Chapter 13 – Victor’s Confession
No one lowered their weapon.
The tunnel remained silent except for the distant hum of old electrical equipment.
Victor stood beneath the flashlight beams, his hands raised.
He looked nothing like the confident man from the surveillance videos.
His hair had turned almost completely gray.
His face was thinner.
His shoulders sagged with exhaustion.
Agent Brooks kept his pistol trained on him.
"On your knees."
Victor obeyed without hesitation.
"I won't fight."
Karen stepped forward and handcuffed him.
"You've been running for fifteen years."
Victor looked at her with hollow eyes.
"I stopped running a long time ago."
He was taken to the underground chamber rather than transported immediately.
Brooks wanted answers before anyone outside realized Victor had been found.
Karen switched on a recorder.
"State your full name."
"Victor James Carter."
"Did you fake your death?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Victor looked at me.
"Because Eleanor told me it was the only way to survive."
I stared at him.
"You expect me to believe you were another victim?"
"No."
"I expect you to believe I became her accomplice."
The honesty caught everyone off guard.
Victor closed his eyes.
"I helped her."
"I signed documents."
"I moved money."
"I lied to the police."
"But there were lines I never thought she'd cross."
Karen opened the old ledger recovered from the underground office.
"Who created this?"
Victor answered immediately.
"Eleanor."
"What is the Family Continuity Project?"
He let out a long breath.
"It started as our father's plan."
Everyone looked up.
"Our father's?"
Victor nodded.
"Arthur believed wealth destroyed families."
"So he created rules."
"Every inheritance."
"Every trust."
"Every marriage."
"He wanted everything controlled."
Emma frowned.
"So Arthur began this?"
"Not like Eleanor finished it."
Victor replied quietly.
"Father wanted order."
"Eleanor wanted ownership."
Brooks slid the photograph of Grace Bennett across the table.
"What happened to Grace?"
Victor's expression darkened.
"I don't know."
Karen narrowed her eyes.
"You expect us to believe that?"
"I'm telling the truth."
"The last time I saw Grace..."
"...she was leaving the hospital with her baby."
The room froze.
Brooks leaned forward.
"You're certain?"
Victor nodded firmly.
"One hundred percent."
"Then who switched the child?"
Victor slowly shook his head.
"That's the wrong question."
Silence.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Victor looked directly at me.
"No baby was switched."
Every person in the room stared at him.
He continued.
"The babies all went home with the right mothers."
Karen frowned.
"Then why are the birth records forged?"
"Because the forgery happened later."
My heart began pounding.
Victor looked at me with genuine regret.
"Daniel..."
"You weren't taken from the hospital."
"You weren't switched in the nursery."
"You lived with your real family..."
"...for almost three years."
I couldn't breathe.
"What?"
"Eleanor didn't take you as a newborn."
"She took you as a toddler."
The room fell silent.
Emma slowly whispered,
"Then who were his parents?"
Victor looked down.
"I don't know."
"Eleanor never told me."
"She only said the child was necessary."
"Necessary for what?"
"To protect the Carter name."
Karen slammed her hand on the table.
"That's not an answer."
Victor nodded sadly.
"I know."
"It's the only one I have."
Brooks wasn't convinced.
"You expect us to believe you participated in kidnapping a child without asking whose child it was?"
Victor met his gaze.
"I asked."
"What did Eleanor say?"
He swallowed.
"She told me..."
"...the fewer people who knew..."
"...the fewer people she'd have to bury."
The room became painfully quiet.
No one doubted she meant it.
Victor reached into his jacket.
Every agent tensed.
"Easy."
He slowly removed a folded piece of paper.
"I've carried this for twenty years."
Karen carefully unfolded it.
It wasn't a letter.
It was a child's drawing.
Crayon.
Stick figures.
A little boy holding hands with a woman.
Above them, written in shaky handwriting:
Mommy & Danny
The date in the corner matched roughly twenty-three years earlier.
Victor looked at me.
"Eleanor made me burn everything else."
"I couldn't burn this."
I stared at the drawing.
Something about it felt...
Familiar.
Not because I remembered it.
But because the little house in the background...
Looked exactly like the one I'd seen in recurring dreams since childhood.
Dreams I'd always dismissed as imagination.
Before anyone could say another word, Ben suddenly ran into the underground room.
One of the agents had failed to stop him.
He looked directly at Victor.
His eyes widened.
"You..."
Victor's face drained of color.
Ben pointed at him with a trembling finger.
"You aren't the old man."
Everyone froze.
"What?"
Ben took a step backward.
"The old man had a scar."
"He always wore gloves."
Victor slowly lifted his hands.
No scars.
Ben shook his head.
"No."
"You're his brother."
Silence crashed over the room.
Karen whispered,
"Brother?"
Ben nodded.
"The old man said..."
"...his twin would never find him."
Victor's face turned completely white.
He looked as though the ground had disappeared beneath him.
In almost a whisper, he said,
"That's impossible."
"I never had a twin."
At that exact moment, Agent Brooks' phone rang.
The DNA lab.
He answered.
His expression changed instantly.
"What?"
He turned toward us slowly.
"The laboratory re-examined Victor's DNA."
Karen frowned.
"Why?"
Brooks lowered the phone.
May you like
"Because the sample..."
"...contains evidence that Victor is an identical twin."
