Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Die
The line went dead before Julian could ask whether Richard was still alive.
“Richard!”
Nothing.
Julian called back.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Every call went directly to voicemail.
Elena pushed herself upright in the hospital bed. “Call the police.”
Julian was already moving.
He contacted security first.
“Send a team to Richard Vale’s house. Immediately. Possible home invasion. Call the police on the way.”
He gave the order without mentioning Camila.
Not yet.
The accusation was too serious, and the night had already taught him one brutal lesson: evidence could be manufactured.
The infertility report had been false.
The flight plan had been false.
His signature had been forged perfectly.
Even the video of his father entering his mother’s hospital room could have been edited.
Someone wanted Julian angry.
Someone wanted him suspicious.
Someone wanted him making decisions before he had time to think.
And they were succeeding.
“Julian.”
He turned.
Elena was watching him carefully.
“What?”
“Your hand.”
He looked down.
His fingers were trembling.
Julian closed them into a fist.
“My father killed my mother.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Richard said it.”
“Richard also knew something for eleven years and never told you.”
The words stopped him.
Elena continued more gently.
“Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe he wasn’t. But someone has spent months controlling what both of us believe.”
Julian stared at her.
Eight months ago, he might have dismissed the warning.
Tonight, he listened.
“You’re right.”
Elena seemed surprised.
“So I verify everything.”
He looked again at the frozen final frame of the hospital video.
Thomas.
Camila.
The envelope.
Richard’s accusation.
“Starting with my mother.”
***
Richard Vale lived in a limestone townhouse overlooking Central Park.
By the time Julian arrived, police vehicles filled the street.
An ambulance waited outside.
Julian’s stomach dropped.
He climbed out before his driver had fully stopped.
Marcus met him at the entrance.
“Richard’s alive.”
Julian exhaled.
“Where is he?”
“Upstairs. Paramedics are treating him.”
“And Camila?”
“Gone.”
“You confirmed she was here?”
Marcus nodded.
“A housekeeper saw her arrive.”
Julian entered.
The foyer looked as though a storm had passed through it.
A lamp lay shattered.
A table had been overturned.
Blood marked the edge of the staircase.
Julian stopped.
“Whose?”
“Richard’s. He fell.”
“Was he pushed?”
“He says yes.”
“By Camila?”
Marcus hesitated.
“He won’t say.”
Julian looked toward the stairs.
“Of course he won’t.”
He found Richard sitting in his study with gauze pressed against his forehead.
At sixty-three, Richard Vale had always appeared younger than his age.
Tonight he looked ancient.
When Julian entered, Richard dismissed the paramedic.
“We need to talk alone.”
Marcus began to leave.
“No,” Julian said.
Richard’s expression tightened.
“Julian.”
“He stays.”
“You don’t understand.”
“That sentence is becoming very popular tonight.”
Richard looked at Marcus.
Something passed between them.
Julian noticed.
“You two know something.”
Neither answered.
Julian shut the door.
“My mother.”
Richard looked down.
“What happened to her?”
“She died.”
“Don’t.”
Julian’s voice cracked like a whip.
“You told me my father killed her.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“I shouldn’t have said that over the phone.”
“You shouldn’t have waited eleven years.”
“I was protecting you.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Marcus said the same thing.”
Richard looked sharply at Marcus.
Julian saw it.
There it was again.
Recognition.
Fear.
“Enough.”
He stepped between them.
“What are you both hiding?”
Richard removed the bloodstained gauze from his forehead.
“Your mother discovered something about Thomas.”
“What?”
“A financial structure.”
Julian frowned.
“My father had hundreds.”
“This one wasn’t about money.”
Richard walked slowly toward a cabinet.
He removed a bottle of whiskey but did not pour it.
“It was called the Vale Continuity Project.”
Julian remembered the folder.
VALE SUCCESSION PROTOCOL.
His skin prickled.
“What was the project?”
Richard stared at the bottle.
“Thomas believed families like ours shouldn’t leave succession to chance.”
Julian’s expression hardened.
“Speak plainly.”
“He was obsessed with legacy.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the version he allowed you to see.”
Richard finally looked at him.
“Thomas believed the Vale family had become weak because previous generations married for love instead of strategy.”
Marcus shifted uneasily.
Richard continued.
“He collected medical histories. Genetic records. Fertility profiles.”
Julian thought of Elena’s stolen medical information.
“He was selecting marriages.”
“More than marriages.”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“He wanted to control heirs.”
Silence filled the study.
Julian remembered the line from the locker.
PRIMARY SUCCESSION SUBJECT MUST REMAIN UNDER CONTROL OF VALE FAMILY TRUST.
