Chapter 7 - The Mastermind Revealed
The trustees inserted four silver pins into the console.
A third button rose. Return what was taken. Kira and Sebastian stood before separate scanners.
May addressed them. The system will ask whether you reject exclusive ownership.
A false answer locks the estate for another generation. Sebastian looked at Kira. You knew something before entering this house.
I knew my birth records were false. Ruth believed the Veils were involved. Victor promised evidence, so I met him.
The photograph Arabella showed us. Yes. Then I applied here to search the nursery.
I did not know she worked for him. Why did you not tell me? I had known you for 3 weeks.
You had trusted Arabella for 12 years. May placed a recorder beside them.
Truth later. Choice now.
Kira pressed her palm to the left scanner. Sebastian pressed his to the right.
Do you claim exclusive ownership of Veil Manor and its holdings? No, Kira said.
No, Sebastian answered. Do you consent to restoration of the original Workers Trust? Yes, they said together.
The third button lit white. Before they could press it, the floor shook.
Every monitor changed to Victor Crest’s face.
He stood inside the estate vault holding a folder and a detonator.
Touch that button, he warned, and Elena Veil’s original death certificate burns with the trust charter.
Arabella stopped struggling. Father. Victor barely looked at her.
You failed. Sebastian faced the screen.
Elena’s death certificate was forged.
The public one was. Victor opened the folder.
The original record showed Elena had survived childbirth for 7 years. Kira stared at Ruth.
You told me she died that night. I told you what kept you hidden. Victor continued.
Elena lived long enough to record the worker accounts, every trustee’s name, and the identity of the person who killed the real Sebastian.
Ruth went pale. Sebastian stepped closer. Who killed him?
Victor smiled. The woman you called Mom.
Everyone looked at Ruth. A hospital photograph filled the screen.
Ruth stood beside an infant’s body, blood across her hands.
Arabella laughed.
“Your heroic mother murdered the heir.”
“I was there when the child died.”
Ruth said.
“That is not the same as killing him.”
Kira answered. Victor raised the detonator.
“Come to the vault alone, Kira.
Bring the bracelet and Sebastian’s blood.
I will give you Elena’s testimony.”
Sebastian stepped forward.
“She is not going alone.”
“Then ask Ruth why baby had your face.”
The image enlarged.
The infant had Sebastian’s eyes and the same crescent-shaped birthmark beneath the left ear.
Sebastian touched his own mark. Ruth began crying.
“There was no replacement, son.”
Kira turned to her.
“What are you saying?”
“Elena delivered three children, two daughters and one son.”
Sebastian’s voice weakened.
“Then I am the real Sebastian.”
“Yes.
Who died?”
Ruth looked at Kira.
“The firstborn daughter.”
Kira stepped backward.
“Victor erased one daughter from the registry and declared the other dead so nobody could prove which child inherited first.
” “Which daughter survived?”
Kira asked. Ruth could not answer.
May you like
Victor did.
“The one raised by the woman who placed a dead infant into the hospital furnace and called it protection.”
