Chapter 9 — The Woman Who Betrayed Them
Chapter 9 — The Woman Who Betrayed Them
The letter was still warm from the fire.
Nathan stared at the burned signature.
One letter.
N.
His mind raced through every possibility.
Nathan.
No.
He had been twenty-nine.
He had never seen the pact.
Never signed it.
Never agreed to anything involving Grace or Lily.
His mother.
No.
Her name was Evelyn.
Elena.
Grace.
The three women had created something together.
And someone else had signed it.
Someone whose name began with N.
Grace was crying quietly.
Nathan looked at her.
"Who is N?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
"You said you knew everyone involved."
"I knew who they wanted me to know."
"That's not an answer."
Grace looked away.
Nathan's voice softened.
"Please."
She swallowed.
"The fourth person was there when I signed."
"Who?"
"I never saw his face."
"Then how do you know his name started with N?"
"Because Elena told me."
Nathan stared.
"What did she say?"
Grace closed her eyes.
"She said his name would be the last thing I remembered before they took Lily."
Five years earlier.
Grace remembered the room.
The smell of disinfectant.
Rain striking the windows.
Lily sleeping in a hospital bassinet.
Grace's body still weak from childbirth.
Her wrists trembling.
Evelyn stood near the window.
Elena stood beside her.
A man sat in the shadows.
Grace could not see his face.
"You want your daughter to live?" the man asked.
Grace nodded.
"Then sign."
She looked at the papers.
"Where is Nathan?"
"Safe."
"Let me see him."
"No."
"You promised."
"I promised he would survive."
Grace looked at Evelyn.
"Mrs. Cole?"
Evelyn's face was wet with tears.
"Sign, Grace."
"Why?"
"Because Charles knows."
Grace froze.
"Knows what?"
"Everything."
"What does he know?"
Evelyn looked toward the bassinet.
"He knows Lily carries the marker."
Grace's stomach turned.
"How?"
Elena answered.
"Because Charles arranged the testing."
Grace looked at her newborn daughter.
"What will he do?"
Elena's voice became quiet.
"Whatever he must."
Grace signed.
One page.
Then another.
Then another.
Her hand cramped.
The man in the shadows watched.
When she finished, he stood.
Grace finally saw his face.
She remembered his eyes.
Cold.
Blue.
Familiar.
Then someone injected something into her arm.
The room blurred.
The last thing she heard was Evelyn whispering:
"Forgive me."
Present day.
Nathan stared at Grace.
"Who was the man?"
"I don't know."
"You saw him."
"For three seconds."
"Then describe him."
Grace closed her eyes.
"Blue eyes."
Nathan's heart stopped.
"Gray hair."
His breathing became shallow.
"Silver watch."
Nathan whispered:
"My father."
Grace nodded.
"Yes."
Nathan felt sick.
"But the signature starts with N."
"I know."
"Charles doesn't start with N."
Grace shook her head.
"I know."
Nathan looked at the burned page again.
Then he noticed something.
The letter wasn't an N.
It was half of an M.
The rest had burned away.
Nathan stared.
"M."
Grace looked at him.
"Michael?"
"My father?"
"No."
Nathan shook his head.
"Your father was Michael Reyes."
Grace's face changed.
She remembered.
The man in the shadows.
The voice.
The signature.
She whispered:
"Michael Reyes."
Nathan froze.
"My grandfather."
Nathan drove to the old Reyes garage.
The building had been closed for years.
His grandfather had died when Nathan was a child.
But Grace knew the place.
She led them through the back door.
Dust covered everything.
Old transmission parts sat on shelves.
Photographs hung above the workbench.
Nathan stopped before one.
His grandfather stood beside Michael Reyes.
Grace's father.
The two men were shaking hands.
Nathan stared.
"How did they know each other?"
Grace answered quietly.
"They built the first agreement together."
"What agreement?"
"The one that protected Lily."
Nathan looked at her.
"Then why was my grandfather's signature burned?"
Grace shook her head.
"It wasn't."
Nathan turned.
"What?"
She pointed.
The signature beneath the ashes was not Nathan's grandfather's.
It was someone else's.
Nathan leaned closer.
The first letter looked like an M.
The last visible mark looked like an E.
M.E.
Grace whispered:
"Michael Ellis."
Nathan frowned.
"Who is that?"
Grace stared at the photograph.
"The attorney who handled my father's estate."
They found Michael Ellis's office abandoned.
But the building manager still had access.
Inside, the walls were bare.
No files.
No furniture.
Nothing.
Except one safe.
Nathan opened it with the key from the nursery.
Inside was a single audio recorder.
He pressed play.
A man's voice filled the room.
"If you found this, Charles knows."
Nathan looked at Grace.
The voice continued.
"The pact was designed to separate Charles from the company."
"Not Nathan."
"Not Lily."
"Charles."
Nathan's heart raced.
"The controlling shares were never supposed to remain with the Cole family."
"Your grandfather transferred them into a protected trust."
