Chapter 14 - The Silver Heart's Secret
|
My mother lowered her hands slowly, her eyes filled with profound sadness.
"I am Evelyn Bennett, Ava," she said softly. "I am the woman who carried you, who sang to you, and who spent twenty-four years hiding in the shadows so Senator Collins wouldn't kill you to get to me."
"You left me!" I screamed, the pain of my childhood bursting through my composure. "You left me alone! Do you have any idea what my life was like? Do you know what Andrew Vaughn did to me because he thought I had your secrets?!"
Evelyn winced as if I had struck her. "I know, my baby... I know. Andrew’s father forced you into that engagement because they knew Charles Carter left half the master ledger with me, and the other half with Ethan."
"Where is it?" I asked, stepping closer to the altar. "Where is the evidence that can clear Ethan and put Andrew in prison forever?"
Evelyn reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, faded silver paper heart—the exact same ornament from the projector film.
"Inside this heart is a micro-film strip containing every transaction, every illegal medical trial, and every bribe paid by Senator Collins and Dr. Andrew Vaughn over the last thirty years," Evelyn explained. "I slipped it into Ethan’s childhood memory box the night of the fire."
Suddenly, the heavy front doors of the church slammed shut with a booming echo.
Footsteps approached from the shadows of the side aisles.
Ethan Carter walked out into the flickering candlelight. His tuxedo jacket was gone, his white shirt stained with dirt and grease, his wrists showing red marks from where he had broken out of police custody.
Behind him stood Lena, bleeding slightly from a cut on her forehead, but alive.
"Ethan!" I cried, running toward him.
He caught me in his arms, wrapping his strong hands around my waist, burying his face in my hair for one brief, intoxicating second. "I'm here, Ava. I'm okay."
"How did you get out?" I asked.
"Lena hijacked the transport van," Ethan said, pulling back to look at me, his eyes searching my face for injuries. "We tracked your phone here."
Evelyn stepped forward, holding out the silver heart toward Ethan. "Ethan... you need to open your father's safe at Carter Estate. The key Ava holds unlocks the secondary compartment where your childhood memory box is kept."
Ethan stared at the silver heart, then at my mother.
"There's just one problem, Mrs. Bennett," Ethan said quietly.
"What's that?"
Ethan pulled out his phone and played an incoming video message he had received three minutes ago.
May you like
The screen showed Dr. Andrew Vaughn sitting in an elegant penthouse room, holding a glass of scotch. Sitting beside him, smiling smoothly at the camera, was a woman who looked exactly like my mother—wearing an identical grey coat, holding an identical silver paper heart.
"Hello, Ethan," the woman in the video said smoothly. "Tell Ava her mother lied. There were two twins born to the Bennett family... and you're talking to the wrong one."
