Chapter 5 - The Blue Room Beneath the Old HouseAdrien took us to an abandoned estate in Indiana.
He said it belonged to his family.
I knew before we entered that I'd been there.
The hallway was familiar.
The staircase.
The wallpaper.
The smell.
Mia held my hand.
Julian walked behind us.
Adrien opened a wooden door.
A nursery.
I froze.
Two cribs.
One blue.
One white.
A painted moon on the wall.
I remembered.
I had been here.
As a child.
I had slept in one crib.
Julian in the other.
My mother sang to us.
My father argued with someone downstairs.
Then shouting.
A gunshot.
My mother screaming:
“Take Charlotte!”
I covered my ears.
Adrien crouched beside me.
“It's okay.”
“No.”
I shook.
“My mother was here.”
“Yes.”
“She was scared.”
“I know.”
A hidden panel opened behind one crib.
Inside was a box.
My mother had left it.
Letters.
Photographs.
A video cassette.
And a recording.
We played it.
Elena appeared on screen.
She looked younger.
Tired.
But alive.
“If you're watching this, Charlotte, I'm sorry.”
I began crying.
“I never abandoned you.”
She explained everything.
Dominic Cross had built the original criminal organization.
But his son, Adrien's father, had inherited it.
Dominic's daughter had tried to expose him.
She was killed.
Elena discovered the truth.
She helped Dominic hide the children.
Then she met my father.
He betrayed her.
He sold her location.
She escaped.
But she couldn't take both children.
So she left Julian with someone she trusted.
And took me.
She planned to return.
She never got the chance.
My father found us.
He took me.
Then he staged Elena's death.
I cried.
Adrien turned away.
The recording continued.
“The ledger isn't money.”
“It is proof.”
“It names every person who helped.”
“The location is inside the song.”
The lullaby.
I understood.
The song wasn't just a melody.
Each note corresponded to a location.
A warehouse.
A house.
A hospital.
A grave.
And one final place.
The blue room.
The room beneath the estate.
We went downstairs.
Behind a stone wall was a vault.
Inside was the ledger.
Thousands of names.
Hundreds of victims.
And one final file.
Adrien Cross.
I stared.
His name was listed under:
PROTECTED CHILD.
He was only nine when his father began the operation.
Adrien didn't know.
He had been manipulated too.
The feared mafia boss I had spent a year working for had been a child witness.
Not a perpetrator.
I looked at him.
“You were never part of it.”
“No.”
“Why didn't you know?”
“Because my father made sure I wouldn't.”
There was another file.
Mia Cross.
I frowned.
“Why is my daughter listed as Cross?”
Adrien went still.
“What?”
Her name.
Mia Hayes.
Alias:
Mia Cross.
I stared.
“No.”
Adrien looked at the document.
“Someone has been preparing to steal her identity.”
“Why?”
“To make the trust believe she's one of my heirs.”
“What trust?”
“The Cross family inheritance.”
“Billions?”
“Yes.”
Julian spoke.
“They don't want Mia.”
“They want the money.”
Adrien nodded.
“Then why is someone trying to kill her?”
“Because she's the easiest way to force me to cooperate.”
A gunshot exploded upstairs.
Adrien pushed us behind the wall.
Men entered the mansion.
One shouted:
“Give us the girl!”
Adrien stared at Julian.
“Can you get them out?”
Julian nodded.
“I'll try.”
Adrien looked at me.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
He crouched.
“Charlotte.”
“I won't leave you.”
He stared at me.
Then smiled.
“You're stubborn.”
“So are you.”
He almost laughed.
Then he kissed my forehead.
“Stay behind me.”
We ran.
Gunfire echoed.
The vault shook.
Julian fought the men while Adrien covered us.
We escaped through a tunnel.
Outside, police sirens approached.
Adrien looked toward the road.
“Someone called them.”
“Who?”
“My attorney.”
“Can we trust him?”
Adrien looked at the ledger.
“No.”
Before we could move, a black car stopped.
The rear door opened.
A woman stepped out.
Elena.
My mother.
Alive.
She looked at me.
Then Mia.
Then Adrien.
Her expression broke.
“You found them.”
I ran to her.
“Mom.”
She held me.
“I thought I'd lost you.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I wanted to come back.”
“Why didn't you?”
She looked at Adrien.
“Because I was afraid of what your father would do.”
Adrien frowned.
“My father is dead.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“He isn't.”
The world stopped.
“Where is he?”
She looked at the burning estate.
“Inside the organization.”
“Who?”
Elena whispered:
“Your uncle.”
Adrien froze.
“My uncle died twenty years ago.”
“No.”
May you like
She looked toward the road.
“He's been alive the entire time.”
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