Chapter 27 - The Woman in the Photograph
Samuel released Olivia and raised both hands.
“She came to me,” he told the guards. “I did not take her.”
Olivia looked exhausted but unharmed.
Tessa demanded that everyone remain until police arrived.
Harold Venn tried to leave. Nina blocked the elevator.
“What happened to the bracelets?” Rachel asked.
Olivia pointed toward the trust agreement.
“My mother told me that Evelyn and Eleanor each had a daughter during the same week. Eleanor died after childbirth, not before it.”
“The death certificate says she drowned.”
“The certificate belonged to Eleanor’s cousin. They used the same name.”
Rachel looked at Samuel.
“Is that true?”
“I only know what I found in the archives.”
He explained that two Eleanor Vales had existed.
Eleanor Anne Vale, the founder’s daughter, supposedly drowned before Rachel was born.
Eleanor Marie Vale, a younger relative, worked secretly with Rachel’s father and Evelyn Bennett.
One of them was the woman in the pump-station photograph.
Records had been altered until their identities became interchangeable.
“Which Eleanor was your mother?” Rachel asked Olivia.
Olivia’s mouth tightened.
“Neither.”
“Marcus said your mother changed her surname.”
“Marcus knows pieces, not the truth.”
“Then tell me.”
Olivia looked toward Harold Venn.
“My mother was the nurse who performed the exchange.”
Venn attempted to move past Nina again. The guards stopped him.
Olivia continued.
“The Vale baby was in danger. Someone planned to remove her from the hospital and control the trust. Evelyn agreed to take one child home while my mother hid the other.”
“Which child did Evelyn take?”
“That’s what everyone has spent thirty years trying to learn.”
Rachel showed Olivia the photograph of the bracelets.
Olivia shook her head.
“Your father switched them before the picture was taken. He wanted anyone who found it to reach the wrong conclusion.”
“Why does the trust matter so much?”
“Because it doesn’t only control the land.”
Samuel opened the engineering box and removed a transparent sheet. When placed over the pump-station map, it revealed a network of tunnels and storage chambers.
House Zero was at the center.
Olivia tapped it.
“After the archives fire, your father moved the source ledger there. It contains the real ownership records for hundreds of properties.”
“Then Northline wants it to hide its crimes.”
“Northline wants it first. Other people want it for worse reasons.”
A police siren sounded outside.
Olivia took Rachel’s hand and pressed a small silver token into it.
The token carried the number 0.
“This opens House Zero during a flood.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because the storm has begun.”
Rain struck the windows.
Samuel looked at the clock.
“The underground channel will fill within forty minutes.”
Rachel closed her fingers around the token.
“Who is waiting inside the school?”
May you like
Olivia looked toward the dark windows.
“The woman from the photograph.”
