Chapter 6 - The Waitress Who Knew Too Much
Thomas Beckett looked older than Lana remembered.
Of course he did.
Twenty years had passed.
But a daughter did not forget her father’s eyes.
She slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Then she hugged him.
Thomas folded around her.
“I’m sorry.”
She pushed him away.
“You don't get to say that yet.”
Victor watched from several feet away.
Leo closed the door.
Thomas explained.
He had worked with Ingrid.
When Edward Vale learned Ingrid had copied the alliance’s records, Thomas helped move her and Lana.
Marcus later discovered Thomas was alive.
Thomas disappeared to keep Lana hidden.
“You could have called.”
“They monitored everyone.”
“For twenty years?”
“I was a coward for some of them.”
At least he admitted it.
Victor asked about his mother.
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“Evelyn Marlow financed the first investigation.”
Victor frowned.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“No.”
Victor went still.
“She disappeared when you were twelve.”
Thomas produced a photograph.
Evelyn stood beside Ingrid and Anthony Marlow.
On the back:
THREE KEYS. THREE WITNESSES. ONE WAY OUT.
Lana looked at her two keys.
“Three.”
Thomas nodded.
“The final key belonged to Evelyn.”
“Where is she?” Victor asked.
Thomas looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Victor laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My father told me she died.”
“Your father was protecting you.”
“From my mother?”
“From the people hunting her.”
Victor walked away.
Lana followed.
“Victor.”
“Don't.”
“You're allowed to be angry.”
He turned.
“Twenty-two years of my life are apparently a collection of lies.”
“So are mine.”
That stopped him.
For a moment they simply looked at each other.
Two people raised inside secrets neither had chosen.
Then the safe-house alarm sounded.
Leo checked the monitor.
“No perimeter breach.”
Thomas paled.
“It isn't an alarm.”
“What?”
“It’s an archive signal.”
Lana's pendant flashed.
A tiny light she had never noticed blinked beneath the silver casing.
Thomas opened it.
A microchip sat inside.
They connected it to a secure laptop.
A video appeared.
Ingrid.
Lana covered her mouth.
Her grandmother looked directly into the camera.
“If Lana is seeing this, then they found her.”
Lana began crying silently.
“Sweetheart, I am sorry.”
Ingrid explained that the archive was never meant to give power to Victor, Klaus, Marcus, or anyone else.
It was meant to end the network.
“Trust the evidence. But do not trust every person who claims to protect you.”
The video glitched.
Then Ingrid said something unexpected.
“Victor, if you are watching, your mother kept her promise.”
Victor stepped closer.
“She survived.”
He stopped breathing.
“And she has the final key.”
The video ended.
A location appeared.
Hawthorne Grill.
Lana stared.
“The restaurant?”
Thomas nodded.
“That's where it began.”
They returned after closing.
Lana knew every corridor.
Yet Thomas led them to one she had never seen.
Behind the wine cellar stood an old service elevator.
Lana inserted her key.
Victor inserted the miniature Marlow key.
The doors opened.
Below them waited a forgotten dining room.
One table.
One chair.
One woman.
Her silver hair was pinned neatly behind her head.
Victor stepped out of the elevator.
The woman stood.
Her face broke.
“Victor.”
He looked like a boy for one devastating second.
“Mother?”
Evelyn Marlow crossed the room.
Then a red laser dot appeared against her chest.
Lana saw it first.
“DOWN!”
May you like
The window behind Evelyn shattered.
And Victor threw himself toward the mother he had believed dead for thirty-seven years...
