Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath the Cross Family
I fired one round into the lock.
The steel door opened.
Smoke filled the hallway.
My men were shouting.
Someone had attacked the east wing.
I didn't care.
“Find Ruby!”
That became the only order that mattered.
We moved through the mansion room by room.
No bodies.
No intruders.
No Ruby.
But the security system had been tampered with again.
My backup server showed something impossible.
For eleven seconds, every internal camera had streamed the same image.
An empty hallway.
Then all systems returned.
Eleven seconds.
Exactly enough time for someone to move.
I went back to the basement.
Theo stood beside the open box.
He was holding the DNA report.
His hands trembled.
“What does it say?”
He looked at me.
“Ruby's not sick.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Theo shook his head.
“It says something else.”
I took the paper.
The report wasn't from a hospital.
It was from a private genetics laboratory.
Ruby's genetic markers had been compared with mine.
The result showed an unexpected result.
Fatherhood confirmed.
But beside that was another note.
Maternal lineage inconsistent with presumed family records.
My hands went numb.
I sat down.
Ruby was my daughter.
That had never been in question.
But her mother's medical records had always listed her as a private patient.
Cancer.
Treatment.
Death.
What was missing?
Her identity before she met me.
I opened my father's letter again.
Another page had been hidden beneath the first.
Your wife was not who you believed she was.
I stopped breathing.
My wife had been Elena.
She had been gentle, stubborn, funny, and impossibly brave.
Before cancer took her, she'd made Ruby promise to always wear that bracelet.
I'd believed it was simply a sentimental gift.
Now I noticed the charm.
A tiny silver star.
I turned it over.
There was a microscopic engraving.
C-17.
Theo looked at it.
“That's the same number Eli saw.”
“Where?”
“In the files.”
“What files?”
“The files from the hospital.”
I stood.
We needed that hospital.
But before I could move, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice said, “You opened the box.”
I said nothing.
“You should have listened to your father.”
“Where is my daughter?”
“You are asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Who was your wife before she met you?”
The call ended.
I stared at the screen.
Warren approached.
“Boss.”
I looked at him.
“Did Elena ever work for you?”
He looked genuinely confused.
“No.”
“Did my father know her?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“I don't know.”
I grabbed his collar.
“You've been in my house for fourteen years.”
“I know.”
“You watched my daughter grow up.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me anything about her mother?”
“I was protecting your family.”
I released him.
“From what?”
“From your father.”
That stopped me.
Warren looked at Theo.
“Your father had enemies who wanted Elena alive.”
“Why?”
“Because she carried something.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“I never saw it.”
Warren looked toward the floor.
“But your father believed someone inside his organization was selling information to a rival family.”
I remembered my father.
Cold.
Paranoid.
Always checking locks.
Always changing guards.
Then he died suddenly.
Heart attack.
At least that's what I'd been told.
I called the family physician.
He didn't answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then my phone received a message.
A photograph.
The physician's dead body.
The caption read:
He knew too much.
Theo stepped closer.
“That's the man from the hospital.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Eli saw him.”
I turned toward Warren.
“Get the plane ready.”
“Where?”
“The hospital.”
Before leaving, I ordered Victor placed under guard.
He objected.
“You're making a catastrophic mistake.”
“Maybe.”
“But if you're wrong, you'll destroy everything.”
I looked directly at him.
“My daughter disappeared from a room you had access to.”
His face hardened.
“I didn't take her.”
“I didn't say you did.”
We left.
The hospital was abandoned.
It had been closed after an electrical fire two years earlier.
Inside, the halls were dark.
Theo and Ranger moved ahead.
Ranger stopped outside an old records room.
Theo whispered, “Eli was here.”
We broke the door.
Metal cabinets lined the walls.
Most files were gone.
One drawer remained.
C-17.
Inside was a single folder.
ELENA CROSS.
I opened it.
The first page contained her original name.
Elena Marquez.
Not Cross.
Not the name she'd given me.
Underneath was an intelligence report.
She had once worked as a financial investigator for a federal task force targeting organized crime.
She had infiltrated my father's network.
She had met me during the investigation.
Then she disappeared.
Years later, she returned.
Pregnant.
With Ruby.
But she had never confessed the truth.
I stared at the pages.
“Why?”
Warren read over my shoulder.
“To protect you.”
The folder contained evidence of a planned massacre.
My father's rivals had arranged to murder dozens of people at a peace meeting.
Elena had stopped it.
But the file ended with one note.
Evidence hidden in child's keepsake.
My eyes went to Ruby's bracelet.
The silver star.
I understood.
The bracelet wasn't only sentimental.
It was a container.
I ran my finger along its edge.
There.
A microscopic seam.
I looked at Warren.
“Get me a jeweler.”
“We don't have time.”
“Then find someone with surgical tools.”
Theo touched my arm.
“My brother told me there was a second key.”
“Where?”
“He said Ruby had it.”
“What key?”
Theo pointed at the bracelet.
“The star.”
I opened the tiny compartment.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
The evidence had been hidden inside the charm for years.
Someone had known.
Someone inside my organization had been searching for it.
And Ruby had unknowingly been carrying it.
The phone rang again.
“Sebastian.”
This time, the voice was female.
I recognized it.
Margaret Cross.
My father's sister.
My aunt.
She had been in Florida for years.
At least, that's what I'd been told.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Alive.”
“What do you want?”
“I want what belonged to your father.”
“You mean the evidence.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I mean the little girl.”
My stomach twisted.
“What does that mean?”
“She isn't merely your daughter.”
I tightened my grip.
“She is Elena's daughter.”
Margaret laughed softly.
“And Elena was carrying a secret that could destroy everyone connected to the Cross name.”
I said nothing.
“Bring the bracelet to the old chapel.”
“Why?”
“Because Ruby is there.”
The line ended.
Theo looked at me.
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then why go?”
“Because she's my daughter.”
Warren shook his head.
“You're walking into the enemy's hands.”
“No.”
I looked at the microfilm.
“I'm walking into the place where they think they still control the game.”
We reached the chapel at midnight.
The doors were open.
Candles burned along the aisle.
At the altar stood Margaret.
And beside her was Eli.
The little boy looked terrified.
Then another figure stepped from the shadows.
Ruby.
My daughter ran toward me.
I caught her.
She wrapped both arms around my neck.
“Daddy.”
I held her so tightly she protested.
“Easy.”
“You came.”
“Always.”
She whispered into my ear.
“Daddy, don't trust Aunt Margaret.”
I looked up.
Margaret smiled.
“She's always been clever.”
Then a gunshot cracked through the chapel.
Eli dropped.
Theo screamed.
Ruby buried her face against my chest.
But Eli wasn't dead.
The bullet had struck the wall beside him.
A warning.
Not an execution.
Margaret turned toward the balcony.
“We've run out of time.”
I raised my gun.
Then Warren grabbed my shoulder.
“Sebastian.”
I looked at him.
He pointed toward the balcony.
Victor stood there.
Holding a gun.
May you like
And beside him was a man who had been reported dead eleven years ago.
My father.