"Grace was chosen because Charles underestimated her."
Grace whispered:
"Why me?"
The recording answered.
"Because she had nothing to lose."
Grace closed her eyes.
The voice continued.
"Michael Reyes was chosen because he was outside the Cole family."
Nathan looked at Grace.
"Your father knew?"
"He knew enough."
The recording crackled.
"But someone betrayed us."
Nathan leaned closer.
"The traitor was not Charles."
Silence.
Then:
"It was Evelyn."
Grace gasped.
Nathan stared.
His mother.
The woman who had supposedly protected Lily.
The woman who had disappeared.
The woman whose voice had warned him about the DNA.
The woman who had apparently helped create the pact.
She had betrayed them.
Nathan replayed the recording.
"It was Evelyn."
Again.
Again.
Again.
Grace looked devastated.
"She saved Lily."
"She betrayed the pact."
"Maybe both."
Nathan looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
Grace shook her head.
"I don't know."
The recorder continued.
"She gave Charles access to the original trust."
Nathan froze.
"What?"
"She believed she could control him."
Grace whispered:
"She was wrong."
The voice continued.
"She gave him one thing."
"What?"
"The genetic research."
Nathan's blood went cold.
"That's why Lily..."
Grace nodded.
"Yes."
"She gave him Lily's DNA."
Suddenly, the office lights went out.
Grace grabbed Nathan's arm.
Someone moved in the hallway.
Nathan whispered:
"Stay here."
He opened the door.
Empty.
Then he saw something on the floor.
A photograph.
Evelyn.
Standing beside Charles.
Five years ago.
And between them—
Victoria.
Nathan stared.
Grace came behind him.
"That's impossible."
Nathan looked at the photograph.
"No."
He turned it over.
A handwritten sentence was on the back.
SHE WAS NEVER THE FIANCÉE.
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
"What?"
Grace read it.
Then her face changed.
"Victoria wasn't supposed to marry you."
"Then who was?"
Grace looked at the photograph again.
"Your mother."
Nathan froze.
"What?"
"Look at her hand."
Evelyn was wearing a ring.
Not her wedding ring.
A signet ring.
The Cole family crest.
Nathan had seen it before.
On Charles's hand.
On Victoria's necklace.
And on the sealed documents.
He suddenly understood.
"The marriage wasn't about Victoria."
Grace nodded.
"It was about the trust."
"Then why did she need me?"
"Because only a legal spouse could activate the final transfer."
Nathan looked at her.
"Whoever married me would control Lily's inheritance."
"Yes."
"Then why Victoria?"
Grace whispered:
"Because Evelyn disappeared."
Nathan stared.
They returned to the lake house.
Nathan couldn't sleep.
At three in the morning, Lily woke.
"Daddy?"
He sat beside her.
"Yes?"
"I had a dream."
Nathan smiled.
"What about?"
"Grandma."
His smile disappeared.
"Which grandma?"
"The lady in the white room."
Nathan's heart stopped.
"What lady?"
Lily pointed toward the hallway.
"She told me not to tell Mommy."
Grace came running.
"What happened?"
Lily looked at her.
"Grandma said she was sorry."
Grace froze.
"What did she say?"
Lily whispered:
"She said she had to betray Daddy."
Nathan felt cold.
"Where did you see her?"
Lily pointed.
"At the hospital."
Grace covered her mouth.
Nathan stood.
"Which hospital?"
Lily looked confused.
"The one with the blue door."
Nathan exchanged a glance with Grace.
Briar Glen.
The maternity hospital.
Lily had been there five years ago.
But she had been a newborn.
She couldn't remember.
Unless someone had deliberately preserved the memory.
Unless the regenerative treatment had affected her neurological development.
Unless the genetic marker had done something no one understood.
Nathan whispered:
"Lily remembers."
Grace nodded.
"She remembers everything."
The next morning, they returned to Briar Glen.
The hospital had changed ownership.
But the maternity archives remained.
Nathan used his name.
The administrator became nervous.
"What are you looking for?"
"Records from five years ago."
"Which patient?"
"Grace Bennett."
The administrator froze.
Nathan noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Show me the records."
"We need authorization."
Nathan placed a court order on the desk.
The administrator swallowed.
"Of course."
They entered the archive room.
The file was missing.
Nathan stared at the empty shelf.
"Who removed it?"
Nobody answered.
Daniel checked the database.
"The file was accessed yesterday."
"By whom?"
A name appeared.
Evelyn Cole.
Grace whispered:
"She's alive."
Nathan nodded.
"But that's not all."
He pointed to the access log.
The record had been opened from inside the hospital.
Not remotely.
Someone had physically entered.
At the bottom was a second name.
Nathan read it.
His face changed.
"Victoria."
They found her in the hospital chapel.
Victoria sat alone.
She didn't look surprised.
"I wondered when you'd come."
Nathan walked toward her.
"Where is my mother?"
Victoria looked at Grace.
"Still protecting her."
Nathan stopped.
