Chapter 5 - The Journal Was Stolen From a Locked Room, and the Thief Left Behind a Message Saying My Father Had Never DiedWhen the lights returned, the journal was gone.

Every door had remained locked.

Nobody had entered.

Except—

me.

Dominic's guards searched me.

Nothing.

Then I found a note in my pocket.

I hadn't put it there.

Your father is waiting.

I stared.

Dominic took the note.

"Someone was close enough to touch you."

"They wanted me to know."

"Or frighten you."

We searched the building.

A hidden staircase led to the street.

There was no sign of the thief.

But we found another symbol.

A silver rose.

My mother's.

That night, Dominic took me to an old private library.

"Why here?"

"Because your father used it."

Inside was a portrait of William Hart.

The frame opened.

Behind it was another page.

If the journal is stolen, follow the music.

I didn't understand.

Then I remembered my father playing the piano when I was young.

The tune.

Three notes.

A pause.

Then two.

I hummed it.

A hidden drawer opened.

Inside was a cassette.

My father's voice.

"Olivia."

I covered my mouth.

"If you're hearing this, I survived."

My heart stopped.

He explained that he had spent years hiding from Vane.

He was alive.

But he couldn't return until the archive was opened.

The journal wasn't the archive.

It was the guide.

The real archive was hidden beneath New York.

The key was my father's pendant.

The final component was not physical.

It was a person.

Me.

"Your memories will unlock what paper cannot."

The recording ended.

I cried.

Dominic didn't speak.

He simply stood beside me.

Then he said:

"We're finding your father."

We traveled to an abandoned estate in upstate New York.

Inside was an underground room.

A man stood in the darkness.

Older.

Thinner.

Gray hair.

But unmistakable.

My father.

I stopped breathing.

"Dad?"

He turned.

"Olivia."

I ran to him.

He held me.

For the first time in five years, I was a child again.

I cried into his coat.

"Why did you leave?"

"To keep you alive."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because the people hunting me would have found you."

I pulled away.

"Who?"

He looked at Dominic.

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Then at me.

"Everyone who wants the archive."