Chapter 5 - THE SECRET ROOM
The photograph changed everything.
We stopped arguing.
We started searching.
Aleric ordered every locked room in the estate opened.
The old Sterling mansion had dozens of them.
Most contained furniture.
Some contained family archives.
One room contained something else.
A hospital incubator.
Dust-covered.
Unused.
But still connected to an emergency power source.
I stared at it.
“Why would this be here?”
Rowan began crying.
“I've seen it before.”
She walked closer.
“This is from St. Catherine's.”
Aleric looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“I worked there.”
The room suddenly felt freezing.
Rowan opened a cabinet.
Inside were dozens of patient bracelets.
Some were more than twenty years old.
Others were recent.
She picked one up.
Her hands began shaking.
“This is my son's.”
The bracelet carried a name.
NOAH ROSS.
Not Julian.
Not Cassian.
Noah.
I looked at her.
“You had another name for him?”
“No.”
She stared at Eleanor.
“They changed it.”
Eleanor collapsed into a chair.
“I never wanted this.”
Aleric's voice became cold.
“Who forced you?”
She looked toward Graham.
Everyone turned.
Graham's expression hardened.
“You're all making assumptions.”
I stepped closer.
“Then explain the room.”
He said nothing.
Aleric called the police.
Before the call connected, Graham pulled a small key from his pocket.
“This house contains something far more dangerous than old hospital records.”
He unlocked a hidden drawer.
Inside was a USB drive.
“Your grandfather recorded everything.”
I took it.
“What everything?”
“Every transaction.”
“Every illegal adoption.”
“Every child moved through the network.”
My stomach turned.
This wasn't simply a family secret.
It was an operation.
Aleric stared at his uncle.
“How many children?”
Graham whispered:
“Twenty-seven.”
Then police sirens sounded outside.
But Graham smiled.
May you like
Because someone had already called them.
And the officers arriving weren't there to protect us.