"Protecting who?"
"Lily."
"From what?"
Victoria's eyes filled with tears.
"From the man who started all of this."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"Charles?"
She shook her head.
"No."
"Then who?"
Victoria whispered:
"Your grandfather."
Nathan froze.
"What?"
"Charles was cruel."
She looked down.
"But your grandfather was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Of what Lily could become."
Grace stepped forward.
"What does that mean?"
Victoria stared at her.
"The regenerative treatment didn't just repair cells."
She looked at Lily.
"It changed her."
Nathan felt a chill.
"How?"
Victoria whispered:
"She doesn't age normally."
Silence.
Grace shook her head.
"No."
Victoria continued.
"She heals faster."
Nathan remembered the bruises on Lily's knees disappearing overnight.
The cut on her hand that had vanished in hours.
He had thought it was coincidence.
Victoria shook her head.
"It isn't."
Nathan stared.
"Why didn't anyone tell us?"
"Because your grandfather wanted to study her."
Grace stepped forward.
"You used my daughter."
Victoria cried.
"I tried to stop them."
"You attacked me."
"I was trying to scare you away."
"You hit me."
Victoria lowered her head.
"I know."
Nathan's voice was cold.
"Why?"
"Because I was told Lily would be taken if I didn't."
"By whom?"
Victoria looked toward the chapel door.
Nobody stood there.
Then she whispered:
"Your mother."
Nathan froze.
"My mother ordered you?"
Victoria nodded.
"She told me to keep Grace away from Lily."
"Why?"
"Because Evelyn knew what Charles would do if he discovered Lily was still alive."
Nathan stared.
"Then why did she betray us?"
Victoria looked at him.
"Because she believed the only way to save Lily..."
She paused.
"...was to make you hate her."
Nathan felt as if the floor had disappeared.
"She wanted me to hate her?"
Victoria nodded.
"She sacrificed herself."
"She let me believe she abandoned me."
"Yes."
"She let Charles take the company."
"Yes."
"She let me believe she was dead."
Victoria looked away.
"Yes."
Nathan's voice cracked.
"Why?"
"Because Charles was watching you."
Victoria swallowed.
"He needed to believe Evelyn had lost."
Nathan shook his head.
"But she didn't."
"No."
"Where is she?"
Victoria finally looked directly at him.
"She is waiting."
"Where?"
"At the place where your grandfather kept the first research laboratory."
Nathan frowned.
"Where is that?"
Victoria smiled sadly.
"Under your father's garage."
Nathan froze.
His grandfather's garage.
The same garage Nathan had visited as a child.
The same building that had supposedly contained nothing but old equipment.
Victoria stood.
"There is one more thing."
"What?"
She stepped close.
"Your mother didn't betray the pact."
Nathan stared.
"Then who did?"
Victoria whispered:
"Grace."
Grace went completely still.
Nathan slowly turned toward her.
Victoria walked away.
Grace's eyes filled with tears.
"Nathan..."
He stared at her.
"Did you?"
She shook her head.
"I didn't."
"Then why did she say your name?"
"I don't know."
Nathan wanted to believe her.
He wanted to trust her.
But then he remembered the hidden contract.
The fourth signature.
The missing pages.
The years of silence.
And suddenly, from inside Grace's coat, something fell onto the floor.
A small envelope.
Nathan picked it up.
His name was written across the front.
In Grace's handwriting.
He looked at her.
"You said you never knew about this."
Grace stared at the envelope.
Her face became white.
"I didn't."
Nathan opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Grace.
Charles.
Evelyn.
And a newborn Lily.
On the back were five words.
Grace knew the entire plan.
Nathan looked up.
Grace was crying.
"I swear to you..."
Before she could finish, Nathan's phone rang.
A man's voice whispered:
"Don't believe the woman beside you."
Nathan's eyes remained fixed on Grace.
The voice continued.
"She wasn't forced into the pact."
A pause.
"She made it."
Then the call ended.
Grace stepped toward Nathan.
He stepped backward.
For the first time since he had found Lily, Nathan couldn't tell which person in the room was telling the truth.
And beneath the hospital chapel, somewhere in a locked archive that had not been opened for five years, a hidden camera recorded everything.
The screen showed Nathan.
Grace.
Victoria.
And Lily.
A red light blinked.
Then another screen came alive.
Charles watched them from a dark room.
Beside him stood Evelyn.
Alive.
She looked at her son through the monitor.
Tears streamed down her face.
Charles smiled.
"He's finally beginning to doubt her."
Evelyn whispered:
"Leave him alone."
Charles turned toward her.
"You made your choice five years ago."
"I made it to save him."
"No."
Charles smiled.
"You made it because you were afraid."
Evelyn looked at the screen.
Nathan was still staring at Grace.
Charles leaned closer.
"And now your son will do exactly what you couldn't."
"What?"
"He will betray the woman he loves."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Charles whispered:
"And when he does..."
May you like
He looked at Lily.
"...the pact will finally belong to me."
