Chapter 6 - RUTH BENNETT’S LAST SECRETGrant turned slowly.
“You stupid woman.”
Ruth smiled.
“People have been calling me that since 1987.”
Grant raised his weapon.
Maya stepped between them.
“Shoot her and you lose everything.”
Grant’s eyes moved to Maya.
“The key is gone.”
“No.”
Nathan groaned from the floor.
Maya looked down.
The bullet had entered his shoulder.
Not his chest.
Alive.
Nathan managed:
“Glass key was… decoy.”
Grant froze.
Ruth’s smile widened.
Maya looked at her mother.
“You knew?”
Ruth reached beneath her hospital blanket.
She produced a brass key.
Old.
Ordinary.
Grant went white.
For the first time all night, the billionaire philanthropist looked afraid.
“Where did you get that?”
Ruth’s voice became cold.
“Evelyn gave it to me twenty-seven years ago.”
Grant lunged.
Celeste knocked his gun aside.
It fired into the ceiling.
Nathan tackled him.
Both crashed through a table.
Maya grabbed the weapon.
Grant kicked Nathan’s injured shoulder.
Nathan collapsed.
Sophie screamed.
Grant ran.
He disappeared through the north corridor.
Maya started after him.
Nathan grabbed her ankle.
“No.”
“He’ll escape.”
“He wants you to chase him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s what I would do.”
Maya stared.
“Again: alarming résumé.”
Sirens approached outside.
Real ones this time.
Police.
Fire engines.
Federal agents.
Grant had lost control of the narrative.
But Nathan looked worried.
“He has another exit.”
Celeste nodded.
“Helipad.”
Maya looked at Ruth.
“What does the brass key open?”
Ruth’s eyes moved toward Eleanor.
The old woman had disappeared.
“Not something.”
Ruth swallowed.
“Someone.”
They followed her through the mansion.
Down a servants’ staircase.
Into an older section beneath the east wing.
Ruth directed them to a door Maya had cleaned a dozen times.
A linen closet.
Nathan moved the shelves.
Behind them was an antique lock.
Ruth inserted the key.
The wall opened.
Maya stared.
Inside was a tiny apartment.
Not a cell.
A bedroom.
Books.
Photographs.
A record player.
Someone had lived there.
Recently.
“Who?”
Ruth whispered:
“Evelyn.”
Maya stopped.
“My mother?”
“Your biological mother.”
“Why is she here?”
A voice came from behind them.
“Because I’ve been waiting for you.”
Maya turned.
A woman stood in the doorway.
Fifty-something.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
Thin.
Elegant.
Alive.
Evelyn Cole.
Maya knew instantly.
Not because they looked identical.
They didn’t.
But Evelyn touched her left thumb when nervous.
Maya had done the same thing her entire life.
Neither spoke.
Then Evelyn smiled through tears.
“You grew up beautiful.”
Maya’s face hardened.
“You don’t get to start there.”
Evelyn nodded.
“You’re right.”
“You gave me away.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“All your life.”
Maya recoiled.
“You were there?”
“Sometimes.”
“Where?”
“School concerts. Graduation. Your first waitressing job.”
Maya’s eyes filled.
“You watched me struggle?”
“Yes.”
“You watched Ruth work two jobs?”
“Yes.”
“You had access to millions of dollars!”
“No.”
“You lived in this mansion!”
“As a prisoner.”
Silence.
Maya stared.
Evelyn continued.
“Grant found me twelve years ago. He couldn’t kill me because only I knew how to unlock Orpheus.”
“So he kept you.”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked devastated.
“Twelve years?”
Evelyn looked at her brother.
“You were working for him.”
The accusation landed.
Nathan lowered his head.
“I didn’t know.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“You didn’t look.”
Nathan had no defense.
Maya saw the shame.
Evelyn stepped closer to her daughter.
“I gave you to Ruth because Grant would have used you against me.”
“He did anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why tonight?”
“Because Grant learned the second key had resurfaced.”
“Sophie?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Orpheus requires two descendants of Eleanor Harrow’s bloodline.”
Maya frowned.
“But Sophie is Nathan’s daughter.”
Nathan looked toward Evelyn.
Understanding came first to him.
Then horror.
“Eleanor.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Your mother.”
Nathan went still.
Which meant Nathan carried Harrow blood.
And Maya, through Grant, did too.
Two branches.
Two keys.
Evelyn looked toward Sophie.
“Grant believed Sophie was his child until six months ago. When he discovered Celeste had used Nathan’s DNA, he realized Sophie could unlock Orpheus.”
Celeste whispered, “That’s why he started watching her.”
“Yes.”
Maya looked at Evelyn.
“What is Orpheus really?”
“Not a ledger.”
Of course not.
“It’s a dead-man network.”
Nathan looked impressed despite himself.
Evelyn continued.
“Thousands of encrypted files distributed across servers around the world. Every crime Grant and Eleanor ever commissioned. Every payment. Every accomplice.”
“Then release it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“It requires both girls.”
Sophie looked horrified.
“I’m seventeen.”
Evelyn softened.
“I know.”
Maya asked, “What happens if we unlock it?”
“The files become public.”
“And?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Nathan noticed.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Orpheus contains your crimes too.”
Nathan said nothing.
Celeste looked at him.
Maya understood.
If they released it, Grant fell.
But Nathan fell with him.
Nathan gave a small laugh.
“Good.”
Everyone looked at him.
Maya frowned.
“Good?”
“That’s what evidence is supposed to do.”
“You could go to prison.”
“I should.”
Sophie stared at him.
“You just found out I exist.”
“I know.”
“And you’re going to prison?”
Nathan’s face broke.
He crouched despite his wound.
“I don’t get to erase thirty-two dead people because I discovered I have a daughter.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“That’s stupid.”
“Probably.”
“I hate you.”
“You’re allowed.”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
Nathan swallowed.
That hurt more than the bullet.
“I don’t want to either.”
Maya turned away, suddenly emotional.
Then a gun clicked.
Eleanor stood behind Evelyn.
Weapon pressed against her head.
Everyone froze.
Eleanor smiled.
“Family reunions always disappoint.”
Maya raised Grant’s gun.
Eleanor pressed hers harder against Evelyn.
“Drop it.”
Maya obeyed.
Eleanor looked at Sophie.
“You and Maya will come with me.”
“No,” Nathan said.
Eleanor shot him.
The bullet hit his thigh.
He collapsed.
Sophie screamed.
Eleanor smiled.
“That was maternal discipline.”
Maya looked at Nathan bleeding on the floor.
Something cold settled inside her.
“Where are we going?”
Eleanor answered:
“To finish what your mothers started.”
Outside, helicopter blades began turning.
Grant had reached the roof.
May you like
Eleanor smiled.
“And then we decide which of my sons deserves to survive.”
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