
Ava nodded.
“I know.”
“Then stop it.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
Ava looked toward Alexander.
“Because he has the original control key.”
Dominic turned.
Alexander was gone.
His heart dropped.
“Where is he?”
Nobody answered.
Then a gunshot echoed.
Everyone turned.
Eleanor collapsed.
Blood spread across her chest.
Dominic screamed:
“Mom!”
He caught her before she hit the floor.
Eleanor looked up at him.
Her eyes were fading.
“Dominic…”
“Stay with me.”
She smiled.
“I always knew…”
Her hand touched his cheek.
“…you'd come back.”
Dominic held her tightly.
“Who shot you?”
Eleanor looked toward the ceiling.
“Alexander.”
Dominic looked up.
A speaker clicked on.
Alexander's voice filled the Archive.
“You're almost there.”
Dominic shouted:
“Show yourself!”
Alexander laughed.
“Why?”
“You're afraid.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I'm excited.”
The monitor flashed.
99%
Alexander's voice continued.
“When the transfer reaches one hundred…”
The Archive doors locked.
“…the girls will remember who their real father is.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Alexander laughed.
“And it isn't you.”
The screen went black.
Then the final number appeared.
100%
Harper and Emily opened their eyes simultaneously.
They looked at Dominic.
And spoke together.
“Daddy…”
A pause.
“We remember everything.”
Dominic's blood ran cold.
May you like
Then Harper whispered:
“And we remember who killed Grandma.”
