Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Bell Tower
Victor’s men turned toward the trees.
That was their mistake.
Gideon knocked the nearest gunman into a gravestone and seized his rifle. Nathaniel grabbed me and pulled me behind Evelyn’s grave as bullets ripped through the chapel doors.
My mother dropped to the ground.
Victor dragged her toward the side entrance.
“Mom!” I screamed.
Nathaniel fired over the stone ledge.
“Gideon, get Claire!”
A dark figure appeared in the chapel’s broken bell tower.
A woman wearing a black raincoat aimed a long rifle into the cemetery.
She fired once.
The man holding my mother collapsed.
My mother broke free and ran.
Victor reached for her, but another bullet struck the ground at his feet.
He disappeared through the chapel.
Gideon rushed forward, covering my mother until she reached us.
She fell to her knees and pulled me into her arms.
I buried my face against her neck.
She smelled of rain, blood, and the hotel soap she used every day.
“You came,” she whispered.
“I found the wallet.”
She let out a broken laugh that turned into a sob.
“Of course you did.”
Nathaniel stared at her over my shoulder.
Claire looked up.
For twelve years, she had hidden from him.
Now they stood only a few feet apart.
“I believed Victor,” Nathaniel said.
My mother’s face hardened.
“I know.”
“I hunted you.”
“I know that too.”
“I was wrong.”
“You were dangerous.”
Nathaniel accepted the words without defending himself.
The woman from the bell tower descended a rusted ladder.
Gideon aimed his weapon at her.
“Stop there.”
She removed the hood from her head.
Silver threaded through her dark hair. A jagged scar crossed her right cheek.
Nathaniel lowered his gun.
“Dr. Mercer?”
The woman nodded.
“You took your time finding the grave.”
My mother stared at her.
“I thought you were dead.”
“So did Victor.”
Dr. Helen Mercer had been the physician who delivered me.
She led us through a hidden trapdoor beneath the chapel altar into a stone chamber lined with old wine racks.
There, Gideon treated my mother’s bruised wrists while Dr. Mercer inserted the flash drive into an old laptop.
“I helped Evelyn and Claire change Ruby’s birth records,” she explained. “Victor had people inside every hospital in the city. If he knew Evelyn’s child survived, he would never stop searching.”
“Why did Evelyn give me to Mom?” I asked.
My mother reached for my hand.
“Because she knew Victor would use you against her.”
“Did she know she was going to die?”
“No,” Claire said. “She believed she could expose him.”
Nathaniel stood near the doorway, unable to look away from the screen.
The flash drive contained dozens of files.
Shipping records.
Bank transfers.
Photographs of locked containers filled with frightened people.
Videos of judges accepting money.
Records connecting Victor Hale to Harrow Property Management, the company that had evicted us.
“He bought our building?” I asked.
My mother nodded.
“He has been purchasing properties across the city for years, looking for us. Every new landlord demanded identification. Every rent increase forced us to move.”
“The eviction notice was bait,” Nathaniel said.
Dr. Mercer opened an audio file.
Evelyn’s voice filled the chamber.
If you are hearing this, Victor has already moved against me. He believes power makes him untouchable. He is wrong.
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
Evelyn continued.
Claire, protect Ruby. Nathaniel, protect Claire. And if neither of you can forgive the other, do it anyway. Ruby deserves a family that chooses her over vengeance.
The recording crackled.
Then Evelyn said something that made everyone look toward the laptop.
Victor is not Ruby’s father.
My mother squeezed my hand.
Nathaniel leaned closer.
Ruby’s father is Michael Bennett.
My mother began to cry.
“Who is Michael?” I asked.
She reached into her blouse and pulled out a chain she had kept hidden beneath her uniform.
A plain gold wedding ring hung from it.
“My husband.”
“You were married?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
My mother looked at Nathaniel.
Nathaniel’s face changed.
“No,” he said.
Claire’s tears fell faster.
“Michael worked in Graves Holdings’ accounting department. He helped Evelyn trace Victor’s money. The night before the crash, he went to meet one of Nathaniel’s security officers.”
Gideon stiffened.
“What officer?”
“Caleb Shaw.”
Gideon looked at Nathaniel.
Caleb Shaw had become chief of Graves Tower security nine years earlier.
He had been inside the building when the attackers entered.
“He controls the cameras,” Gideon said. “The access cards. The emergency system.”
“The tower attack,” Nathaniel whispered. “He let them in.”
Dr. Mercer opened another file.
A scanned death certificate appeared.
Michael Bennett had supposedly died in a warehouse explosion eleven years ago.
But beneath it was a second document.
A prisoner transfer record dated only three months earlier.
Michael Bennett was alive.
He had been held for more than a decade under a false identity in a private detention facility owned by Victor Hale.
My heart hammered.
“My father is alive?”
My mother covered her mouth.
“I searched for him. I never found proof.”
Nathaniel turned toward Gideon.
“Find the facility.”
Before Gideon could answer, the laptop screen went black.
A message appeared.
THANK YOU FOR OPENING THE FILE.
Dr. Mercer’s face drained of color.
“It was tracked.”
The chamber lights shut off.
A ticking sound began beneath the altar.
Nathaniel grabbed the laptop and threw it aside.
“Bomb!”
We ran through the underground passage as the chapel exploded above us.
Stone, dust, and fire crashed into the tunnel.
Nathaniel covered me with his body.
When the shaking stopped, Gideon’s phone finally regained a signal.
He had received one message.
It came from Caleb Shaw inside Graves Tower.
A photograph showed Ms. Voss, the fired receptionist, sitting in Nathaniel’s office with a gun in her hand.
Beside her stood six members of Graves Holdings’ board.
All of them were smiling.
The message beneath the photograph read:
May you like
The company is no longer yours.
And neither is the city.
