Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Photograph
Saoirse turned the phone toward Lucian.
His face changed.
“You know.”
“No.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I know Maeve gave birth that night. I didn't know there were two babies.”
Nikolai took the photograph.
“Twelve years before Saoirse was born?”
Everyone froze.
Cesily checked the ledger date.
Nikolai was right.
The photograph couldn't show Saoirse.
“Then whose babies are these?” Tess whispered.
Lucian sat down.
“My brother was born that night.”
Saoirse stared.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
“What was his name?”
“Gabriel.”
Lucian looked at the photograph.
“He died before his first birthday.”
“According to whom?”
Lucian understood immediately.
His father.
The same generation that had lied about Maeve's death.
They needed Kessler.
Federal investigators located him before sunset.
He had retired to Victoria six years earlier.
He agreed to meet.
Then disappeared.
His house was found empty.
One chair overturned.
Tea still warm.
Someone else was cleaning the past faster than they could uncover it.
Nikolai wanted Saoirse moved.
She refused.
He didn't argue.
That was new.
Late that night, they stood alone in Cesily's kitchen.
“You're learning,” Saoirse said.
Nikolai looked exhausted.
“To ask instead of order?”
“Yes.”
“Eight years too late.”
“Maybe.”
He absorbed that.
She studied the man she had loved.
“Why didn't you tell me about Tess?”
“Because Pavel had someone close to us.”
“Who?”
“I didn't know.”
“So you suspected everyone.”
“Yes.”
“Including me?”
“No.”
“Then you should have told me.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
It made anger harder.
Not smaller.
Just cleaner.
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
“Did you cheat on me with anyone?”
“No.”
Saoirse believed him.
She wished she didn't.
Because betrayal would have been easier if it were simple.
“You let me believe you had.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me walk into the snow believing you chose another pregnant woman over me.”
Nikolai's eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if Pavel's watcher believed you hated me, you might survive what came next.”
Her throat tightened.
“You don't get to destroy me to save me.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You know I left. That's different.”
He looked at her.
She saw pain.
She didn't rescue him from it.
“You asked for one question,” he said.
“I did.”
“I have it now.”
She waited.
“Are you afraid?”
Saoirse's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Nikolai swallowed.
“So am I.”
For a moment, eight years existed between them.
Then Lucian entered.
“We found Maeve.”
The warehouse operation happened before dawn.
Saoirse stayed at a secure command location by choice.
Police tactical teams entered with warrants supported by the financial evidence.
Pavel had already fled.
Maeve remained.
Alive.
When Saoirse entered the hospital room hours later, she stopped at the door.
Maeve looked smaller than the woman in her childhood memories.
Older.
Real.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Saoirse nearly turned around.
Instead, she entered.
“Why?”
Maeve cried.
“Because Viktor threatened your father.”
“Who was my father?”
“The man who raised you.”
Relief hit first.
Then confusion.
“Then the photograph?”
“Viktor wanted everyone questioning bloodlines. Confusion protected stolen ownership.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“I found proof that Pavel's father and Viktor were using children as leverage.”
“What children?”
Maeve closed her eyes.
“Lucian and Gabriel Vale.”
Saoirse sat.
The story came slowly.
Maeve had uncovered a plan to consolidate port ownership through forged inheritance claims.
Dr. Kessler falsified birth and death records.
Gabriel Vale had not died.
He had been taken.
Raised under another identity.
“Who?”
Maeve hesitated.
“Saoirse, this changes everything.”
“I'm tired of people saying that.”
Maeve reached for her.
Saoirse did not take her hand.
Not yet.
“Tell me.”
Maeve whispered the name.
“Pavel Oric.”
Saoirse stared.
Pavel was Lucian's stolen brother.
The rival families weren't merely enemies.
Their war had been manufactured.
“Does Pavel know?”
“No.”
“Then who does?”
Maeve's expression filled with fear.
“Kessler.”
The hospital-room door opened.
Lucian entered.
He saw Maeve.
Then Saoirse.
“What happened?”
Saoirse couldn't answer.
Lucian's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
Unknown caller.
He answered.
A man's voice came through.
“Hello, Gabriel.”
Lucian's expression hardened.
“That isn't my name.”
The caller laughed softly.
“No. It isn't.”
Saoirse recognized the voice from old Drevik recordings.
Dr. Adrian Kessler.
Then he said, “But I can tell you whose name it really belongs to.”
May you like
The line clicked dead.
And Maeve whispered, “He switched the babies.”
