Chapter 6 - The Price of Coming Home
The girl in the photograph looked eight years old.
Maybe nine.
She had Lila’s dark hair.
She held Lila’s hand tightly.
“My niece,” I whispered.
Graham looked at me.
“Possibly.”
“No. Look at them.”
Margaret touched the screen.
Tears fell freely now.
“She has Lila’s eyes.”
There was an address attached.
An abandoned estate forty miles north of Charleston.
Graham immediately started issuing orders.
I interrupted.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You knew that answer wouldn’t work.”
“This isn’t a discussion.”
“It became one when the message asked for me.”
“They want you because you’re leverage.”
“Then use that.”
Graham stared at me.
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Ten years ago, you started deciding everything for me.”
“Because the things around me kill people.”
“And hiding them didn’t make them disappear.”
He had no response.
“I am going.”
His jaw worked.
Finally he said, “You stay beside me.”
“I don’t take orders anymore.”
“Tonight you do.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
“That sounded more like the husband I know.”
Pain crossed his face.
“Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Know me?”
The question landed between us.
“I don’t know.”
He nodded slowly.
“That’s fair.”
We drove north before dawn.
Six vehicles.
Graham had enough armed men to start a small war.
I rode beside him.
For twenty minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then I looked at his hand.
The ring remained.
“Why do you really wear it?”
He stared through the windshield.
“Eleanor.”
“I need the truth.”
He turned the ring once around his finger.
“Because I love my wife.”
Simple.
No performance.
My throat tightened.
“Then why was that so difficult to say?”
“Because loving you became the easiest way to kill you.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
He looked at me.
“My father loved people badly. He controlled them. Watched them. Hid things from them. Told himself every lie was protection.”
“And you became him.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more than denial.
“I spent years believing that if I kept you away from my world, I was different.”
“You weren’t.”
“No.”
“Would you have ever told me?”
He took too long.
“I don’t know.”
I looked away.
“Thank you for not lying.”
“I’ve done enough of that.”
We reached the estate before sunrise.
Graham’s men spread through the property.
No guards.
No vehicles.
The front door stood open.
Inside, one lamp burned.
A child’s red sweater lay on the floor.
Margaret picked it up.
“She was here.”
Graham checked the hallway.
“Stay behind me.”
We found a dining room.
On the table sat a laptop.
Its screen turned on automatically.
Victor appeared on video.
“Good morning, Graham.”
Recorded.
His face was bruised from the bank escape.
“If you’re watching this, you brought Eleanor.”
Graham cursed.
Victor continued.
“Gabriel believed Thomas Bennett hid his archive in something belonging to Eleanor. We searched her childhood home. School records. Her mother’s possessions. Nothing.”
My skin went cold.
“We eventually realized Gabriel misunderstood Thomas’s clue.”
The screen displayed a scanned document.
My birth certificate.
Then a photograph of me at twelve.
Wearing a silver locket.
I touched my neck instinctively.
I no longer owned it.
It had disappeared after my father died.
Victor smiled.
“The archive wasn’t hidden in something belonging to Eleanor.”
Pause.
“It was hidden in someone.”
Margaret whispered, “What?”
Victor continued.
“Thomas Bennett encrypted the archive using a biological key.”
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
“DNA.”
My DNA.
“Only Eleanor can unlock the final database.”
Graham’s expression became deadly.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“And that is why Lila kept her alive.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
“Lila knew about me?”
Margaret asked.
Daniel examined the laptop.
“Another file.”
He opened it.
A video appeared.
Lila.
Older than the photograph.
Alive.
She stared directly into the camera.
“Eleanor, if you see this, I’m sorry.”
I sat down.
Her voice shook.
“I discovered you existed nine years ago. I wanted to meet you. Graham told me not to.”
I looked at him.
He did not deny it.
“He thought contacting you would put you in danger.”
Lila smiled sadly.
“He was probably right.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“I was pregnant. I wanted my daughter to have family outside this world.”
A little girl cried somewhere off-camera.
Lila looked away.
Then back.
“Victor’s people found us before I could leave Charleston. Graham helped me disappear.”
Margaret gasped.
Graham closed his eyes.
“You saved her.”
“For a while.”
Lila continued.
“For years, Graham sent money through hidden accounts. He never told Margaret I survived because we believed Margaret had been compromised.”
