Chapter 7 - The Mausoleum

Rain began before sunrise.

Victor stood beneath a black umbrella outside the Hale family mausoleum.

Detective Monroe remained beside him.

The stone building looked exactly as it had on the day Amelia was buried.

That memory nearly stopped him from entering.

He forced himself forward.

His father’s bronze plaque was mounted on the north wall.

Victor removed four screws.

Behind it was a narrow cavity.

Inside sat a waterproof plastic container.

Mercer had told the truth.

Victor opened it.

A hard drive.

Two paper files.

One sealed envelope.

The envelope had his father’s handwriting.

Victor.

He stared at it.

Monroe said nothing.

Victor opened the letter.

Son,

If this reaches you, I failed to correct something before my death.

The trust was never created merely to preserve company control.

I created it after discovering that members of our own board were using Hale Biomedical subsidiaries to hide unauthorized pediatric trials.

Victor stopped reading.

Monroe looked at him.

“Keep going.”

He did.

Amelia helped me uncover the first evidence.

I trusted the wrong people to close the program quietly.

One of those people was Serena Vale’s father.

Victor whispered.

“Thomas Vale.”

Serena’s father had served as Hale Biomedical’s legal counsel.

He died when Serena was nineteen.

Victor continued.

Thomas convinced me the matter had been contained.

It was not.

Years later I discovered money was still moving through shell foundations.

I rewrote the trust so no outsider could gain control while Ethan was a minor.

But Thomas had already inserted language benefiting his daughter through an older amendment.

Amelia discovered it.

Monroe exhaled.

“So Serena inherited access.”

Victor nodded.

The letter ended with one warning.

Do not assume everyone near you is loyal because they loved this family once.

Some people loved what the Hale name could buy.

Victor opened the paper files.

Names.

Payments.

Lab locations.

Children identified only by numbers.

Then he connected the hard drive to Monroe’s forensic laptop.

A video opened automatically.

Victor’s father appeared on screen.

Older.

Sick.

“Victor, if you are seeing this, someone has restarted Project Aster.”

Monroe looked at Victor.

He had never heard the name.

The video continued.

“Amelia knows where the original patient records are hidden.”

“She refused to tell me because she believed my own security had been compromised.”

Victor’s father coughed.

“She said only one person outside the family knew the location.”

Victor leaned closer.

The next words changed everything.

“Her housekeeper.”

Victor looked at Monroe.

Neither spoke.

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They both thought the same name.

Lily.