CHAPTER 15 The Hidden Confession
CHAPTER 15
The Hidden Confession
The old photograph lay on the table.
No one reached for it.
No one dared.
Khloe stared at the scratched-out face behind Jonathan Cole.
Whoever that person was...
They had survived twenty-three years without leaving a trace.
Victor carefully picked up the picture.
His hands trembled.
"I remember this day."
Gabriel looked over his shoulder.
"It was taken after the founders signed the final succession agreement."
Richard frowned.
"There were only supposed to be four people there."
Victor nodded.
"Exactly."
"Which means..."
"...someone erased the fifth founder from history."
Naomi enlarged the photograph on her tablet.
"The face is gone."
"But the reflection isn't."
Everyone leaned closer.
The polished window behind the group reflected part of the mysterious person's profile.
Only half a face remained.
A scar stretched from the temple to the jaw.
Gabriel suddenly froze.
"I've seen that scar."
Victor turned sharply.
"Where?"
Gabriel closed his eyes, searching his memory.
"The night Jonathan died."
"There was another man inside the warehouse."
"I thought he was one of Edward's guards."
"He wasn't."
Richard looked at the silver raven cufflink in the photograph.
"My father owned one just like that."
Victor shook his head.
"No."
"Every senior member of the Black Raven Society carried one."
"It wasn't jewelry."
"It was rank."
Suddenly, Naomi's laptop emitted a loud tone.
"I found something."
She projected the image onto the wall.
A digitized copy of Jonathan's financial ledger had unlocked automatically after the archive recognized Khloe's DNA.
One page was highlighted in red.
At the bottom appeared a handwritten note.
If my daughter ever reaches this page...
Do not trust anyone who claims they were trying to protect me.
Silence swept through the room.
Everyone instinctively looked at Victor.
He didn't flinch.
"I expected that."
Khloe's eyes narrowed.
"You expected my father to accuse you?"
Victor answered quietly.
"No."
"I expected him to test you."
Before Khloe could respond, another hidden page appeared beneath the first.
Naomi gasped.
"The document is still decrypting."
Letters slowly formed across the screen.
The man who betrayed me carries the Raven...
The sentence stopped.
Half the file was corrupted.
Richard slammed his fist against the table.
"So close!"
Naomi kept working.
"The rest is encrypted."
Victor looked at the monitor.
"I know that encryption."
"Jonathan created only one key."
Khloe whispered,
"Where is it?"
Victor looked directly at her.
"He never carried it."
"He hid it inside something no one would ever destroy."
Dr. Elena Brooks suddenly remembered something.
"The nursery."
Everyone turned.
"When Hope was born..."
"You insisted on keeping the knitted baby blanket Jonathan made before he disappeared."
Khloe frowned.
"My father made that blanket?"
Victor nodded.
"He wasn't good with knitting."
"He hid things inside fabric."
Naomi's eyes widened.
"The encryption key..."
"...is sewn into Hope's blanket."
The room fell silent.
Hope's pink blanket.
The one Edward Harrington now possessed.
He hadn't kidnapped Hope for money.
He hadn't kidnapped her for leverage.
He had unknowingly taken the final key Jonathan had hidden twenty-three years earlier.
The security monitors suddenly came back to life.
Edward Harrington appeared again.
This time, he wasn't speaking to Khloe.
He was examining Hope's blanket.
Almost as if he had begun to suspect its importance.
Vanessa stood nearby, watching nervously.
Edward ran his fingers across the blanket's stitched border.
Then he paused.
His expression changed.
He had felt something hidden inside the fabric.
Khloe's heart stopped.
"He knows."
Victor whispered,
"No..."
"He suspects."
Edward slowly reached for a pair of scissors resting on the table beside him.
"If he cuts that blanket open..."
Gabriel said.
"...he'll find Jonathan's final key."
The screen suddenly went black.
No signal.
No audio.
Only static.
Then an automated alert echoed through the archive.
Incoming transmission intercepted.
Source: Harrington Manor.
A terrified female voice broke through the speakers.
It was Vanessa.
"Khloe..."
"Please listen carefully."
"I made a terrible mistake."
"They're about to discover what's hidden inside Hope's blanket..."
May you like
"...and once they do..."
"...they're going to kill us both."
