Chapter 5 - The Woman in White
Edmund canceled the wedding reception.
Officially, there had been a security concern.
Unofficially, every exit was watched.
Vivian changed nothing about her appearance.
She refused.
“If whoever is doing this expects me frightened and hidden, I’m not giving them the satisfaction.”
Edmund stared at her wedding dress.
“You are wearing white satin in a building full of dark corridors.”
“So?”
“You are extremely visible.”
“Then stay close.”
His eyes shifted to hers.
“Was that a request?”
“Don’t ruin it.”
They moved through Saint Aurelia’s private corridors with Marcus and two security officers.
Rebecca remained with Victor.
The plan was simple.
Find Adrian.
Find Samuel.
Find the original ledger.
Simple plans had become suspicious tonight.
They reached the old administrative wing.
Vivian inserted the brass key into a forgotten wooden door.
It fit.
417 was not a room.
It was a cabinet.
Behind the door was an archive chamber abandoned during renovations.
Rows of old document cabinets lined the walls.
Cabinet 417 stood in the corner.
Vivian unlocked it.
Empty.
Except for a white glove.
Edmund picked it up carefully.
“Wedding glove.”
Vivian looked at her hands.
She was not wearing gloves.
“Someone wants us to think this belongs to a woman.”
“Or it does.”
A noise sounded behind the shelves.
Edmund moved toward it.
Vivian followed.
They found a second door.
Locked.
Marcus forced it open.
Beyond it was a narrow staircase descending into darkness.
“Saint Aurelia has tunnels?” Vivian whispered.
“Old service passages,” Edmund said.
“How do you know?”
“My family owned part of the building decades ago.”
“Of course they did.”
They descended.
At the bottom, they found a small office.
Modern equipment filled it.
Monitors.
Security feeds.
Audio recordings.
Someone had been watching the entire wedding.
Vivian saw herself on six screens.
Walking down the aisle.
Standing beside Edmund.
Dancing.
Seeing the red dot.
She felt violated.
Edmund shut off the screens.
“Don’t.”
“I want to see.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever watched me made a mistake somewhere.”
She turned the screens back on.
Together they searched the recordings.
One camera showed the eastern windows.
Vivian leaned closer.
“There.”
A figure.
Not a sniper.
A man holding a small optical device.
The red light had been deliberate.
But perhaps it had never been attached to a weapon.
“It was intimidation,” Edmund said.
“A distraction.”
“For what?”
They checked the timeline.
At exactly the moment Vivian noticed the red dot, another camera showed Samuel entering the ballroom disguised as a waiter.
He moved toward Victor.
Then toward Vivian.
The key switch.
Everything had been choreographed.
“The red dot forced us toward the pillar,” Vivian said.
“Yes.”
“And the pillar put me near Samuel.”
“Yes.”
“So they wanted me to receive the key.”
Edmund looked at cabinet 417.
“Which brought us here.”
A printer suddenly activated.
Vivian jumped.
Paper emerged.
One page.
Edmund approached cautiously.
Words appeared.
YOU FOUND THE ROOM.
Another line printed.
NOW FIND THE WOMAN WHO LIED ABOUT YOUR MOTHER.
Vivian stared.
“Rebecca?”
The printer produced one final line.
ASK HER WHERE ELENA SPENT HER LAST NIGHT.
The system shut down.
Darkness.
Then emergency lighting returned.
Vivian looked at Edmund.
“We’re going back.”
They climbed quickly.
Rebecca was no longer with Victor.
Neither was Victor.
Marcus received a call.
“They left together.”
“Where?”
“Chapel.”
Vivian and Edmund ran.
They found Victor alone.
He was standing before the altar.
“Where’s Rebecca?”
Victor pointed toward the sacristy.
“She said she had something to show Vivian.”
Edmund stopped her.
“I go first.”
“No.”
“Vivian.”
“She asked for me.”
“And someone threatened you.”
Vivian looked at him.
“Then we go together.”
He accepted that.
They entered.
Rebecca stood beside an old wooden chest.
She looked exhausted.
“I hoped you would never need to see this.”
Vivian crossed her arms.
“Where did my mother spend her last night?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Here.”
Vivian stared.
“At Saint Aurelia?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She wasn’t dying.”
The words struck harder than anything else that night.
“What?”
“Elena knew someone was altering her medication.”
Vivian stepped backward.
“No.”
“She came here because she trusted the priest who ran the hospice wing.”
“My mother had cancer.”
“Yes. But her decline accelerated unexpectedly.”
Vivian struggled to breathe.
Rebecca opened the chest.
Inside were Elena’s journals.
Dozens.
Vivian recognized the handwriting.
Edmund remained beside her.
Not touching.
Simply there.
She opened the final journal.
The last entry had been written two days before Elena died.
Adrian knows.
Samuel has the ledger.
Lorenzo is dead.
Victor still believes the wrong story.
If anything happens to me, Vivian must never inherit this war.
Vivian turned the page.
One sentence.
Edmund must not become his uncle.
Vivian looked at Edmund.
He looked wounded.
“What did she mean?”
Rebecca answered.
“Your mother knew Adrian planned to raise Edmund to believe power mattered more than trust.”
Edmund’s voice was quiet.
“He did.”
Vivian remembered the man she had married.
Cold.
Controlled.
Feared.
But he had not abandoned her tonight.
He had not accused her father without evidence.
He had admitted his own mistakes.
Perhaps Elena had feared what he might become.
Perhaps he had not become it completely.
A church bell sounded.
Once.
Midnight.
Rebecca looked at Vivian’s journal.
“There’s another compartment.”
Vivian examined the chest.
Under the journals was a false bottom.
Edmund lifted it.
Inside lay a flash drive.
And a sealed letter.
FOR EDMUND.
He stared.
Vivian handed it to him.
He opened it.
Read.
His face changed.
“What?”
He passed it to her.
The letter contained one sentence.
Your father knew Samuel survived, because Lorenzo helped him disappear.
Vivian frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
Then footsteps approached the sacristy.
Slow.
Deliberate.
A man appeared in the doorway.
The former waiter.
Samuel Voss.
He looked older than his photographs.
But alive.
Very alive.
He raised both hands.
“I’m not your enemy.”
Edmund stepped in front of Vivian.
Samuel looked at him.
“Your father saved my life.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the only witness who knew who ordered his death.”
Vivian whispered, “Adrian.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
Samuel looked past Edmund.
May you like
Straight at Victor.
“The order came from someone standing in this church.”
