Chapter 5 - THE KING WHO NEVER DIED:
Adrian’s father, King Alexander Vale, had died sixteen years earlier.
At least that was what Adrian had been told.
Alexander had collapsed during a hunting trip.
The royal physician declared the cause of death to be a massive heart attack.
His coffin remained closed during the funeral because of alleged injuries sustained during the fall.
Adrian had stood beside Eleanor while the nation mourned.
Now Miriam Cole claimed Alexander’s name appeared among the victims of Project Nightfall.
“That is impossible,” Adrian said.
“Sebastian needed the world to believe it was impossible,” Miriam replied.
“Did Eleanor see my father?”
“No.”
“Then how did she know?”
“She found intake files.”
Miriam agreed to meet Adrian at an abandoned church outside the capital.
He left Lily at the Vale estate under heavy protection.
She protested until Adrian promised to call every hour.
Victoria traveled with him.
Her knowledge of Sebastian’s network made her useful, though Adrian still did not trust her.
Miriam arrived wearing a hooded coat.
She was a neurologist in her late fifties.
For thirteen years, she had worked inside Blackwater Hospital.
She handed Adrian a folder.
Inside were copies of medical files.
The patients had been identified by numbers rather than names.
Drugs were used to destroy memory.
Electroconvulsive treatments were administered without consent.
Some prisoners forgot their families.
Others forgot their own identities.
“Sebastian did not need to kill influential people,” Miriam explained.
“He made them disappear inside their own minds.”
She showed Adrian Patient Seven’s record.
The age matched King Alexander.
The admission date was three days before his supposed death.
The patient had a scar beneath his left knee.
Alexander had received the same scar during military service.
“How long did he survive?” Adrian asked.
“The record continues for twelve years.”
Adrian’s knees weakened.
His father had lived in captivity while the family believed he was buried beneath the royal chapel.
“Where is Patient Seven now?”
“The final transfer order is missing.”
Victoria examined the signature on the file.
“It belongs to my father.”
Adrian’s grief turned to rage.
“Why would Sebastian remove the king?”
Miriam looked at Victoria.
“Because Alexander discovered the relief money was being stolen.”
Victoria sank into a pew.
Her father had not merely manipulated the monarchy.
He had imprisoned its king.
Miriam removed another file.
Patient Thirty-One.
Eleanor Vale.
“She was admitted after the yacht explosion,” Miriam said.
“I supervised part of her treatment.”
Adrian stepped toward her.
“You tortured my sister?”
“I followed orders.”
“You destroyed her memory.”
“I tried to reduce the dosage.”
“That does not make you innocent.”
“No.”
Miriam did not defend herself.
“I have spent eleven years knowing what I did.”
“Why did you finally help her?”
“She remembered Lily.”
Miriam explained that Eleanor had been held intermittently.
She escaped twice.
After Lily was born, Sebastian allowed Eleanor to live outside the facility under surveillance.
He wanted her to lead him to Daniel’s evidence.
Eleanor pretended her memory was more damaged than it truly was.
She secretly raised Lily while collecting proof.
Six months earlier, she returned to Blackwater looking for Daniel.
Miriam helped her escape.
Sebastian captured Eleanor again near the northern border.
“Is Daniel alive?” Adrian asked.
“I saw him three years ago.”
Lily’s father had survived.
He had been imprisoned longer than Eleanor.
His memory was severely fragmented.
He remembered only a song and the name Lily.
Adrian looked toward the church windows.
He had to tell a little girl that both parents might be alive but trapped inside a system built to erase them.
Miriam handed him a brass key.
“Eleanor gave me this.”
“What does it open?”
“A private chamber beneath the royal chapel.”
“Why?”
“She believed your father hid evidence there before he was taken.”
Victoria stood.
“The chapel is beneath the Winter Palace.”
Adrian understood.
Sebastian had ordered them to come to the palace because he knew the evidence and the royal prisoners were connected.
His phone vibrated.
Lily was calling.
He answered immediately.
“Are you all right?”
A man spoke instead.
“Mr. Vale, this is Officer Grant from the protective unit.”
Adrian recognized the name.
“What happened?”
“Someone attempted to enter the estate using forged child welfare documents.”
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
Adrian heard Lily in the background.
Then a loud explosion shook the call.
The line went dead.
Adrian ran from the church.
He called Marcus Reed.
No answer.
He called the estate.
No answer.
As his car raced through the city, smoke appeared above the hills.
The western wing of the Vale estate was burning.
Adrian reached the gates and found emergency vehicles surrounding the property.
He ran toward the house.
“Lily!”
Marcus emerged through the smoke.
Blood stained his sleeve.
“She escaped through the garden tunnel.”
“With whom?”
“The housekeeper.”
“Where are they?”
Marcus looked toward the forest.
“They never reached the safe house.”
Adrian’s phone rang again.
A live video opened.
Lily stood inside a stone chamber.
Her hands were not bound.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
Behind her, Charles Ashbourne remained tied to the chair.
Sebastian stepped into view.
“Midnight is no longer convenient,” he said.
Adrian gripped the phone.
“If you touch her—”
“I have no intention of harming royal blood.”
“Let Lily go.”
“Bring the diary, both hairpins, and Miriam Cole to the Winter Palace.”
“You already have the third hairpin.”
Sebastian smiled.
“The third hairpin was empty.”
Adrian looked at Miriam.
She appeared equally shocked.
Sebastian continued.
“Eleanor knew the woman from the orphanage would betray her.”
He turned toward Lily.
“Your clever sister placed the final list somewhere no one would search.”
Lily’s face changed.
She knew where it was.
Sebastian noticed.
“So does the child.”
Adrian’s heart stopped.
May you like
Sebastian placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder.
“Ask your niece what her mother sewed into the hem of her yellow dress”:
