Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WHO NEVER DIED
My mother had been dead for fifteen years.
I remembered the hospice bed.
The white roses.
Her hand growing cold in mine.
I remembered the funeral.
Yet the woman in the video was unmistakably Elena Harrington.
Older.
Thinner.
A silver scar crossed the left side of her face, but her eyes were the same.
“Abigail,” she said, “if Horizon has opened, then Christopher failed to complete his assignment, and William’s safeguards have begun.”
Daniel sat beside me in the federal command vehicle outside the cemetery.
His face reflected the same disbelief I felt.
My mother continued.
“My death was staged because Elias Voss ordered William to surrender control of the Harrington fund. We believed disappearing would protect our children. We were wrong.”
I stopped the video.
“Mom knew Voss?”
Daniel pointed toward the screen.
“Play it.”
I pressed the button.
“Elias Voss was born Alexander Harrington,” my mother said. “William’s older half brother.”
Our grandfather had never mentioned another son.
According to family history, William was an only child.
“Alexander was erased from the family after he was convicted of fraud in Europe. Your grandfather used money and political influence to hide the scandal. Alexander returned decades later under the name Elias Voss.”
My mother looked away from the camera, as if someone had entered the room.
“He built a network by collecting secrets. Affairs. Bribes. Addictions. Hidden children. He never needed to own powerful people. He only needed to own what they feared.”
Jackson.
Daniel’s secret son had made him vulnerable before he even knew the boy existed.
“William created Horizon to document Alexander’s network. But Alexander discovered the investigation. He arranged my false death, intending to use me as leverage.”
My hands clenched.
“Why didn’t she come home?” I whispered.
The video answered.
“I chose to remain hidden because Alexander had already placed someone close to Abigail. A young engineering student named Christopher Adams.”
I felt the betrayal all over again.
“Christopher was ordered to win her trust, marry her, and locate the Horizon key. We considered warning Abigail, but Alexander promised to kill Emily if we interfered.”
Emily had not even been born when Christopher met me.
Had they known she would exist?
Or had the threat come later?
My mother’s voice weakened.
“Christopher became unpredictable. He began protecting Abigail in ways Alexander had not authorized. He falsified reports about the key. He diverted surveillance. He accepted the arrangement with Madeline to keep Alexander focused on Jackson instead of Emily.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Christopher may have been trying to shield you.”
“He lied every day.”
“I didn’t say he was innocent.”
The video continued.
“Two weeks ago, Christopher contacted me. He said he had found a way to destroy Alexander’s network during the Sinclair merger. I did not trust him. Neither should you.”
A sound came from behind my mother.
She turned sharply.
The video glitched.
When the image returned, a man stood partly in frame.
His face remained hidden.
But his hand rested on my mother’s shoulder.
A distinctive signet ring gleamed on his finger.
Daniel froze the video.
“That ring belonged to Dad.”
The video ended.
Agent Keene scrolled through the Horizon directory.
Many files were encrypted separately.
One folder was labeled FAMILY.
Inside were profiles for each Harrington sibling.
Thomas’s file contained records of the appendix operation that kept him off the plane.
Daniel’s contained photographs of his night with Madeline.
Nathan’s file was marked CLASSIFIED.
Mine was the largest.
It included school reports, private journals, medical records, and recordings from inside my home.
Christopher had documented our marriage in detail.
But among the surveillance reports were messages he sent to Voss.
ABIGAIL HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF HORIZON.
EMILY IS NOT A VIABLE HEIR.
THE MARRIAGE IS UNSTABLE. CONTINUED SURVEILLANCE IS UNNECESSARY.
All were lies designed to make us appear useless.
Then I found a recording dated six months earlier.
Christopher’s voice spoke first.
“I did what you asked for nine years.”
The distorted voice of Elias Voss answered.
“You married her but failed to control her.”
“I gave you access to Harrington accounts.”
“Minor accounts.”
“I forged the documents.”
“And deliberately introduced errors Thomas would detect.”
Christopher was silent.
Voss continued.
“You hoped exposure would bring federal agents to the merger and free you from our arrangement.”
“I hoped it would end this.”
“It will end when Abigail gives us Horizon.”
“She doesn’t know where it is.”
“Then we begin with the daughter.”
Christopher’s chair scraped.
“If you touch Emily, I release everything.”
Voss laughed.
“You have nothing.”
“I know who survived the plane.”
The recording ended.
Agent Keene received a call from the officers transporting Christopher.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?”
She listened for several seconds.
“Lock down every hospital and airport.”
She ended the call.
“Christopher’s transport vehicle was struck by a truck on Interstate 35. Two agents are injured.”
“And Christopher?”
“Gone.”
My phone buzzed.
A video call request appeared from Christopher.
Keene activated a trace before I answered.
His face filled the screen.
Blood covered his forehead.
He appeared to be inside a moving vehicle.
“Is Emily safe?” he asked.
“No thanks to you.”
“Abigail, listen carefully. Your mother is alive, but the woman in that video is not telling you everything.”
“Where are you?”
“I was taken.”
“By whom?”
Christopher looked toward someone outside the camera.
“By your brother.”
“Which brother?”
The phone shifted.
A second face entered the frame.
Nathan Harrington.
My second brother.
The former federal prosecutor.
The man my father’s letter told me to trust with my life.
Nathan looked directly at me.
“Abby, do not give the Horizon files to the FBI.”
Agent Keene stiffened.
Nathan continued.
“Mara Keene works for Elias Voss.”
The call ended.
May you like
Every agent in the vehicle turned toward Keene.
She slowly reached for her weapon.
