Chapter 7 - The Secret Beneath Pier Seventeen
The possibility followed Arthur all the way to Saint Aurelia.
My son.
Not Arthur.
Someone else.
They entered through the crypt.
The cathedral above had been emptied and sealed after the shooting.
Beneath the altar, Kora found a hidden mechanism.
The metal disk from Richard’s envelope fit perfectly.
A stone panel opened.
Behind it descended a staircase.
Arthur went first.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
Three circular locks.
Pendleton.
Whitmore.
Miller.
Kora whispered, “The vault.”
But they possessed only one key.
Then Beatrice reached beneath her necklace.
She removed a small gold disk.
Arthur stared.
“My father gave it to me when I was sixteen.”
Whitmore.
Two keys.
Wyatt swore quietly.
“My father has the third.”
A light came on beyond the corridor.
Silas lay against the wall.
Blood covered his shirt.
Arthur rushed to him.
“Silas.”
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
Silas explained that Richard had discovered Evelyn’s affair decades ago.
Arthur was born from it.
Richard chose to raise him anyway.
But Arthur’s biological father was—
“Elias,” Wyatt said.
Silas closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Arthur stared at Wyatt.
Half brothers.
The revelation landed strangely.
Wyatt laughed once in disbelief.
“All these years.”
Arthur looked back at Silas.
“Where's Evelyn?”
“She took Elias below.”
“Why?”
“She needs his key.”
A sound echoed from behind the steel door.
Someone screamed.
Wyatt recognized the voice.
“Dad.”
He ran toward it.
Arthur caught him.
“Think.”
“That’s my father.”
“He tortured Kora.”
Wyatt’s face twisted.
“I know.”
Kora stepped closer.
“He's still your father.”
Wyatt looked at her.
The person with the greatest reason to hate Elias had just given Wyatt permission to care.
They found another route through an old drainage corridor.
It led to Pier Seventeen.
The cathedral and harbor were connected by tunnels built during Prohibition.
At the pier, they found Elias chained inside a warehouse.
Alive.
Older.
Bleeding.
Wyatt approached slowly.
Elias looked up.
“My boy.”
Wyatt hit him.
Then hugged him.
Then pushed him away.
Years of anger had no clean shape.
Arthur stood back.
Elias saw him.
Something changed in his eyes.
“Arthur.”
Arthur knew now.
“You're my father.”
Elias gave a tired smile.
“Biologically.”
“Richard was my father.”
The smile vanished.
Arthur crouched.
“You hurt Kora.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed the vault.”
“You cut her throat?”
Elias looked away.
Kora stepped forward.
Elias paled.
“I thought you were dead.”
Kora’s rough voice answered, “You hoped.”
Wyatt closed his eyes.
Elias told them Evelyn had manipulated every faction.
But Elias had willingly participated.
He did not ask forgiveness.
Arthur respected that more than excuses.
“Where is your key?”
Elias laughed.
“She couldn't find it.”
“Where?”
He looked at Wyatt.
“I gave it to you twenty years ago.”
Wyatt frowned.
Then touched the old Saint Christopher medal around his neck.
He had worn it since childhood.
He opened the back.
Inside sat a tiny silver disk.
Three keys.
Arthur freed Elias.
“Why should we trust you?”
“You shouldn't.”
A fair answer.
They returned toward Saint Aurelia.
Halfway through the tunnel, Elias stopped.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“There's something else in that vault.”
“What?”
“Your mother's list.”
“What list?”
“People she intends to kill.”
Kora went pale.
“The wedding guests.”
Elias nodded.
“The wedding wasn't meant to unite the families.”
Arthur understood.
“It was meant to gather them.”
Four hundred influential people.
One cathedral.
One hidden plan.
Evelyn intended to decapitate Crescent City's criminal and political structure in a single event.
The canceled wedding had interrupted it.
But perhaps not stopped it.
Arthur asked, “How?”
Elias looked upward.
“Gas.”
Everyone froze.
Saint Aurelia's old heating tunnels connected beneath the pews.
Arthur grabbed his phone.
He called city security.
No answer.
Then Wyatt’s phone chimed.
A scheduled message.
Unknown sender.
MIDNIGHT SERVICE. ATTENDANCE REQUIRED.
Attached was a live camera feed.
Hundreds of people were being forced back inside Saint Aurelia.
Wedding guests.
Families.
Workers.
Even children.
Armed men guarded the exits.
At the altar stood Evelyn Pendleton.
Alive.
Elegant.
Waiting.
Arthur stared at the feed.
His mother lifted her head as if she knew he was watching.
Then she held up the third key.
Not Elias’s.
A duplicate.
Kora whispered, “She never needed us.”
Evelyn looked directly into the camera.
Her lips moved.
Arthur could read them.
Come home.
Then the camera turned toward a chair beside the altar.
May you like
Conrad Whitmore was tied to it.
And standing behind him with a knife was Beatrice’s supposedly dead mother...
