CHAPTER 14 — THE VAULT
Gabriel, Marcus, and Khloe’s attorney entered the underground vault beneath Thorne Tower.
Khloe remained at the hospital, watching through a secure video connection.
Marcus used his father’s key.
The steel door opened with a heavy click.
Inside were rows of files, photographs, and sealed evidence boxes.
The oldest records dated back thirty years.
Gabriel opened the first box.
It contained financial transfers between Daniel Cole—Khloe’s father—and the Thorne Corporation.
The documents proved Daniel had funded the company when it was close to collapse.
In return, he received controlling shares.
Shares later inherited by Khloe.
Marcus opened another file.
Inside was a photograph of Evelyn Thorne standing beside Khloe’s mother.
They were not enemies.
They were smiling.
On the back, someone had written:
CELESTE AND EVELYN — SISTERS BY CHOICE.
Khloe stared at the screen.
“My mother trusted her.”
Gabriel opened a third box.
It contained a baby bracelet.
The label read:
THORNE, FEMALE — BORN MAY 14
The birth date was four years before Khloe was born.
Marcus frowned.
“My parents never had a daughter.”
Gabriel picked up a hospital record.
The mother’s name had been removed.
The father was listed as Alexander Thorne—Marcus’s father.
Khloe felt cold.
“Marcus had a sister.”
“I would have known,” Marcus said.
“Perhaps that was the point,” Gabriel replied.
At the bottom of the box lay a photograph of an infant wrapped in a red blanket.
A woman’s hand held the child.
A white scar crossed the back of that hand.
Celeste Cole had been holding the baby.
Khloe moved closer to the monitor.
“There’s writing on the blanket.”
Gabriel enlarged the image.
Three words were embroidered into the fabric.
FOR THE TRUE HEIR.
Suddenly, the vault door began closing.
Someone had activated the security system from outside.
Marcus rushed toward it.
They were trapped underground.
And the oxygen warning light turned red.
CHAPTER 15 — ELAINE WAKES UP
Elaine woke in the intensive care unit.
Her ribs were fractured, her left arm was broken, and stitches crossed her forehead.
A police detective sat beside her.
“Do you remember the crash?”
“My brakes failed.”
“We confirmed the brake line was cut.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“My memory card?”
“Safe.”
She relaxed slightly.
Then she remembered something.
“There was another camera.”
The detective leaned closer.
“What camera?”
“At the gala. The event photographer placed a miniature camera near the private elevators.”
“Why?”
“To capture celebrities arriving without disturbing them.”
“Did it record Evelyn Thorne?”
Elaine shook her head.
“It recorded the woman with the veil.”
The footage was recovered from the photographer’s equipment.
A woman wearing a black evening gown and silver veil entered the private elevator shortly before the attack.
Her face was hidden.
But as the doors closed, she removed one glove.
A white scar crossed her hand.
She carried a hospital access badge belonging to a woman named Dr. Lillian Vale.
Gabriel’s staff searched the name.
Dr. Vale had worked at the hospital nineteen years earlier.
She had signed Celeste Cole’s death certificate.
She had disappeared the next day.
Khloe listened from her secured room.
“Find her.”
A detective looked uncomfortable.
“We did.”
“Where?”
“According to federal records, Lillian Vale died twelve years ago.”
Khloe stared at the paused image.
The woman in the elevator was not elderly.
She appeared to be in her forties.
The age Celeste would have been when she supposedly died.
Dr. Reed entered suddenly.
“Khloe, we have another problem.”
She held a laboratory report.
The drug in the abandoned syringe contained a rare chemical marker.
It came from one place.
May you like
The private Thorne fertility clinic.
The same clinic that had produced the false paternity report.
