Their mother looked toward her.
“My baby.”
Emma's face crumpled.
“You knew where I was.”
“You watched me.”
“You let me think I was abandoned.”
Her mother began crying.
“I thought distance would keep you alive.”
Their mother looked at Thomas.
“From him.”
Thomas didn't move.
Their mother continued.
“Your father wanted to disappear with Emma.”
“I wanted to use the disappearance to draw out the people hunting us,” he said.
“You planned to put our daughter in danger.”
“I planned to protect her.”
“You planned to gamble her life.”
Emma stared between them.
Elise felt her anger burning.
“What happened on the night of the crash?”
Their mother looked at her.
“I changed the passenger list.”
Daniel looked away.
“You did?”
Her mother nodded.
“Thomas planned to leave with Emma as the decoy.”
Thomas shook his head.
“That wasn't the whole plan.”
“It didn't matter.”
“You changed everything.”
“I saved our daughter.”
Elise's voice shook.
“Which daughter?”
Their mother closed her eyes.
“Both.”
Emma frowned.
“Then why did you make us strangers?”
“Because someone inside Bellwether had already decided that one daughter would have to lose.”
“Lose what?”
“Her sister.”
Nobody spoke.
Then the hospital lights went out.
A voice echoed through the chapel.
“Thank you.”
Walter.
Chapter 14
The emergency lights snapped on.
Walter stood in the chapel doorway.
Blood darkened the sleeve of his coat.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Walter lifted both hands.
“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have walked in bleeding.”
Thomas stepped in front of the family.
“What did you do?”
Walter laughed once.
“What did I do?”
He looked at the daughters.
“I kept your family alive for ten years.”
Marcus didn't lower his weapon.
“You moved the patient.”
“You sent the photograph?”
“And the message.”
Elise's blood ran cold.
“So you wanted us here.”
“I needed you here.”
Walter looked toward Thomas.
“Because your father wasn't telling you the truth.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“You're finished, Walter.”
“Then tell them about Aster.”
Thomas went still.
“What is Aster?”
No answer.
Emma looked at Thomas.
“Dad.”
Thomas didn't speak.
Walter reached inside his coat and removed a battered red notebook.
Elise's heart jumped.
“The ledger.”
“Give me that.”
Walter held it out.
“Read the first page.”
Rachel opened it.
She went pale.
“Payments.”
“Ten years of them.”
Walter pointed at Thomas.
“Ask him.”
“Those payments were protection.”
Rachel flipped several pages.
“There's one name repeated.”
Elise stared at Thomas.
“You said Mom had been protecting us.”
“She was.”
“Then why was she paying Walter?”
Thomas answered quietly.
“Because I couldn't.”
“I told you never to show them.”
Walter laughed bitterly.
“You don't get to decide anymore.”
Elise turned to her mother.
“You paid him?”
“Enough to keep Emma hidden.”
Emma's face changed.
“You paid someone to hide me.”
“I paid someone to keep you alive.”
“From who?”
Her mother looked at Thomas.
“From the network your father trusted.”
“Not mine.”
Thomas stared at him.
“You worked for them.”
“I worked around them.”
Walter threw the ledger onto the table.
“There's a difference.”
Rachel scanned the pages.
She pointed to one entry.
“December 14.”
Elise read it.
“That's the night of the crash.”
Beside it was a payment.
Five hundred thousand dollars.
Recipient:
MORGAN CONTINUITY — AUTHORIZATION T.M.
“You paid someone that night?”
Rachel checked the initials.
“It uses his authorization.”
Thomas's face turned hard.
“That's impossible.”
“Because I didn't have access to the account that night.”
“Who did?”
Thomas looked at their mother.
She looked back at him.
“Your father,” she said.
“You said he didn't.”
Their mother shook her head.
“He had access to the physical trust archive.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You knew?”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I found the records after you disappeared.”
Rachel looked up.
“Records of what?”
Their mother swallowed.
“Someone was moving money through the trust before the crash.”
“More than four hundred million.”
Elise felt the same coldness return.
“The 480.”
“The 480 million wasn't created yesterday.”
“It was waiting.”
Walter stepped forward.
Marcus looked at him.
“So what happens now?”
“Now the trust knows both daughters are together.”
Rachel stiffened.
“The original succession protocol is active.”
“What's the protocol?”
Walter looked at Thomas.
“You tell them.”
Thomas didn't.
Walter answered for him.
“Aster doesn't release money.”
He looked at Emma.
“It identifies the person who has been controlling it.”
Emma's phone vibrated.
A new message appeared.
SECOND ACTIVATION COMPLETE.
Elise took a breath.
Another line appeared.
ONE SISTER HAS BEEN TRUSTED.
THE OTHER HAS NOT.
Walter's eyes narrowed.
“Yes, you do.”
“You were the first one activated.”
Walter took one step backward.
“Because the trust doesn't measure blood.”
Elise's heart pounded.
“It measures choice.”
Then every phone in the room received the same file.
A video.
Thomas's face appeared.
But it wasn't today's Thomas.
It was the Thomas from ten years earlier.
He looked directly into the camera.
And said,
“If you're seeing this, I failed.”
Then a second sentence appeared.
“Do not let Emma sign.”
Chapter 15
Emma stared at the dead screen.
Then slowly turned toward Thomas.
“Say something.”
Thomas was motionless.
“Did you make that recording?”
“Did you say it?”
Emma's eyes filled with hurt.
“You told everyone to trust me.”
Her face tightened.
“I told them not to let you sign.”
Emma laughed in disbelief.
“So I'm the problem.”
“Then what am I?”
“The key.”
Elise felt something inside her break.
“You keep calling us keys.”
Her voice rose.
“We're not keys. We're your daughters.”
“Then stop treating us like assets.”
He stopped.
Emma wiped her eyes.
“Why shouldn't I sign?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Because the trust requires consent.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”