Chapter 5 - The Second Child
The warehouse at 3103 South Morgan smelled of dust, damp cardboard, and old paper.
Lucas brought 6 men.
Bella hated all 6.
Not personally.
She hated what their presence meant.
Her life had changed from spreadsheets and funeral invoices into armed men checking corners before she entered rooms.
They found Pastor Elias tied to a chair.
So the security footage had been staged.
Rianna had forced him to walk calmly by threatening Freda.
Elias was shaken but alive.
"The envelope?" Bella asked.
"Gone."
"Did you read the letter?"
"Years ago."
Bella stared at him.
"You told me you didn't know."
"I promised Helena."
"My mother is dead."
"And I was trying to keep you alive."
"Everyone keeps saying that while lying to me."
Elias lowered his eyes.
"There were 2 babies."
Lucas stepped closer.
"Who was the other?"
"A boy."
Bella felt cold.
"My brother."
"Your twin."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Helena had taken Bella.
Another woman had taken the boy.
They were separated deliberately so Adrian could never find both.
The original birth certificate listed no father.
But Helena's letter claimed Adrian Vale was their father.
Bella pressed a hand against her stomach.
Family had become a dangerous word.
Lucas crouched beside Elias.
"What does Rianna want?"
"The evidence Evelyn stole."
"Where is it?"
"Helena divided it."
"Between the twins," Bella said.
Elias nodded.
Lucas looked at her.
"If Rianna believes you have half—"
"She'll keep coming."
"Yes."
A sound echoed above them.
Lucas's men raised their weapons.
Someone ran.
They caught him at the rear exit.
Benny.
Bella stared.
"What are you doing here?"
Benny raised both hands.
"I followed your company car."
"Why?"
His expression changed.
"Because I'm tired of waiting for someone to tell her."
Bella's stomach dropped.
"Tell me what?"
Benny looked directly at her.
"My real name isn't Falner."
Silence.
"It's Benjamin Vale."
Bella stopped breathing.
Benny pulled a chain from beneath his shirt.
A small metal pendant hung from it.
Bella recognized the symbol engraved into its surface.
The same symbol on Lucas's father's seal.
Elias began crying.
"Oh, God."
Bella stared at Benny.
"You're my brother."
"Apparently."
Benny laughed weakly.
"I found out 6 months ago."
"You knew?"
"I wasn't sure."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Would you have believed the IT guy who handed you an access card and announced he might be your secret twin?"
Despite everything, Bella almost laughed.
Then anger returned.
"You knew who I was when I started."
"Yes."
"Did you arrange my hiring?"
"No."
"Who did?"
Benny looked at Lucas.
"Victor."
Lucas stiffened.
Victor had lied again.
Benny explained that he had spent years tracing his adoption records.
Eventually they led to North Meridian.
Then to Helena.
Then Bella.
Victor discovered Benny's investigation and secretly brought him into Dracott Holdings so he could watch him.
Bella's hiring had not been Lucas's idea alone.
Victor had ensured the application reached Lucas.
Everyone had been moving Bella around a chessboard.
She was finished being a piece.
"What evidence do you have?"
Benny removed the pendant.
"It opens."
Inside was a tiny storage chip.
Lucas's expression sharpened.
Benny had never accessed it because the data was encrypted.
"But I think Bella has the key."
"I have nothing."
"Helena must have given you something."
Bella thought about her childhood.
Helena's recipes.
Her rosary.
A music box.
Then she remembered.
"My middle name."
Benny frowned.
"Oxana?"
"The O."
Helena had insisted it remain on every document even after changing Bella's first name.
The O stands for Oxana.
Bella had told Lucas that in the penthouse.
3 times.
Lucas looked at her.
"What if it isn't a name?"
They connected the chip to an isolated laptop.
Password required.
Bella typed OXANA.
Denied.
Then she remembered Helena's habit of counting.
Every birthday, her mother said the same strange phrase.
Beautiful names need numbers too.
Bella typed her birth date after OXANA.
The drive opened.
Inside were financial records spanning 27 years.
Payments.
Bribes.
Shell companies.
Judges.
Police officials.
North Meridian.
And hundreds of photographs.
Lucas opened one.
His father stood beside Adrian Vale.
Not enemies.
Partners.
Lucas recoiled.
"No."
Bella scrolled.
The evidence contradicted Victor's story.
Lucas's father had helped create North Meridian.
Adrian had not betrayed him.
They had built it together.
Then someone else had ordered the fire.
The payment originated from an account labeled V.D.
Victor Dracott.
Lucas stared at the screen.
Everything the man who raised him had said was a lie.
Then Benny opened another folder.
A recent transaction.
$49,200.
Bella's payment.
It had been flagged automatically by North Meridian because Lucas transferred the money directly to someone with the surname Kavalchuk.
That was how Rianna had found Bella.
Their reckless night had awakened a system that had been waiting 27 years for Helena's daughter to appear.
Bella looked at Lucas.
"You didn't bring danger into my life."
"No."
"I brought it into yours."
He shook his head.
"Our families did this before either of us had a choice."
A phone rang.
Benny checked the screen.
Unknown caller.
He answered.
Victor's voice filled the warehouse.
"I wondered how long it would take."
Lucas stepped toward the phone.
"You ordered the fire."
Victor sighed.
"Your father was going to destroy everything."
"You killed him."
"I saved what he built."
"And my mother?"
"Collateral damage."
Lucas's face became terrifyingly still.
Victor continued.
"Bring me the drive."
"No."
"Then perhaps Bella should ask where Mrs. Melnik is."
Bella's blood turned cold.
Freda.
Victor had taken her.
"Midnight," Victor said. "Pier 19."
Then the call ended.
Bella looked at Lucas.
"We're going."
"No."
She stepped directly in front of him.
"Stop saying that."
Lucas stared at her.
Bella placed his hand against her stomach.
He froze.
"We don't become them," she whispered. "We don't control people because we're afraid to lose them."
For the first time, Lucas felt the barely perceptible possibility of the child they had created.
His expression broke.
Then he nodded.
"Together."
But across the warehouse, Benny was staring at the laptop.
"Guys."
They turned.
A hidden file had just decrypted.
Inside was a hospital photograph of Lucas at age 12.
Beside him stood Victor.
The date was 3 days after the fire.
Behind them, reflected faintly in a window, stood Adrian Vale.
May you like
Alive.
And holding Victor's hand like an ally.
