Chapter 18 - THE MOTHER
We found my mother three days later.
She was waiting inside an abandoned church.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
I wanted to hate her.
Instead, I cried.
She held my face.
“You look just like me.”
“You left me.”
“I was trying to save you.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“If I told you the truth, they would have found you.”
“You could have trusted me.”
She closed her eyes.
“You were six.”
I stepped back.
“What happened?”
She told me everything.
Victor had murdered witnesses.
Bought judges.
Destroyed families.
My mother infiltrated his organization.
Then she discovered the truth about the Orchid Circle.
Victor wasn't the founder.
He was only the current leader.
The real founder was my grandfather.
I stared.
“My grandfather?”
She nodded.
“And your father helped us expose him.”
“Then why did everyone disappear?”
“Because the Circle retaliated.”
She reached into her coat.
A small key.
“This opens the final vault.”
“Where?”
“Your father's first company.”
I stared.
“It's been abandoned for twenty years.”
“Exactly.”
That night we entered the building.
Behind an old office was another vault.
Inside was one file.
ORCHID CIRCLE — SUCCESSION PLAN.
The first page named me.
The second named my sons.
The final page named the next leader.
I turned it over.
And froze.
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The name was:
JULIAN VANCE.
