Chapter 7 - The Lullaby
They hid inside an abandoned church outside the city.
Rain hammered the roof.
Ruby slept in Selena's arms.
Damon stood near the window.
Marcus guarded the entrance.
Rafael sat across the room.
No one trusted anyone.
Yet they had nowhere else to go.
Selena finally spoke.
“Daniel used to sing Ruby a lullaby.”
Damon looked at her.
“What kind?”
“An old Spanish song.”
Rafael's expression changed.
“What were the words?”
Selena told him.
Rafael closed his eyes.
“I know it.”
Damon frowned.
“How?”
“Father used it.”
“For what?”
“As a cipher.”
They realized the song contained numbers.
Coordinates.
Dates.
Names.
The missing piece of the Black Ledger.
But Ruby had only heard part of it.
The rest had been hidden in recordings.
Damon contacted an old ally.
They located Daniel's storage unit.
Inside was a tape recorder.
An old cassette.
Damon played it.
Daniel's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, I'm dead.”
Selena covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“I don't know who betrayed me. Maybe Victor. Maybe Rafael. Maybe someone I never suspected.”
Rafael lowered his head.
“But I know one thing.”
The recording paused.
“The ledger is not for revenge.”
Damon stared at the speaker.
“It is for rescue.”
Daniel explained that he had discovered names of children taken by the Circle.
He had hidden their locations.
He wanted them found.
He did not want the information used for power.
He wanted it used to save people.
Then Daniel said something that stunned Damon.
“Javier Reyes wasn't the architect.”
Selena looked at him.
“Who was?”
Daniel answered.
“Adrian Vale.”
The same man currently hunting them.
But Daniel had another revelation.
Adrian had been building the Circle for decades.
Javier was only one of many operators.
Rafael tried to stop him.
Victor tried to expose him.
Daniel tried to document him.
And all three failed.
Until Ruby.
Because Ruby was born with a genetic marker that connected the Reyes bloodline to the cipher.
Damon looked at his niece.
“She is the key.”
Selena nodded.
“But she doesn't know anything.”
Rafael spoke.
“She remembers the song.”
Ruby stirred.
Her eyes opened.
“Mommy?”
Selena hugged her.
“Yes.”
“Where's Mr. Damon?”
Damon immediately came over.
“Here.”
Ruby reached for him.
He lifted her.
She rested her head against his shoulder.
Then she whispered.
“I know the song.”
Everyone froze.
Ruby began humming.
A simple melody.
But beneath it were numbers.
Coordinates.
Damon wrote them down.
One location.
A warehouse.
Outside Yuma.
They drove before dawn.
At the warehouse, they found dozens of records.
And six frightened women.
Victims of the Circle.
One of them recognized Selena.
“You're Daniel's wife.”
Selena nodded.
“What happened to him?”
“He tried to save us.”
Then the woman pointed toward a locked room.
Inside were boxes.
Names.
Birth certificates.
Photographs.
Children.
Ruby looked at the files.
She became quiet.
Damon knelt beside her.
“What is it?”
She pointed.
“That girl was sad.”
It was a photograph of Victor's missing daughter.
Damon turned.
“Victor's daughter.”
Rafael looked at the picture.
“That means Victor was telling the truth.”
Then they heard footsteps.
Adrian entered.
Alone.
He looked at Ruby.
“My dear.”
Damon raised his weapon.
Adrian held up his hands.
“I didn't come to hurt her.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I came to end this.”
Damon frowned.
Adrian explained that the Circle had fractured.
There were people inside who no longer followed him.
Victor was one of them.
Margaret was another.
And Adrian had realized that Ruby represented the only path to exposing everyone.
He gave Damon a choice.
Take the evidence public.
Or destroy it.
Damon looked at Selena.
She shook her head.
“No more secrets.”
Damon agreed.
They sent the files to federal investigators.
But Adrian was not finished.
Before leaving, he turned to Damon.
“There is one more betrayal.”
“Who?”
Adrian smiled.
“Ask Victor why your father's coffin was empty.”
Then he disappeared.
Damon turned to Rafael.
May you like
Rafael looked haunted.
“I know where Victor went.”
