Chapter 14 - MRS. VALE
The name meant nothing to Sarah.
It meant everything to Arthur.
He went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
Thomas noticed.
“You know her.”
Arthur sat slowly.
“Eleanor Vale.”
“Who is she?”
“The first administrator of Veil House.”
Rebecca stared.
“She was there when they took Sarah.”
Marian had described an older woman supervising the paperwork.
Rebecca had never known her real name.
Arthur continued.
“Eleanor Vale disappeared thirty years ago.”
“No death certificate.”
“No forwarding address.”
“Nothing.”
Maya searched federal databases.
The name produced almost no recent records.
Then Olivia spoke.
“My father visits someone every Christmas.”
“He tells everyone it’s an elderly aunt.”
“Where?”
“A private estate near Lake Waramaug.”
Maya searched property records.
The estate belonged to a shell company.
The same company had paid Hawthorne’s utilities.
Thomas looked at Olivia.
“You can get us inside?”
She shook her head.
“Security is extreme.”
“Cameras.”
“Private guards.”
“My father leaves his phone in the car.”
Evan rubbed smoke from his eyes.
“Then we don’t go inside.”
“We force her out.”
Arthur looked toward the Hawthorne records.
“How?”
Thomas finally understood what his father meant.
“We make her believe we opened Voss’s ledger.”
Maya nodded.
“If we leak one name from it, whoever controls the Circle has to react.”
Sarah looked at Lucy.
“Can Thomas actually open it?”
Arthur removed a tiny key from the lining of his jacket.
“I kept Voss’s encrypted drive for eight years.”
Thomas stared at him.
“You had it the whole time?”
“I couldn’t unlock it.”
“Until now.”
They moved to an empty church basement Olivia trusted.
Maya connected the drive.
The password prompts requested six dates.
Thomas knew four immediately.
His mother’s birthday.
Voss’s police academy graduation.
A case date.
The date of Voss’s death.
The final two came from Thomas’s sealed birth record.
The drive opened.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Maya whispered.
“This can destroy them.”
Then she froze.
“What?”
“There’s a scheduled command.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“What command?”
“If this drive was ever unlocked, a message was automatically sent.”
“To whom?”
Maya traced the destination.
Her face changed.
“Eleanor Vale.”
They didn’t need to lure her out.
Thomas had already announced himself.
Sarah’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Thomas motioned for her not to answer.
It rang again.
Then a text appeared.
SARAH, YOUR MOTHER FAILED YOU ONCE.
DON’T MAKE HER FAIL YOU AGAIN.
A second message followed.
COME TO THE LAKE HOUSE WITH LUCY.
ALONE.
OR EMILY DIES BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Rebecca stared at her daughter beside her.
“Emily is right here.”
Then Maya’s phone buzzed.
Security footage appeared from the hospital.
A young woman was being wheeled through a hallway.
Same hair as Emily.
Same face.
Sarah looked from the video to the girl beside Rebecca.
Thomas whispered.
“If that’s Emily…”
Everyone slowly turned toward the young woman they had rescued from Hawthorne.
She stepped backward.
And smiled.
May you like
“My name isn’t Emily.”
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