Chapter 5 - The Name Inside Daniel's Ledger
Mara called back seventeen times.
Nothing.
Adrian's people traced the number.
Burner phone.
Signal bounced through three towers before disappearing near the river.
Curtis survived surgery.
Barely.
He remained unconscious under guard.
Mara sat beside Lucy at Adrian's house until dawn, watching her daughter sleep.
Daniel was alive.
The thought should have filled her with joy.
Instead, rage competed with grief.
He had watched her bury him.
Watched her explain death to a three-year-old.
Watched bills pile up.
Watched Curtis knock on their door.
Maybe he had done it to protect them.
Maybe that made it worse.
At breakfast, Lucy drew a family picture.
"Who's that?" Mara asked.
"Daddy."
"And him?"
Lucy pointed to a tall black figure.
"Mr. Adrian."
Mara almost choked on her coffee.
"Why is he in our family picture?"
"He has pancakes."
Across the kitchen, Adrian looked suspiciously pleased.
Then Marcus entered with a ledger recovered from Daniel's safe-deposit materials.
"There's a pattern."
The ledger listed payments.
Not debts.
Monthly transfers to foster agencies.
Private clinics.
St. Arden.
Mara's name appeared beside one account.
ELLIS, MARA — SUBJECT M17.
Her skin prickled.
Adrian turned pages.
The entries began before Mara was born.
"That's impossible."
"Unless M17 wasn't originally you," he said.
A final page contained seventeen female names.
Sixteen were crossed out.
MARA remained.
Beside it:
VIABLE MATERNAL LINE.
Mara pushed away from the table.
"No."
Adrian closed the ledger.
"Lucy stays protected. We investigate the records."
"I want my husband."
"So do I."
"Not for the same reason."
Adrian looked at her.
"No. Probably not."
They traced Mara's first foster placement to a shuttered Catholic children's home outside New Orleans.
The records room smelled of dust and mildew.
A retired administrator named Sister Catherine agreed to meet them.
She was eighty-three.
When Mara gave her name, the woman's hands began shaking.
"You grew up."
Mara stopped.
"You remember me?"
"I remember the night you arrived."
"Who brought me?"
Sister Catherine looked toward Adrian.
"He shouldn't be here."
"He's with me."
"That's what your mother said about another Vale."
Adrian stiffened.
"My mother?"
Sister Catherine crossed herself.
"Not yours. Hers."
Mara sat down.
"You knew my mother?"
The nun opened an old cabinet.
Inside was a photograph.
A young blonde woman held a newborn.
Mara recognized her own eyes.
"Her name was Evelyn Mercer."
"What happened to her?"
"She discovered what her family had funded."
Adrian leaned forward.
"What family?"
Sister Catherine hesitated.
"The Mercer Foundation."
Mara knew the name.
Everyone in Louisiana did.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Research grants.
The Mercer Foundation had donated the pediatric wing at St. Arden.
"Why was I put in foster care?"
"To hide you."
"From whom?"
"Your grandfather."
Mara felt cold.
"Why?"
"Because Evelyn threatened to expose the program."
"What program?"
The nun looked at Lucy's name in Daniel's ledger.
"The one that never ended."
A floorboard creaked outside.
Adrian rose instantly.
Marcus checked the corridor.
Empty.
When they turned back, Sister Catherine had removed a small envelope from beneath the desk.
"Your mother left this."
Mara opened it.
One sentence.
IF MY DAUGHTER EVER COMES LOOKING, TELL HER WARREN KNOWS WHERE I AM.
Mara stared.
"My mother might be alive?"
Sister Catherine's eyes filled.
"I prayed you would never need to find out."
A window shattered.
Adrian dragged Mara down.
Smoke filled the room.
Marcus shouted.
They evacuated through the rear entrance.
By the time firefighters arrived, the records room was burning.
Sister Catherine survived.
The photograph did too.
But the ledger was gone.
Someone had taken it during the chaos.
Back at the car, Adrian received a call.
Marcus listened.
Then looked at Mara.
"Curtis woke up."
They reached the private clinic thirty minutes later.
Curtis was pale.
Weak.
But conscious.
Mara stood beside him.
"You spoke to Daniel."
Curtis nodded.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"Stop saying that."
"He contacts me."
"Why?"
"To make sure you're alive."
Her anger sharpened.
"He could have done that himself."
"No. He couldn't."
"Why?"
Curtis looked toward Adrian.
"Because Daniel isn't hiding from St. Arden."
"Then who?"
Curtis swallowed.
"Adrian."
Mara turned.
Adrian didn't react.
Curtis continued.
"Daniel believes Gabriel discovered something about the Vale organization before he died."
Adrian's voice was quiet.
"What?"
"A name."
"What name?"
Curtis looked terrified.
"The person who financed the trials."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Say it."
Curtis opened his mouth.
The cardiac monitor suddenly screamed.
Mara turned.
Air in the IV line.
Someone had tampered with it.
She clamped the tubing.
"Get a crash cart!"
Doctors rushed in.
Adrian pulled Mara aside.
Through the glass, they watched the team stabilize Curtis.
Then Mara noticed someone leaving at the end of the hallway.
Silver hair.
Perfect posture.
Dr. Warren Hale.
She ran after him.
"Hale!"
He entered an elevator.
Mara reached it as the doors began closing.
Hale looked directly at her.
Then he held up Daniel's missing ledger.
He opened it to the final page.
A name had been written beneath the list of children.
Hale turned the book so Mara could see.
Her breath stopped.
The elevator doors closed before she could read the surname.
May you like
But she had seen the first name.
Adrian...
