CHAPTER 10 — The Investigation Begins
The photograph refused to leave Ethan's mind.
A little girl.
A little boy.
A faded playground.
And six handwritten words on the back.
Protect Liam... no matter what happens to me.
For several minutes, he simply stared at it.
Nathan finally broke the silence.
"Who's Liam?"
Ethan carefully slipped the photograph back into the file.
"I think..."
"...he's Elena's younger brother."
Nathan frowned.
"The one she was trying to save?"
Ethan nodded.
"If he's still alive..."
"...he may know who Elena really was before Victor found her."
The next morning...
Detective Sarah Collins arrived at Ethan's office carrying three thick evidence boxes.
She placed them on the conference table.
"We've processed everything recovered from Apartment 17."
Ethan looked at the boxes.
"So it's official?"
Sarah nodded.
"This is no longer a fraud investigation."
Nathan looked up.
"What is it now?"
Sarah answered without hesitation.
"Organized crime."
She opened the first evidence box.
Inside were dozens of forged birth certificates.
Marriage licenses.
Medical records.
Death certificates.
Every document looked authentic.
Every one was fake.
Sarah pulled out a chart.
"We've identified twenty-three active identities."
She placed another sheet beside it.
"But we believe there are more."
Nathan slowly sat down.
"This has been happening for years..."
Sarah looked at him.
"More than twenty years."
The second box contained financial records.
Wire transfers.
Offshore accounts.
Shell companies.
One company appeared repeatedly.
Silver Crest Consulting.
Ethan recognized the name immediately.
"It appeared in Victor's files."
Sarah nodded.
"It doesn't exist."
"What do you mean?"
"It has no employees."
"No office."
"No registered operations."
"But somehow..."
"...over three hundred million dollars have flowed through it."
Nathan stared in disbelief.
"Three hundred million?"
Sarah answered quietly.
"And that's only what we've found."
Meanwhile...
Victor Hale sat inside a private office overlooking the harbor.
He wasn't alone.
Across from him sat a man whose face remained hidden in shadow.
Victor placed a newspaper on the desk.
The front-page headline read:
FAKE PREGNANCY SCANDAL EXPOSES MASSIVE FRAUD NETWORK
The man didn't even look at it.
"You failed."
Victor remained calm.
"Elena became emotional."
"You trained her."
"I underestimated Nathan."
Silence filled the room.
Finally...
The man spoke again.
"Ethan Bennett is becoming a problem."
Victor nodded.
"I'll handle him."
The man slowly shook his head.
"No."
"You've already failed once."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"What do you want me to do?"
The answer came without hesitation.
"Bring me Liam."
Victor looked genuinely surprised.
"You found him?"
The man smiled faintly.
"We never lost him."
Across town...
Ethan and Detective Collins visited the state adoption archives.
Old paper records filled endless shelves.
After hours of searching...
A clerk finally found Liam Brooks' file.
Sarah opened it.
The first page confirmed his identity.
Liam Brooks
Age: 10 at time of placement.
Status:
Transferred to Foster Care.
Nathan frowned.
"So he survived."
Sarah kept reading.
Then her expression changed.
"What?"
She slowly looked up.
"He wasn't adopted."
"Where did he go?"
Sarah swallowed.
"The records end here."
Ethan frowned.
"What do you mean they end?"
"The last entry simply says..."
Transferred by Special Authorization.
"No destination."
"No foster family."
"No signature."
Someone had erased the rest.
Nathan leaned against the table.
"They took him."
Ethan nodded slowly.
"I think so."
Sarah closed the file.
"If Victor wanted Elena under control..."
"Liam was the perfect leverage."
Back at police headquarters...
Digital forensic analysts finally unlocked several encrypted hard drives recovered from Apartment 17.
Folders appeared one after another.
Every folder represented another operation.
Target profiles.
Financial reports.
Psychological evaluations.
Then...
One file stood out.
DIRECTOR
The room fell silent.
Sarah immediately opened it.
Empty.
Only one document remained.
A scanned note.
It contained just one sentence.
No one meets the Director twice.
Nathan quietly whispered,
"Who is he?"
No one answered.
Because no one knew.
That evening...
Nathan returned to the mansion.
The nursery door remained closed.
He hadn't entered since the night everything fell apart.
As he walked past it...
He stopped.
Slowly opened the door.
The room was exactly the same.
The tiny shoes.
The crib.
The stuffed elephant.
He picked up the elephant and hugged it tightly.
For the first time since discovering the truth...
He cried.
Not because Vanessa had lied.
But because he had already loved a child who had never existed.
Across the city...
Elena sat alone inside a motel room.
Victor had disappeared again.
She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror.
Without makeup.
Without expensive clothes.
Without the fake pregnancy.
She barely recognized the woman staring back.
She whispered,
"My name is Elena."
The words felt unfamiliar.
For years...
She had answered only to Vanessa.
She had almost forgotten who she really was.
Her phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
She answered cautiously.
"Hello?"
A young man's voice spoke.
Very quietly.
"Is this..."
"...Elena?"
She froze.
Every muscle in her body locked.
Only one person had ever called her that.
"Liam?"
Silence.
Then...
The line disconnected.
Elena stared at the phone.
Her little brother was alive.
At the exact same moment...
Across the city...
A black SUV stopped outside the motel.
Two men stepped out.
Neither wore masks.
Neither hurried.
One of them spoke into an earpiece.
"We've located Subject Nineteen."
The reply came instantly.
"Don't move until the Director arrives."
Inside the motel...
Elena looked out through the curtains.
She saw the men.
Her face turned white.
"They found me..."
She grabbed the photograph of herself and Liam.
May you like
Then quietly slipped out the back door...
Just seconds before the men reached her room.