“What did my mother discover?”
“That Thomas had created files on you.”
Julian’s stomach tightened.
“When?”
“You were seventeen.”
“Files for what?”
“Potential partners.”
Julian stared at him.
“Women?”
Richard nodded.
“Families. Medical compatibility. Social background. Psychological profiles.”
Marcus muttered, “Jesus.”
Julian’s mind moved immediately to Camila.
“Was Camila one of them?”
Richard did not answer quickly enough.
“She was.”
“Yes.”
Julian stepped back.
The Laurent family had been connected to the Vales for decades.
Their fathers had invested together.
Their children had attended the same schools.
Camila had always been there.
Not coincidence.
Design.
“Was I supposed to marry her?”
“Thomas wanted it.”
“And my mother?”
“She opposed him.”
“Is that why she died?”
Richard’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
“You just told me he killed her.”
“I was frightened.”
“That doesn’t make the words disappear.”
Richard slammed the whiskey bottle onto the table.
“I saw him alter her medication.”
Julian went completely still.
Marcus stared at Richard.
“What medication?”
“She had pancreatitis.”
Julian blinked.
Not cancer.
“Acute?”
“At first.”
Richard continued.
“Thomas told everyone it was pancreatic cancer. He moved her to a private medical team. Restricted access. Controlled the records.”
Julian felt nauseated.
“I spoke to her doctors.”
“Doctors Thomas paid.”
“I saw scans.”
“You saw what he wanted you to see.”
Julian turned away.
Memory became unreliable.
Hospital corridors.
His mother losing weight.
Her yellowed skin.
Her pain.
Her increasingly confused conversations.
All symptoms he had accepted as cancer.
“What medication did he alter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“I saw him with her infusion pump.”
“When?”
“The night she died.”
Julian turned back.
“Before or after the video?”
Richard’s eyes widened.
“What video?”
Julian showed him.
Richard watched silently.
When Camila appeared, he stopped the playback.
“No.”
“What?”
“She wasn’t there.”
Julian frowned.
“You’re looking at her.”
“No.”
Richard enlarged the frame.
“The woman in that video isn’t Camila.”
Marcus moved closer.
“She looks exactly like her.”
“She should.”
Richard looked at Julian.
“That’s Camille.”
Julian stared at him.
“Who?”
“Camila’s older sister.”
Silence.
Julian almost laughed.
“Camila doesn’t have a sister.”
“She does.”
“No.”
“She did.”
Julian’s expression changed.
“Did?”
Richard nodded.
“Camille Laurent died twelve years ago.”
Julian looked back at the video.
The woman was almost identical to Camila.
Same dark hair.
Same posture.
Same profile.
But now that Richard had said it, Julian noticed something.
A faint mark beneath the woman’s right ear.
Camila did not have one.
“Why have I never heard of her?”
“Because the Laurents erased her.”
“You can’t erase a person.”
“With enough money, you can erase almost anything.”
Julian thought of his father.
Perhaps even a death.
“What happened to Camille?”
Richard sat down.
“She became involved with Thomas.”
Julian’s disgust showed.
“Romantically?”
“I never knew.”
“But she was helping him?”
“Yes.”
“With the Continuity Project?”
Richard nodded.
“Your mother found out.”
“And then Camille died.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Richard looked at him.
“Car accident.”
Julian almost smiled at the absurdity.
“My father dies in a plane crash with no body. Camille dies in a car accident and disappears from family history. My mother dies from a cancer she apparently never had.”
He looked between Richard and Marcus.
“Does anyone in this family actually die normally?”
Neither man answered.
***
At the hospital, Elena could not sleep.
Julian had insisted on leaving two guards outside.
She still did not feel safe.
At 3:41 a.m., the nurse checked her vitals and left.
At 3:47, someone knocked.
Elena froze.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
She reached for the call button.
The door opened.
A woman entered.
Elena’s heart nearly stopped.
“Camila.”
Camila closed the door behind her.
Her evening gown was gone.
She wore black trousers, a sweater, and flat shoes.
There was blood on her sleeve.
Elena pressed the call button.
Nothing happened.
Camila noticed.
“I disconnected it.”
Elena moved her hand toward the bedside phone.
“That too.”
“Get out.”
“I can’t.”
“I’ll scream.”
“And security will come.”
Camila stepped closer.
“Which may get both of us killed.”
Elena stared at her.
“You threatened me.”
“No.”
“Your company placed me at Julian’s hotel.”
“Yes.”
The admission stunned her.
“You admit it?”
