Chapter 11 - What Alan Had DoneI wanted Alan arrested before anyone explained.
Not loudly.
Almost sadly.
“Evelyn always did enjoy theater.”
I wanted to kill him for laughing.
Instead I stared at Caroline.
“Tell me.”
“The photograph is real.”
Olivia covered her mouth.
Daniel looked away.
Nathan stopped smiling.
I felt the entire world narrowing toward one question.
“Is Nathan Olivia's father?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
I believed it.
But Evelyn had designed the file to make belief difficult.
“What is the photograph?”
Caroline sat down.
“When Olivia was born, Evelyn changed part of the hospital intake record.”
“Why?”
“She needed leverage.”
“Twenty-nine years ago?”
“Thirty-two.”
“Against whom?”
“Nathan.”
I looked at him.
Caroline continued.
“Evelyn knew Nathan and I had dated briefly before I met you.”
That was new.
Nathan looked uncomfortable.
“How briefly?”
“Three months.”
“You never told me.”
“We were twenty-three. It ended badly. Years before you and I met.”
“Were you sleeping with him near the time Olivia was conceived?”
“No.”
No hesitation.
Still, I felt humiliation crawling through me.
Not because of an old romance.
Because everyone else seemed to know pieces of my life I didn't.
“Evelyn created the false record to make Nathan believe Olivia might be his daughter if she ever needed to control him.”
“Did he believe it?”
Nathan answered.
“For several years.”
I turned toward him.
“You thought my daughter was yours?”
“I considered the possibility.”
“And you still threatened her?”
His face hardened.
“Eventually I confirmed she wasn't.”
“How?”
“DNA.”
Olivia looked disgusted.
“You tested me?”
“Without your knowledge.”
“When?”
“You were nine.”
I stepped toward him.
Torres blocked me.
“Not worth it.”
She was right.
Barely.
Caroline continued.
“Evelyn kept the fake document because she knew it could destroy us.”
“Why now?”
“Because it's the only weapon she has left.”
Torres interrupted.
“Not quite.”
She was studying metadata on the video.
“The upload originated less than an hour ago.”
“So Evelyn is online.”
“More than that.”
Daniel leaned toward the terminal.
“It came through a local network.”
“How local?”
He typed.
His face changed.
“Inside this building.”
Everyone looked around.
A gunshot sounded above us.
Then another.
Torres drew her weapon.
Agents moved toward the stairs.
Caroline whispered, “Evelyn.”
Emergency lights flashed.
The building's fire alarms activated.
Smoke began pouring through ventilation ducts.
“She’s destroying the servers,” Daniel said.
“Fire suppression?” Torres asked.
“Disabled.”
Agents evacuated.
Daniel initiated a data transfer to federal storage.
Estimated time: eleven minutes.
We didn't have eleven minutes.
Nathan suddenly spoke.
“There's a secondary fiber line.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Where?”
“Sublevel two.”
“This is sublevel two.”
“No. There's another level.”
Rachel cursed.
“You never told me.”
Nathan smiled grimly.
“You weren't the only one who kept secrets.”
We found the hidden staircase behind a utility panel.
Daniel and two agents descended.
I remained with Olivia and Caroline until another explosion shook the ceiling.
Then the server room door locked automatically.
Smoke thickened.
Nathan was handcuffed to a railing.
He shouted, “Richard!”
I almost left him.
For half a second, I truly considered it.
Nobody would blame me.
The building was burning.
Nathan had tried killing me, threatened my family, framed me, corrupted officials and built his life on betrayal.
Then I looked at Olivia.
My daughter was watching me.
I knew what she needed to see.
Not revenge.
A father who was better than the people who hurt us.
I grabbed Nathan's arm.
“Move.”
His eyes widened.
“You're saving me?”
“No.”
I pulled him toward the exit.
“I'm making sure you live long enough to answer for everything.”
Outside, federal vehicles filled the street.
Fire crews arrived.
Daniel emerged five minutes later.
“The transfer completed.”
Torres almost smiled.
Then a voice sounded behind us.
“Caroline.”
My wife froze.
Evelyn stood twenty feet away.
She held a pistol against Olivia's side.
None of us had seen her approach through the smoke and confusion.
She looked older than Caroline.
Elegant despite everything.
The same sharp features I remembered from family holidays.
“Aunt Evelyn,” Olivia whispered.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
I stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
“Richard.”
Evelyn smiled.
“You still command rooms exactly the same way.”
“Let her go.”
“I don't think so.”
Torres raised her weapon.
Evelyn pressed the pistol closer to Olivia.
“Lower it.”
Torres complied.
Caroline moved forward.
“This is between us.”
“It stopped being between us thirty years ago.”
“Then take me.”
“Gladly.”
Olivia shook her head.
“No.”
Evelyn laughed.
“The child still thinks she has choices.”
Something changed in Olivia's eyes.
I recognized it.
The same look she had at eleven years old during the thunderstorm.
Identify the threat.
Control what you can.
Move anyway.
Olivia suddenly dropped her weight.
Evelyn's grip slipped.
Daniel lunged.
Torres moved.
A gunshot exploded.
Caroline screamed.
Evelyn collapsed.
The weapon skidded across pavement.
For one horrible second, I thought Olivia had been hit.
Then I saw Evelyn clutching her shoulder.
Torres had fired.
Daniel pulled Olivia away.
Agents swarmed Evelyn.
She laughed while they handcuffed her.
Actually laughed.
“You think this ends anything?”
Torres said, “It ends your afternoon.”
They took her away.
Nathan watched silently.
Then Caroline walked toward him.
“You knew she was coming.”
Nathan nodded.
“You could have warned us.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“When I told Richard someone who was supposed to be dead was coming.”
Caroline stared at him.
“That wasn't enough.”
“No.”
“Nothing you ever gave us was enough.”
She turned away.
Nathan called after her.
“Caroline.”
She stopped.
“For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry.”
My wife looked back at the man who had helped destroy decades of our lives.
“That's the problem with men like you, Nathan.”
He said nothing.
“You think regret and remorse are the same thing.”
Federal agents led him away.
For the first time since 1997, Nathan Cole looked small.
But the story wasn't finished.
Not even close.
Because Sentinel contained thousands of documents.
And one of them proved something none of us expected.
The attack on Olivia had not been ordered by Nathan.
Not entirely.
The command had come from Evelyn.
But the person who gave Evelyn Olivia's location—
May you like
was someone sitting beside my daughter every day in the hospital.
Dr. Alan Mercer.
