CHAPTER 26 — ADRIAN’S RETURN
Federal agencies began a nationwide search for Adrian.
His disappearance was not announced publicly.
Officials feared panic among witnesses.
Every woman at the foundation was offered relocation.
Most refused.
“We spent years running,” one survivor said. “We are not giving him this house again.”
Evelyn increased security but would not close the foundation.
Gabriel disagreed.
“They will come here.”
“Then we will be ready.”
“You don’t understand what Adrian becomes if the Ninth Covenant has him.”
“He becomes the same man he always was.”
“No.”
Gabriel placed the Registry pages on the table.
“Adrian believed he inherited power. He never knew his entire life had been constructed to prepare him for something.”
“What?”
“Subject Nine.”
Evelyn examined Adrian’s childhood history.
There were missing medical records.
Private tutors with Covenant connections.
Several unexplained months spent abroad.
His mother Helena had taken him to the same Hartford clinic where Mara believed children had been reassigned.
“Adrian is Subject Nine?” Leah asked.
Gabriel shook his head.
“The dates do not match.”
That evening, Rosa discovered a foundation vehicle missing from the garage.
The electronic records showed that Leah had signed it out.
Leah denied doing so.
Her digital signature had been copied.
The vehicle was found outside a closed hospital forty miles away.
Inside were Mara’s suitcase and one of Katherine’s videotapes.
The tape showed Katherine speaking to an unseen person.
“They will tell you Evelyn is your enemy,” she said. “They will tell you the house belongs to you. They will use Adrian to provoke you, because they know he cannot accept being second.”
Katherine leaned closer to the camera.
“You must remember that blood does not decide who becomes family.”
The image distorted.
Then another voice spoke.
A child’s voice.
“Will Evelyn remember me?”
Katherine answered softly.
“No. They made sure she wouldn’t.”
The camera shifted for one second.
A young boy sat across from Katherine.
He was not Gabriel.
The child had pale hair and a narrow scar above his right eyebrow.
Victor paused the recording.
“I know that boy.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“He lived with us for nearly a year.”
Evelyn searched her memory.
“I never had another child in the house.”
“You were six,” Victor said. “His name was Julian. Katherine said he was the son of a distant relative.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared the same week your mother died.”
Rosa entered holding an old staff photograph.
Fourteen employees stood outside the mansion.
A six-year-old Evelyn stood near Katherine.
Beside Evelyn was the pale-haired boy.
On the far edge of the photograph stood a young Adrian Vale.
The scar above Adrian’s eyebrow was clearly visible.
Evelyn looked from the photograph to Victor.
“That is Adrian.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
Evelyn pointed to the boy beside her younger self.
“Then who was living in this house wearing Adrian’s face?”
