Chapter 6 - Claire's Last Secret
Vale stared at Claire.
"You killed my mother?"
Claire shook her head.
"No."
Samuel laughed bitterly.
"You pulled the trigger."
Nora moved beside her mother.
Claire looked at Vale.
"I did."
Vale's expression became terrifyingly calm.
Nora stepped in front of him.
"Listen first."
"Move."
"No."
"Nora."
"You want the truth? Then hear all of it."
Vale stared at her.
Then stepped back.
Claire spoke.
Vale's mother, Elena Varen, had been working with Victor Mercer.
Not willingly.
Leonard had threatened young Elias.
Elena became an informant inside the network.
Eventually she tried to escape.
Leonard ordered Samuel to kill her.
Samuel refused.
Claire was seventeen.
She found Elena wounded after Leonard shot her.
"Then why did Samuel say you pulled the trigger?" Vale asked.
Claire cried.
"Because Elena asked me to."
Silence.
"She was dying. Leonard was coming back. She begged me not to let him take her alive."
Vale looked at Samuel.
Samuel nodded.
"I arrived afterward."
Vale sat.
All the rage left him.
Nora watched him grieve a mother he had already grieved once under the wrong story.
Elias approached.
"I should have told you."
Vale looked up.
"You should have told me everything."
"Yes."
"Instead you let me become Adrian Vale."
Elias's eyes filled.
"I thought keeping you away from us kept you alive."
Vale laughed painfully.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
Nora understood too well.
Leonard was arrested.
Marco surrendered.
Samuel agreed to testify.
The ledger went to federal investigators.
But the night wasn't over.
Because Leonard had one final move.
During his transfer, a corrupt officer attempted to free him.
The attempt failed.
But a phone recovered from the officer contained a message scheduled to send at 3:00 a.m.
BURN THE ORIGINAL.
Nora read it.
"What original?"
Mrs. Hale knew.
"Saint Vincent's."
The abandoned orphanage still stood forty miles away.
Claire stared.
"The original ledger."
Vale looked at her.
"You said this was the ledger."
"It's a copy."
Nora groaned.
"Of course it is."
Claire almost apologized.
Nora stopped her.
"We can unpack your relationship with truth later."
They drove to Saint Vincent's.
Police followed.
Dawn approached.
The building was abandoned.
Windows boarded.
Brick blackened with age.
Nora stood before it.
Vale beside her.
"So this is where Eli lived."
Vale nodded.
"And Claire."
"Yes."
"Where's seventeen?"
He pointed toward a lower wing.
They entered.
Dust.
Broken furniture.
Old children's drawings.
Vale moved slowly.
Nora realized this was harder for him than facing armed men.
She touched his hand.
He looked down.
She didn't remove it.
They reached locker seventeen.
It was empty.
Claire stared.
"No."
Vale examined the interior.
"False back."
He pressed.
A panel opened.
Inside was a metal box.
Nora laughed softly.
"Your childhood had entirely too many hidden compartments."
Vale actually smiled.
"Agreed."
They opened it.
Documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
And a film reel.
Mrs. Hale recognized it.
"Victor recorded meetings."
The evidence was enough.
Names of judges.
Officers.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
Most were retired or dead.
Some weren't.
Vale looked at Nora.
"This could destroy people."
"Good."
Claire said, "Some innocent families could be hurt too."
Nora nodded.
"Then investigators decide what becomes public. We don't become Leonard."
Vale agreed.
At the bottom of the box was one envelope.
ELIAS VAREN.
Vale opened it.
A letter from his mother.
He read silently.
Then his eyes filled.
Nora turned away to give him privacy.
Vale stopped her.
"Stay."
She did.
Elena had written that Eli was not responsible for what happened to their family.
That his father loved him.
That Claire had tried to save them.
And that if he ever escaped Saint Vincent's, he should build something instead of spending his life destroying.
Vale folded the letter.
Nora whispered, "She knew you."
"Apparently better than I knew myself."
"Adrian isn't fake."
He looked at her.
"Neither is Eli."
Vale absorbed that.
Outside, dawn appeared.
Investigators collected the box.
Claire approached Nora.
"I don't expect forgiveness."
"Good."
Claire nodded.
"But I want a chance."
Nora looked at her mother.
Seventeen years couldn't be repaired in one conversation.
Maybe not seventeen conversations.
But Nora had spent most of her life wishing for one impossible thing.
Her mother back.
Now the impossible stood before her.
"I can give you a chance."
Claire cried.
Nora hugged her.
Not because everything was fixed.
Because maybe fixing could begin.
Walter joined them.
Then Lily.
For a moment Nora stood inside a family she hadn't known existed yesterday.
Vale watched from several feet away.
Nora caught his eye.
"You're not escaping."
He raised an eyebrow.
"From what?"
"Breakfast."
"Your diner has no windows."
"Temporary problem."
"I know contractors."
"Of course you do."
His smile disappeared when his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Vale answered.
Silence.
Then a voice.
"Adrian Vale?"
"Yes."
"This is Dr. Rebecca Sloan from St. Matthew's Hospital."
Vale frowned.
Nora watched.
"We have a patient asking for Elias Varen."
Vale's face changed.
"Who?"
The doctor hesitated.
"A woman named Elena."
Vale stopped breathing.
Nora stared.
His mother's letter slipped from his hand.
Claire whispered, "That's impossible."
Vale put the phone on speaker.
The doctor continued.
"She says she's your mother."
Nobody moved.
Then an elderly woman's voice came faintly through the phone.
"Eli?"
Vale's knees nearly gave way.
Nora caught his arm.
The voice whispered again.
May you like
"Please come before Leonard finds me."
The line went dead.
