CHAPTER 24 : The Blackwood Key
The bullet had struck Emily’s shoulder.
She survived.
Price escaped during the collapse, but Judge Wren was seen leaving the mountain in a medical helicopter registered to a private children’s foundation.
Federal authorities issued warrants.
By the end of the day, Wren had disappeared.
Emily remained under guard at the hospital.
DNA testing confirmed what the photograph suggested.
Laura Blackwood was her biological mother.
Ethan sat beside Emily’s bed when Olivia delivered the result.
“Laura was seventeen when you were born,” Olivia explained. “Her family arranged a sealed adoption. The official records were replaced six months later.”
“Why didn’t she tell him?” Emily asked, looking at Ethan.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said honestly.
Emily turned away.
“Maybe she was ashamed.”
“No.”
“You can’t know that.”
Ethan placed the broken pendant on the bedside table.
“She searched for you. She carried your photograph. She risked her life investigating Northstar.”
“She found me and still left.”
“She may have been trying to protect you.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“That’s what adults say when children are abandoned.”
Sophie stood in the doorway.
“She left me too.”
Emily looked at her.
“She died.”
“It still felt like she left.”
Sophie walked to the bed.
“For a long time, I thought if I had done something differently, she would still be here.”
“You were a baby.”
“And you were a baby too.”
Emily’s expression softened.
Sophie placed Laura’s photograph between them.
“Maybe we should find out what really happened before we decide what she wanted.”
The metal key led them to a private vault beneath Blackwood National Bank.
The vault had been created in Laura’s name eighteen years earlier.
Ethan, Sophie, Emily, Olivia, and federal investigators entered together.
Inside stood a single black case.
Laura had placed several letters inside.
One was addressed to Emily.
One to Sophie.
One to Ethan.
Olivia insisted they examine the rest of the evidence before opening private letters.
The case contained a ledger documenting hundreds of secret payments.
The earliest transactions came from the Blackwood Children’s Trust.
Later payments came from the Vale family, Wren Family Advocacy, and companies connected to Senator Harrow.
At the back of the ledger was a list titled:
LIVING NORTHSTAR SUBJECTS.
Fourteen names appeared.
Emily was Subject Seven.
Noah was listed as Subject Forty-One.
“He was never officially part of Northstar,” Ethan said.
Olivia examined the ink.
“The entry was added recently.”
A telephone number had been written beside Noah’s name.
Sophie called it.
At first, there was only static.
Then Noah whispered, “Sophie?”
Everyone turned toward the phone.
“Noah, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie looked toward Marissa.
Noah had been at the hospital with his family an hour earlier.
Marissa immediately called the security officer guarding his room.
Noah’s bed was empty.
“When did they take you?” Sophie asked.
“I followed a nurse. She said Elsie needed me.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Can you see anything?”
“A school.”
“What school?”
“There’s a sign outside. Black Hollow Academy.”
Emily sat upright.
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You know it?”
Emily’s breathing quickened.
“That’s where they trained the replacements.”
Noah whispered again.
“There are children here.”
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“Can you get out?”
“No. The windows don’t open.”
A door creaked on Noah’s side of the call.
His voice became urgent.
“They know I took the phone.”
“Hide it,” Sophie said.
“No. You need to hear this.”
Footsteps approached him.
Noah lowered his voice.
“The man in charge isn’t Judge Wren.”
“Who is it?”
“He has pictures of the center.”
The footsteps stopped.
“And he has a photograph of your dad.”
The call ended.
A second later, Ethan received a text from Noah’s number.
It contained a photograph taken inside Black Hollow Academy.
A wall displayed portraits of Northstar’s founders.
Victor Vale.
May you like
Elias Wren.
And Ethan’s grandfather.
