The Records Beneath the Chapel
Chapter 05 - The Records Beneath the Chapel
St. Agnes had been converted into a community center, but the chapel remained. Sister Helen waited inside, older than Olivia remembered from charity photographs, with a ring of keys at her waist.
She led Olivia, Emma, Daniel, and a detective named Mara Ruiz beneath the altar to a basement archive. There, inside a waterproof container, were intake forms, photographs, and a handwritten statement Sister Helen had never been brave enough to send.
The statement described the night after the Hart House fire. Vivian arrived with a sedated child and documents claiming the girl was an unidentified relative whose parents had died. Martin delivered a large donation and instructed the staff not to contact police.
Sister Helen realized the truth when the child woke crying for “Livvy” and “Captain Blue.”
“I confronted Vivian,” she said. “She told me Thomas Hart had authorized the placement. When I threatened to call him, Martin showed me papers accusing St. Agnes of financial violations. We would have lost the home and forty children would have been displaced.”
“So you stayed silent,” Emma said.
Sister Helen lowered her eyes. “Yes. I have regretted it every day.”
Among the files was a copy of the original adoption record. Grace Hart had been renamed Emma Reed and transferred through three agencies until the trail became nearly impossible to follow. Vivian’s signature appeared as the consenting guardian, though she had no legal relationship to Grace at the time.
Detective Ruiz explained that the documents supported fraud and unlawful custody charges, but the central question remained: why had Vivian risked everything to remove one child?
The answer lay in the Hart trust.
Olivia’s mother had structured the family shares so neither daughter could control the company alone. If one daughter died before twenty-five, her shares passed to the surviving sister. If both were alive, major decisions required both signatures.
Vivian had spent years preparing Olivia to sign a merger that would sell Hart Biotech’s research division to Vale Capital immediately after the wedding. Olivia assumed the deal would unite the families. In reality, it would also unlock accounts Martin had concealed.
Emma’s existence could block the merger.
Daniel went pale. Vale Capital belonged to his uncle, Richard Vale, who had pressured him to complete the wedding quickly. Daniel insisted he knew nothing about Grace, but Olivia could no longer accept trust without evidence.
“Then prove it,” she said.
Ruiz found another envelope marked with Thomas Hart’s name. Inside was a recent letter, dated only four months earlier, written shakily after his stroke.
I FOUND GRACE. VIVIAN KNOWS. IF I CANNOT SPEAK, LOOK AT THE REHAB CAMERAS.
Olivia called her father’s facility.
May you like
The administrator said Thomas Hart had been transferred during the night on Vivian’s authority.
No one would say where he had gone.
