Chapter 11 - The Dead Man’s Signature
The signature was genuine.
The photograph was recent.
Both facts could not coexist.
Unless one of Adrien’s assumptions was wrong.
Samuel stared at the photograph.
“I didn’t put this here.”
Adrien looked at him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Camille studied the paper.
“Could someone reproduce Viktor’s signature?”
“Of course.”
“But why?”
Adrien turned the photograph over again.
The ink looked fresh.
Tomas sent it for analysis.
The answer came hours later.
Signature ink: approximately six months old.
Camille sat in stunned silence.
Adrien’s father had died in a private clinic after a stroke.
Adrien saw the body.
He attended the burial.
There was no reasonable possibility Viktor lived.
Then Samuel remembered something.
“Viktor had a brother.”
Adrien stared.
“My uncle Petar died before I was born.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Another family lie.
Petar and Viktor were identical twins.
Petar disappeared after a dispute with their father.
Samuel believed he died overseas.
Apparently he had not.
DNA records confirmed the possibility through an old immigration file.
The photograph was not signed by Viktor.
It was signed by the man who had spent a lifetime using the same childhood shorthand signature.
Petar Kovac.
“Why watch Camille?” Adrien asked.
Nobody knew.
Until Camille remembered the transition manual.
One section was missing.
Appendix G.
She had assumed she misplaced it.
Appendix G contained information about dormant Kovac properties.
One belonged to Petar.
A lakeside cabin.
Adrien and Camille drove there with security.
The cabin appeared abandoned.
Inside, however, a fire burned.
A cup of coffee was warm.
Someone had been there minutes earlier.
On the table lay Appendix G.
Camille picked it up.
A note beneath it read:
You were always better at finding what people wanted hidden.
Adrien searched the rooms.
Empty.
Then Camille found photographs.
Dozens.
Not surveillance.
Protection.
Photographs documenting men who had followed her over several years.
Petar had been watching the watchers.
Margot’s people.
A recording device sat beside them.
Camille pressed play.
An elderly man spoke.
“My name is Petar Kovac. If Camille Arden hears this, Margot has finally forced me out of hiding.”
Petar explained he had helped Viktor dismantle the network.
He remained invisible because Margot believed him dead.
He had spent years monitoring her.
When Camille joined Adrien, Petar quietly watched from afar.
Not because Viktor ordered him to.
Because Marianne once saved his life.
Adrien closed his eyes.
Another debt inherited.
Another secret.
The recording continued.
“Adrien, if you hear this, stop becoming your father.”
Adrien looked up.
Camille almost smiled.
Petar continued.
“Viktor believed protecting people meant deciding what they were allowed to know. It cost him Marianne. It cost him peace. Do better.”
The recording ended.
Camille looked at Adrien.
“That family trait is remarkably persistent.”
“I’m working on it.”
“You are.”
He looked surprised.
She meant it.
Outside, a branch snapped.
Security moved.
A figure stood among the trees.
Older.
Tall.
Dark coat.
Adrien walked onto the porch.
The man stepped into the light.
Adrien stopped breathing.
He looked almost exactly like Viktor would have looked had he lived another eleven years.
Petar Kovac stared at his nephew.
Then he looked at Camille.
“I’m sorry it took this long.”
Adrien descended one step.
Petar raised a hand.
“Before you ask anything, there is something Camille needs to know.”
Camille came outside.
Petar’s expression became grave.
“Your mother did not die from the illness you were told she had.”
Camille froze.
Petar reached inside his coat.
May you like
He removed a medical file.
“She was poisoned.”
