Chapter 9 - The Mother Who Walked Back From the Dead
Cassandra contacted Victor.
One sentence.
I have what you want.
Victor responded within six minutes.
The exchange would happen at an abandoned hospital.
The same hospital where Fern and Rose had been switched.
St. Vincent Mercy.
It felt appropriate.
Everything would end where it began.
Cassandra entered alone.
Stellan and I watched through hidden cameras.
Victor appeared with Lily.
She was sixteen.
Terrified.
Alive.
When Lily saw Cassandra, she froze.
“Mom?”
Cassandra broke.
“My baby.”
Victor grabbed Lily’s arm.
“Enough.”
Cassandra held up a drive.
“The ledger.”
Victor smiled.
“Finally.”
“Fern first.”
“She isn’t here.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Cassandra smiled.
“You really thought my brother would bring an infant to you?”
Victor struck her.
Stellan moved toward the door.
I grabbed him.
“Wait.”
His eyes burned.
“Selene.”
“Wait.”
Cassandra had insisted.
Victor needed to believe he was winning.
Then Lily did something unexpected.
She bit Victor’s hand.
He shouted.
Cassandra attacked.
Stellan’s team moved.
Gunfire erupted.
I ran toward Lily.
Victor escaped through the maternity wing.
Stellan followed.
I found Lily hiding beneath an old nurses’ station.
“You’re safe.”
She stared at me.
“Who are you?”
“Fern’s mom.”
Her expression changed.
“My sister?”
“Yes.”
She began crying.
Then she handed me a flash drive.
“Mom told me if anyone came, give this to the woman who calls Fern her daughter.”
I stared.
Cassandra had planned for me.
“What is it?”
“The real ledger.”
The drive Cassandra carried was fake.
Victor had been chasing the wrong thing.
Then an explosion rocked the building.
Smoke filled the hallway.
“Stellan!”
I ran toward the sound.
Victor stood near the old nursery.
His gun pointed at Stellan.
Cassandra was bleeding on the floor.
Victor smiled.
“You ruined everything.”
Stellan lowered his weapon.
“No.”
He looked toward me.
“We ended it.”
Police sirens approached.
Federal agents.
Dozens.
Lily’s drive had automatically transmitted the ledger the moment I plugged it into Cassandra’s device.
Victor understood.
His empire was finished.
He raised his gun toward me.
Stellan fired first.
Victor fell.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Stellan ran toward me.
Not toward his father.
Toward me.
He pulled me into his arms.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Fern?”
“Safe.”
“Rose?”
“Safe.”
May you like
He closed his eyes against my forehead.
Behind us, Victor Cross died in the same hospital where he had once treated newborn children like pieces on a chessboard.
