Victoria slipped.
Michael caught her.
"Aunt Victoria?"
She looked at him.
"You know who I am?"
"Mom showed me pictures."
Victoria's heart broke.
"She talked about me?"
"All the time."
"What did she say?"
Michael smiled sadly.
"She said you were the sister she never stopped waiting for."
Victoria began crying.
Michael pulled her into a brief embrace.
Then they heard another shot.
"Move!"
They ran.
Marcus appeared from behind the church.
"Get in the car!"
They piled inside.
The vehicle accelerated.
Lucy looked back.
The church disappeared behind the rain.
"Where is Edward?"
Marcus shook his head.
"We don't know."
Victoria stared through the window.
"He's not working alone."
Michael looked at her.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because Edward isn't the one who knows everything."
"Who does?"
Michael's expression hardened.
"My mother."
Victoria turned.
"Anna?"
Michael nodded.
Victoria stared.
"Anna is dead."
Michael shook his head.
"No."
The car went silent.
"What?"
Michael looked at Lucy.
"Mom died."
Then he looked at Victoria.
"But the woman you buried wasn't Anna."
Victoria stopped breathing.
"What are you saying?"
Michael pulled a photograph from his pocket.
He placed it on the dashboard.
It showed Anna.
Alive.
Older.
Standing beside a grave.
Victoria stared at the date.
Six months after the supposed death.
Then she saw the woman beside her.
It was the same woman from the photograph.
The woman they believed was Lily.
Victoria whispered,
"Then who died?"
Michael answered:
"Someone who looked exactly like Mom."
Lucy began shaking.
"Where is my mother?"
Michael looked at her.
"Alive."
Victoria closed her eyes.
For twenty-eight years, she had mourned a sister who might never have died.
For years, Lucy had believed her mother was gone.
And now, somewhere in the world, Anna was alive.
Waiting.
Hiding.
Or perhaps running.
The car sped through the rain.
Then Michael said something that made Victoria's blood run cold.
"Mom didn't send me to find you."
Victoria looked at him.
"Who did?"
Michael reached into his coat.
He pulled out a letter.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Anna's.
But the date was yesterday.
Victoria stared at the page.
Only one sentence was written.
If my children are finally together, tell them the truth about their father.
Victoria's hands trembled.
"Daniel?"
Michael shook his head.
"No."
He looked at Lucy.
"Not our father."
Then he looked at Victoria.
"Your father."
Victoria stared.
"My father?"
Michael nodded.
"Richard Hale didn't kill Daniel."
Lucy whispered,
"Then who did?"
Michael folded the letter.
"The man who was standing beside him."
Victoria remembered the photograph.
Her grandfather's business partner.
The family lawyer.
The man who had disappeared.
The man whose name had been erased from every document.
Jonathan Hale.
Michael looked out into the darkness.
"Your uncle didn't disappear."
Victoria's heart stopped.
"He became someone else."
"Who?"
Michael looked at her.
"The man living across the road."
By the time they returned to Hale House, the cottage was on fire.
Flames climbed through the roof.
Firefighters surrounded the property.
Victoria stood in the rain.
She watched the place where Jonathan had lived for decades disappear.
Then she saw something.
A figure standing behind the smoke.
An elderly man.
Jonathan.
He looked directly at Victoria.
Then he smiled.
Not a smile of fear.
Not a smile of surrender.
A smile of relief.
He raised one hand.
In it was a silver locket.
The third half.
Victoria's heart stopped.
Three pieces.
Three children.
Three secrets.
Jonathan turned.
Then disappeared into the smoke.
Lucy stepped beside Victoria.
"He's gone."
Michael shook his head.
"No."
Victoria looked at him.
"He wanted us to see that."
"See what?"
Michael pointed toward the burning cottage.
"The fire isn't destroying evidence."
Victoria's eyes narrowed.
"What is it doing?"
Michael looked at the flames.
"It's opening the last door."
And beneath the roar of the fire, somewhere under the earth, a hidden mechanism clicked.
A section of the ground behind the cottage moved.
A dark staircase appeared.
Victoria stared.
Lucy whispered,
"What's down there?"
Michael answered:
"Everything they thought we'd never find."
Then the three of them stepped toward the opening.
For the first time, the three children of Anna Mercer were standing together.
And beneath the ashes of the past waited a secret that had been buried for more than half a century.
A secret that could destroy the Hale family forever.
Or finally set them free.
The staircase seemed to descend forever.
Victoria counted thirty-seven steps before the air changed.
The smell of smoke disappeared.
The sound of the fire above them became distant.
The walls around them were made of old stone, much older than the cottage that had stood above them.
Lucy followed closely behind Michael.
Victoria came last.
She kept one hand against the wall.
The stones were cold.
Wet.
Somewhere below, water was dripping.
Drop.
Drop.
Drop.
The sound echoed through the darkness.
"How old is this place?" Lucy whispered.
Michael shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You've been here before?"
"Once."
"When?"
"Two years ago."
Victoria stopped.
"You knew this was here?"
Michael turned.
"Not all of it."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I wasn't sure what I had seen."
"What did you see?"
Michael looked toward the darkness.
"People."
Victoria frowned.
"What people?"
"Photographs."
He continued down.
"There were hundreds."
At the bottom, the staircase opened into a long underground corridor.
There were doors on both sides.
Some had numbers.
Others had names.
Lucy walked toward the nearest door.
MERCER.
She froze.
"That's our name."
Victoria moved beside her.
The door was locked.
Michael pulled out the third piece of the locket.
He pressed it against the lock.
Nothing happened.
Then he turned it.
A metallic click echoed through the corridor.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
Old newspapers.
Medical records.
Birth certificates.
Death certificates.
And on the wall were photographs.
Dozens of them.
Anna.
Daniel.
Victoria.
Eleanor.
Richard Hale.
Jonathan.
Briggs.
And people Victoria had never seen before.
Lucy stared.
"They were watching all of us."
Michael nodded.
"For decades."