“I moved you there.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Elena laughed in disbelief.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. But you need to listen.”
“You knew I was pregnant before I told anyone.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Camila’s face tightened.
“Because they knew.”
“Who?”
“The people watching Julian.”
“His father?”
Camila went silent.
Elena’s fear deepened.
“He’s alive, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I genuinely don’t know.”
“Then why are you here?”
Camila looked toward Elena’s belly.
“To tell you that you have to leave.”
“I’m not running again.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly. Someone wants my baby.”
Camila’s eyes filled with something unexpected.
Grief.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because of who the baby is.”
“Elena Vale’s child?”
“No.”
“Julian’s?”
Camila hesitated.
That hesitation made Elena furious.
“Don’t.”
“Elena—”
“Do not tell me Julian isn’t the father.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Then what?”
Camila stepped closer.
“The baby is Julian’s.”
Elena waited.
“But that isn’t what makes him valuable.”
“Him?”
Camila realized her mistake.
Elena’s hand moved over her belly.
“You know it’s a boy.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because they tested you.”
“When?”
“You thought those were routine prenatal blood tests.”
Elena’s face went white.
Camila continued.
“They weren’t.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“My father was part of it.”
“The Continuity Project?”
Camila stared at her.
“You know that name?”
“Julian found documents.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Camila looked genuinely frightened now.
“If he found those documents, he’s in more danger than I thought.”
“What is the project?”
“A program Thomas Vale started almost thirty years ago.”
“For heirs?”
“Yes.”
“Why my baby?”
Camila looked at Elena for several seconds.
“Because Julian wasn’t supposed to be able to have one.”
Elena shook her head.
“That report was fake.”
“What report?”
Elena stopped.
She had revealed too much.
Camila understood anyway.
“They showed him the infertility file.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that file was designed to be found.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“Designed by whom?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
A noise sounded in the hallway.
Camila turned sharply.
Footsteps.
Security.
She moved toward the door.
Elena spoke quickly.
“Why did you go to Richard’s house?”
Camila stopped.
“You know about that?”
“Julian called from there.”
Camila looked at the blood on her sleeve.
“Richard has something that belongs to my sister.”
“Camille?”
Camila turned around slowly.
“How do you know that name?”
Elena said nothing.
Camila’s expression changed.
“You need to tell Julian something.”
“What?”
“My sister didn’t die in a car accident.”
“Then how?”
“I don’t know.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I was fourteen. My parents told me she was dead.”
“And you believed them?”
“For six years.”
Elena frowned.
“What happened after six years?”
Camila looked toward the door.
“I saw her.”
Elena stared at her.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At Thomas Vale’s funeral.”
Elena’s blood ran cold.
“Thomas’s funeral?”
“She stood across the cemetery.”
“Did you speak to her?”
“No. She disappeared.”
Camila opened the door slightly.
Then she looked back.
“And three days later, I received a package.”
“What was inside?”
“A photograph of Julian’s mother.”
Elena waited.
Camila’s voice dropped.
“She was alive too.”
***
At 4:12 a.m., Julian received the hospital alert.
Unauthorized access.
Elena’s room.
He was already running before Marcus finished reading the message.
They reached the car.
“Hospital security says a woman entered using a stolen physician credential,” Marcus said.
“Who?”
“They’re checking.”
Julian’s phone rang.
Elena.
He answered immediately.
“Elena?”
“Julian.”
Her voice was shaking.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“The baby?”
“Fine.”
“Who entered your room?”
A pause.
“Camila.”
Julian’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Stay there. I’m coming.”
“She told me something.”
“Whatever she told you, wait until I get there.”
“She said your mother may be alive.”
Julian stopped beside the car.
Everything around him seemed to disappear.
“What?”
“Camila said she received a photograph after your father’s funeral.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“Where is Camila?”
“Gone.”
“Security?”
“She bypassed them somehow.”
Julian closed his eyes.
Another impossible claim.
Another dead person.
Another piece of bait.
“Elena, listen to me. Trust no one until I arrive.”
“Julian.”
“What?”
“There’s something under my door.”
He heard movement.
“Elena, don’t touch it.”
Too late.
Paper rustled.
“What is it?”
“A photograph.”
Julian felt his pulse hammering.
“Of what?”
Silence.
“Elena?”
Her breathing changed.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“It’s your mother.”
Julian gripped the car door.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve seen photographs of her.”
“When was it taken?”
“There’s a date printed on it.”
Julian could barely force out the question.
“What date?”
Elena answered.
“Yesterday.”
Julian’s entire body went cold.
Then Elena whispered:
“She’s holding today’s newspaper.”