Chapter 25 - The Choice
We spent the next hour arguing about what to do.
Nobody had a solution.
Every plan led to another dead end.
Samuel controlled the money.
He controlled the network.
He had Ethan.
He had Daniel.
He had access to my family.
He knew about my child.
And worst of all, he believed he had leverage.
Morales slammed his hand on the table.
“We don't give him the baby.”
My mother cried.
“He'll kill Ethan.”
“He may kill him anyway.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“He won't.”
Everyone looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because Ethan is still useful.”
Arthur studied him.
“You understand Blackwell.”
Daniel nodded.
“I lived with it.”
“For how long?”
“Most of my life.”
My heart hurt.
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“And watched me from a distance?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were the only family member they couldn't control.”
I laughed bitterly.
“They controlled everything around me.”
“Not you.”
“That's not true.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You cut off the money.”
“What?”
“The support payments.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why did that matter?”
“Because those payments were keeping one of Blackwell's internal witnesses alive.”
I stared.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at my mother.
She whispered:
“Me.”
I felt dizzy.
“The money kept you alive?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Someone was sending threats through the accounts.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the only person who knew where Arthur hid the original records.”
I stared.
“And the support?”
Daniel said:
“It was a coded signal.”
“What signal?”
“When Claire stopped paying, Blackwell believed Margaret had finally betrayed him.”
My mother nodded.
“And that's why everything accelerated.”
The amount I'd cut off had triggered the whole chain.
My father's return.
Gerald's capture.
Bennett's death.
The stolen trust money.
Evelyn's disappearance.
Ethan's kidnapping.
Daniel's emergence.
All of it.
Because I had finally said no.
I sat down.
“I thought I was just done being manipulated.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You were.”
Arthur put a hand over his wound.
“There is one thing Samuel doesn't know.”
“What?”
“The master ledger isn't in the trust.”
I frowned.
“Then where?”
Arthur looked at Daniel.
“With him.”
Daniel's face went pale.
“What?”
“The ledger was hidden in the identity records.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't have it.”
“You do.”
“No.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“The day Ethan took you, I gave you the key.”
Daniel's expression changed.
He reached slowly into his jacket.
He pulled out a tiny silver key.
The same symbol.
E.
I stared.
“Evelyn's key.”
Daniel nodded.
“You don't understand what this opens.”
“Then tell me.”
Daniel looked at me.
“It opens the archive beneath Hawthorne Academy.”
I froze.
The school.
The place my mother had paid.
The place where Daniel had been hidden.
The place we'd thought was just a cover.
“There's an archive?”
“Yes.”
“What is inside?”
“Every identity Blackwell ever created.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“And the original ledger.”
I stared at him.
“Then we can prove everything.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hasn't Samuel destroyed it?”
Daniel answered.
“Because he can't.”
“Why?”
“Because the archive requires three biological family keys.”
I looked at him.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Natalie.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Daniel hesitated.
“The child.”
My heart stopped.
“My son.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“No.”
Daniel's voice softened.
“He doesn't need to be physically there.”
“Then what?”
“A blood sample.”
My stomach turned.
“You want to use my baby's blood?”
“Only to unlock the system.”
Arthur shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You know we have no choice.”
Arthur's face hardened.
“There is always a choice.”
“Then what is yours?”
Arthur stared at him.
“To burn it.”
Everyone fell silent.
“What?”
“If Samuel gets the archive, he can rebuild the network.”
“But it also proves what he did.”
“Evidence doesn't matter if we're dead.”
I looked at him.
“So you want to destroy it.”
“Yes.”
“And lose the only chance to expose him.”
“Yes.”
I stared at my father.
He had spent my entire life protecting me with secrets.
I was done.
“No.”
Arthur looked at me.
“I won't destroy it.”
“Claire.”
“I won't.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Then we need the archive.”
“And my son.”
“We can protect him.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“But I know Samuel.”
My phone vibrated.
A video arrived.
Ethan.
He was bruised.
But alive.
Samuel appeared behind him.
“You have six hours.”
He looked into the camera.
“Bring the child.”
Ethan suddenly spoke.
“Claire, don't.”
Samuel struck him.
I covered my mouth.
Then Ethan whispered:
“Go to the archive.”
The video ended.
I looked at Daniel.
He nodded.
“He wants us to get there first.”
I understood.
Ethan wasn't asking me to surrender.
He was telling me to fight.
I looked at Arthur.
“Where do we start?”
He answered:
May you like
“Hawthorne Academy.”
Then the front door exploded.
