Chapter 5 - The Name on the File
The footsteps stopped.
Nobody moved.
Victoria lowered the gun.
“There's another exit.”
Gabriel looked around.
“Where?”
Victoria pointed toward the archive wall.
“Behind the shelves.”
We moved quickly.
Gabriel pushed aside two cabinets.
A narrow passage appeared.
Julian refused to leave without the files.
“You can't carry all of them,” I said.
“I don't need all of them.”
He took one folder.
Andrew's.
Then he looked at me.
“You're coming.”
I nodded.
We entered the passage.
The door closed behind us.
We heard someone enter the archive.
A man's voice.
“Julian.”
Julian stopped.
I recognized the voice.
So did he.
His face changed.
“That's impossible.”
“Who is it?”
He whispered one word.
“Marcus.”
“Who?”
“My father's attorney.”
The passage opened into an underground garage.
A black SUV waited there.
Victoria followed.
Gabriel started the engine.
We escaped through a private road.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Finally, Julian opened Andrew's folder.
Inside was a handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, trust Claire.
I stared.
“I've never seen this.”
Julian looked at me.
“Your brother trusted you.”
“He barely spoke to me during his last year.”
“Maybe he was trying to protect you.”
The note contained an address.
An old lakeside warehouse.
Gabriel searched it.
“Abandoned.”
Julian shook his head.
“Nothing connected to my family is ever abandoned.”
We drove there.
The warehouse stood beside an old marina.
The door was unlocked.
Inside were empty shelves.
A desk.
A broken lamp.
And a single cassette recorder.
Julian stared at it.
“I remember this.”
He moved closer.
“You've been here?”
“No.”
He touched the recorder.
His hand trembled.
Then he pressed play.
Andrew's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, I failed.”
I covered my mouth.
Julian stared ahead.
Andrew continued.
“Julian, they will tell you your accident was random.”
Static.
“It wasn't.”
Another pause.
“Your paralysis was made worse after the crash.”
Julian's eyes filled with shock.
“Someone paid a doctor.”
The recording crackled.
“His name is—”
The tape stopped.
Julian hit the recorder.
Nothing.
Gabriel opened it.
The tape had been deliberately cut.
I looked around.
“Someone knew this was here.”
Julian's gaze moved to the desk.
There was a photograph.
Andrew.
Victoria.
Marcus.
And Julian's father.
Four people.
On the back was a date.
The night Julian crashed.
Julian picked it up.
“Why would my father be involved?”
Victoria said nothing.
I looked at her.
“You knew.”
She finally answered.
“Yes.”
Julian stared at his sister.
“You knew my father ordered the investigation?”
“I knew he was afraid.”
“Of what?”
Victoria's eyes filled with tears.
“Of what you would discover about your own birth.”
Julian froze.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria looked at me.
Then at the photograph.
“Your father wasn't your biological father.”
Julian's face went blank.
“What?”
Before Victoria could explain, the warehouse lights switched on.
A man stood at the far end.
Marcus.
He smiled.
Then he said:
“Julian, your father left one thing out.”
He lifted a second photograph.
“This woman is your mother.”
Julian stared at the image.
Then he whispered her name.
A name Claire had seen before.
May you like
Written inside Andrew's file.
The woman in the photograph was...
