Chapter 6 - My Mother Was Alive, and Dominic Had Been Searching for Her
For seven years, I had visited my mother's grave.
Now I was being told she wasn't inside it.
I couldn't accept it.
Victoria insisted she was alive.
Naomi showed me documents.
Hospital transfer records.
Private security reports.
A photograph of a woman taken six years earlier.
My mother.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably Eleanor Walker.
I touched the photograph.
"Where is she?"
Victoria closed her eyes.
"They move her every few months."
"Who?"
"The Bellwether Group."
Dominic immediately stood.
"Then we're finding her."
Victoria shook her head.
"You don't understand."
"I understand enough."
"They don't just hide people. They erase them."
She explained that the group operated through hospitals, private clinics, detention centers, and identity services.
People who became inconvenient disappeared.
Medical records changed.
Birth records vanished.
Deaths were fabricated.
Lives were rewritten.
My mother had discovered proof.
She had tried to expose them.
Hart caught her.
Anthony helped her escape.
But before they could leave Boston, someone betrayed them.
Anthony was captured.
My mother was taken.
Victoria escaped and spent decades hiding.
"And me?"
Victoria looked at me.
"Your mother fought to keep you out of the system."
"Then why was I drugged?"
"Because Hart discovered you had seen Anthony."
"Why didn't they take me?"
"Because your mother made a deal."
I felt sick.
"What deal?"
"She surrendered herself."
Dominic slammed his fist onto the table.
"They threatened Grace."
Victoria nodded.
"Your mother knew they would use you to control Anthony."
"But Anthony was already gone."
"He wasn't."
I looked at Dominic.
"What?"
Victoria revealed the truth.
Anthony Vale had been alive for years after his disappearance.
He had been imprisoned in a secret facility.
He escaped shortly before his supposed death.
But someone had found him.
He died protecting Eleanor.
Dominic stared at her.
"Where?"
"Boston."
"Who killed him?"
Victoria whispered a name.
"Charles Mercer."
Marcus immediately recognized it.
"Mercer died twenty years ago."
"He wasn't dead."
Victoria looked at him.
"He changed his identity."
She turned toward me.
"Now he runs St. Bartholomew's."
Samuel Hart was merely his lieutenant.
The real mastermind had been hiding in plain sight.
Dr. Charles Mercer.
The hospital's chairman.
I felt numb.
He had signed my mother's death certificate.
He had supervised my sedation.
He had controlled the records.
He had been watching me.
Dominic looked at Marcus.
"Find Mercer."
"Already trying."
Then the lights flickered.
Victoria suddenly grabbed my hand.
"We have to leave."
"Why?"
"Because they know I talked."
Too late.
The windows shattered.
Gunfire erupted.
Dominic tackled me to the floor.
Victoria disappeared behind a pillar.
Marcus returned fire.
One attacker entered through the terrace.
Dominic shot him.
Another entered through the hall.
Marcus dropped him.
Then a grenade rolled across the floor.
Dominic grabbed me.
"Move!"
The explosion threw us into the wall.
My ears rang.
Dust filled the room.
When I looked around, Victoria was gone.
"Victoria!"
No answer.
Dominic tried to stand.
Blood ran down his forehead.
"She was taken."
I pointed toward the shattered window.
A black van sped away.
Marcus ran outside.
"They're gone."
Dominic's face became terrifyingly calm.
"They made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
He looked at me.
"They thought kidnapping Victoria would make us stop."
His voice hardened.
"It will make me burn every secret they've ever protected."
Hours later, we received a call.
A distorted voice said:
"Bring Grace to St. Bartholomew's at midnight."
Dominic refused.
But the caller added one sentence.
"Or Eleanor dies."
The line disconnected.
I stared at Dominic.
"My mother."
He shook his head.
"You're not going."
"Yes, I am."
"No."
"She's my mother."
"And you're my sister."
The words stopped me.
"You don't understand."
"I understand exactly."
Dominic took my hand.
"For the first time in my life, I have someone I can't afford to lose."
My eyes filled with tears.
"We're going together."
He nodded reluctantly.
At midnight, we returned to the hospital.
The emergency department was empty.
The lights were on.
Every hallway was silent.
Then the loudspeaker crackled.
A familiar voice spoke.
"Welcome home, Grace."
Dr. Mercer stepped into the corridor.
He smiled.
"Or should I call you Victoria?"
I froze.
He continued.
"Because that's the name you used the night you escaped."
Dominic raised his gun.
Mercer laughed.
"You still don't know who your sister really is."
Victoria stepped out behind him.
May you like
Alive.
And holding a gun to my mother's head.
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