Margaret stared at him.
“Why?”
“Someone used your identity to access Lila’s records.”
“I never—”
“I know that now.”
The video continued.
“Three months ago, Victor found us.”
Lila swallowed.
“I offered him access to the archive in exchange for my daughter’s life. But I lied. Only Eleanor can unlock it.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“If they bring you here, do not do it.”
The screen went black.
Then a live-feed window opened.
Lila sat tied to a chair.
The little girl beside her.
Alive.
A digital timer appeared.
00:29:59.
A message.
COME ALONE, ELEANOR.
Graham said, “Absolutely not.”
I stared at the timer.
Twenty-nine minutes.
I turned to him.
“We don’t have time.”
“We’ll locate the signal.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It’s bouncing.”
“Then trace faster.”
I stood.
“They want me.”
“And once they have you, they kill everyone.”
“Not if I give them what they think they want.”
Graham grabbed my shoulders.
“I will not lose you.”
“Then trust me.”
His hands tightened.
“Eleanor—”
“For once, trust me enough to let me choose.”
Something broke in his face.
Not weakness.
Fear.
Real fear.
He released me.
“Tell me the plan.”
Twenty minutes later, I drove alone toward the coordinates transmitted to the laptop.
Or appeared to.
Graham’s men followed at a distance using vehicles without visible lights.
Daniel had built a fake biometric key.
It would appear to unlock the database.
Then corrupt every file after ninety seconds.
The coordinates led to an old church outside Summerville.
I entered.
Victor stood at the altar.
Lila and the child sat behind him.
Alive.
Lila stared at me.
For the first time in my life, I looked at my sister.
Victor smiled.
“Welcome, Eleanor.”
“Let them go.”
“Unlock the archive.”
“First the girl.”
He shook his head.
“Not how this works.”
I held up the drive Daniel had prepared.
“You kill me, you lose everything.”
Victor considered.
Then motioned to a man.
The child was untied.
“Come here,” I said.
She ran toward me.
I pushed her gently behind my body.
“Now Lila.”
Victor smiled.
“After.”
I inserted the drive into his laptop.
Fingerprint.
DNA sample.
Authentication.
The screen displayed:
ACCESS GRANTED.
Victor laughed.
Behind me, the church doors opened.
Graham entered.
Alone.
Or apparently alone.
Victor pointed a gun at Lila.
“I said come alone.”
Graham looked at me.
Then at Victor.
“You asked her to.”
Victor smiled.
“She did.”
Graham kept walking.
“Let Lila go.”
“Stop.”
He stopped.
Victor glanced at the laptop.
Files appeared.
Names.
Accounts.
Evidence.
Twenty years of secrets.
His eyes widened.
He did not see the corruption timer Daniel had hidden.
Sixty seconds.
Victor looked triumphant.
Then the screen flashed.
FILE FAILURE.
“What?”
Another.
CORRUPTED.
Victor’s face changed.
He looked at me.
“What did you do?”
I said nothing.
He raised the gun.
Graham moved.
Gunfire exploded from the church balcony.
Marcus.
Reed.
Victor’s men dropped their weapons.
Victor grabbed Lila and pulled her against him.
Gun beneath her jaw.
“Everybody stop!”
Silence.
Graham raised both hands.
Victor backed toward a side door.
“You ruined everything.”
“No,” I said. “You did.”
His eyes snapped to me.
“You murdered my father.”
“Your father was a fool.”
Lila elbowed him.
Victor fired.
Graham lunged.
The shot went into the ceiling.
Lila dropped.
Victor ran through the side door.
Graham chased him.
I untied Lila.
“You’re Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
She started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
We hugged for barely one second.
Then another gunshot came from outside.
I ran.
“Graham!”
Behind the church, I found Victor on the ground.
Marcus held him at gunpoint.
Graham stood several feet away.
Blood covered his white shirt.
My heart stopped.
“Graham.”
He looked down.
The bullet had grazed his side.
“I’m fine.”
I nearly collapsed.
Victor laughed from the ground.
“You think this ends with me?”
Graham looked at him.
“Yes.”
Victor smiled.
“No.”
He glanced toward me.
“There’s one person Eleanor still hasn’t asked about.”
I stared.
“Who?”
May you like
Victor’s smile widened.
“Her mother.”
