Lucian read it over my shoulder.

“She had a gift for compliments.”

I opened the letter.

Dela,

If you find this, something went wrong.

My eyes blurred.

I kept reading.

Do not trust hospital administration simply because they wear clean suits. Do not trust Lucian simply because he keeps his promises. Trust evidence.

Lucian murmured, “Also very flattering.”

I elbowed him without thinking.

He almost smiled.

Then I reached the final paragraph.

Most importantly, protect Noah. None of this began with medicine. It began with him.

I stopped.

“What does that mean?”

Lucian did not answer.

I read the next line.

If anyone learns who Noah’s father really is, everything starts again.

My heart slammed.

Noah’s father?

My mother had always said Noah’s father had disappeared before he was born.

A mechanic named Daniel Reyes.

I looked at Lucian.

His face had gone completely still.

“You know.”

“No.”

“You reacted.”

“Because I recognize the name on the next line.”

I looked down.

Beneath my mother’s handwriting was another sentence.

His real name is Dominic Rainer.

The corridor seemed to move.

“No.”

Lucian reached for me.

I stepped back.

“No.”

“Dela.”

“Noah’s father is the man who killed our mother?”

“We don’t know that he killed her.”

“You said you believed—”

“I said Rainer ordered it.”

“That is the same thing!”

My voice echoed through the station.

People turned.

I lowered it.

“My brother is his son?”

Lucian’s jaw tightened.

“If Elena was correct.”

“She would not write it unless she was.”

I thought of Noah.

His dark eyes.

His asthma.

His questions about his father.

The family tree project I had helped him fake last year.

My mother had lied.

For years.

To protect him.

The flash drive suddenly felt heavy in my hand.

Lucian looked toward it.

“That may tell us why.”

We returned to one of his offices near the harbor.

No logos.

No names.

Just dark wood, security cameras, and men who moved too quietly.

Adrian connected the flash drive to an isolated computer.

Folders appeared.

Hospital inventory.

Photos.

Shipping manifests.

Names.

Payments.

Then one folder labeled:

N.R.

Noah Rainer.

I almost stopped breathing.

Inside were documents dating from before Noah’s birth.

Dominic Rainer had apparently been using a false identity when he met my mother.

She discovered who he was while already pregnant.

She disappeared for several months.

Changed addresses.

Returned after Noah was born.

There was one audio file.

My mother’s voice.

I clicked it.

“If Dominic finds out I kept the baby, he will come for him. Not because he loves him. Because men like Dominic turn blood into ownership.”

I covered my mouth.

The recording continued.

“Lucian promised he would help if Dominic returned.”

I looked at him.

“You knew Noah was Rainer’s son?”

Lucian’s eyes stayed on the computer.

“I suspected.”

“For how long?”

“Four years.”

“And you never told me?”

“Elena asked me not to.”

“She’s dead!”

“Yes.”

His voice cracked on the word.

The first visible emotion I had seen from him.

Then Adrian interrupted.

“There’s another file.”

A video.

Timestamped three days before my mother’s death.

She sat inside her car.

Terrified.

“If you’re watching this, Dominic found me.”

I gripped the desk.

“He knows about Noah.”

The video shook.

“He has someone inside Mercy County. Someone high enough to access staff addresses and patient records.”

My eyes moved toward the hospital access logs.

Marcus Bell.

Then Mom said something that made Lucian step toward the screen.

“I was wrong about who it is.”

A noise sounded outside her car.

She turned.

The video blurred.

Before ending, she whispered one final sentence.

“The man helping Dominic isn’t Bell.”

The recording stopped.

Silence filled the office.

Adrian looked at Lucian.

I stared at the black screen.

If not Bell, then who?

Then the office phone rang.

Adrian answered.

His expression changed.

“Mr. Vale.”

“What?”

“Security intercepted someone downstairs.”

“Who?”

Adrian swallowed.

“A man asking for Dela.”

Every guard in the room moved.

Lucian reached beneath his jacket.

I whispered, “Who is it?”

Adrian looked directly at me.

“He says his name is Dominic Rainer.”

Then he added:

“And he says he wants to meet his son.”

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