Chapter 6: The File Beneath the Hospital
Gabriel found the hidden archive at 2:17 in the morning.
The entrance was concealed behind a mechanical wall inside the hospital’s oldest basement corridor.
Marcus’s keycard opened the first lock.
Gabriel’s biometric clearance opened the second.
Neither man spoke as the steel door slid aside.
Rows of gray cabinets filled the room.
The labels had been removed from most of them.
Several computer towers stood against the wall, disconnected from the hospital’s central network.
“This was here for twenty-two years?” Gabriel asked.
Marcus nodded.
“My father funded the east wing on the condition that the vault remain under Thorne control.”
“And my brother allowed it?”
“Your brother needed the money.”
Gabriel’s brother had been Khloe’s father.
The knowledge entered the room like poison.
Marcus opened cabinet D-17.
It was empty.
“Isabella got here first,” he said.
Gabriel examined the shelves.
“No dust.”
“She removed the file tonight.”
“Before attacking Khloe?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was she still inside the suite?”
“She must have followed Khloe from the gala after retrieving it.”
Gabriel noticed a fragment of black paper beneath the cabinet.
He picked it up.
It was part of a burned photograph.
One corner showed the front of a silver car.
The same model Isabella had driven on the night of the crash.
Marcus studied it.
“She tried to destroy the evidence.”
Gabriel turned the fragment over.
Three handwritten numbers remained visible.
11-04-19.
A date.
Six years before Khloe’s parents died.
“That makes no sense,” Marcus said.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“What?”
“The crash happened in 2020. This photograph was dated in 2014.”
Marcus searched the surrounding files.
Behind the empty drawer, he found a thin metal panel.
He removed it.
A single flash drive had been taped inside.
Gabriel inserted it into an offline laptop.
The screen displayed one video file.
The date matched the burned photograph.
They pressed play.
A much younger Isabella appeared in what looked like a private medical laboratory.
Beside her stood Marcus’s father, Victor Thorne.
A third man faced away from the camera.
Victor handed Isabella a folder.
“You will be taken care of,” he said. “But the Vale family cannot be allowed to present their research.”
The third man turned.
Gabriel staggered backward.
Marcus stared at the screen.
The man standing beside Victor Thorne was not a corrupt official or a corporate attorney.
It was Gabriel.
May you like
Khloe’s beloved uncle.
And on the recording, Gabriel accepted the folder.
