Chapter 9 - THE ROOM OF TWENTY-SEVEN FACES
The photographs covered an entire wall.
Some were old.
Some recent.
All had dates written beneath them.
Roman stood beside a fire investigator as the room was documented.
Tessa recognized her father's face immediately.
His photograph was dated three months earlier.
“He's alive,” she whispered.
The investigator pointed toward another image.
“Do you know this man?”
It showed Owen Arden.
Celeste's brother.
His photograph was dated six days earlier.
Tessa's eyes moved across the wall.
Accountants.
Lawyers.
Dockworkers.
A journalist.
A city inspector.
People who had discovered pieces of Project Seventeen and then vanished.
Roman stared at the photographs.
“This wasn't just about hiding the original crime.”
Daniel nodded.
“Someone has been keeping witnesses alive.”
“Why?” Tessa asked.
Roman looked at her.
“Leverage.”
The answer chilled her.
Arthur hadn't simply eliminated threats.
He had collected them.
Human bargaining chips.
People who could be forced to sign documents, move money, or remain silent.
The investigator pointed toward the far wall.
There was a map.
Twenty-seven numbered locations.
All connected by red lines.
At the center was a single address in New Jersey.
An abandoned psychiatric hospital.
Tessa photographed the map.
Then she called Evelyn.
Her mother answered immediately.
“Tessa?”
“Dad is alive.”
Silence.
“We found proof.”
Evelyn began crying.
“Where?”
“We don't know yet.”
Tessa hesitated.
“Arthur said you lied about the warehouse fire.”
Her mother's breathing changed.
“What did he tell you?”
“Nothing. That's why I'm asking.”
Evelyn was silent for a long time.
Then she said, “I started the fire.”
Tessa closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because they were going to destroy the records and kill everyone who knew about them. I thought setting off the alarms would force the building to evacuate.”
“Did it?”
“Yes.”
“But people died.”
Evelyn began sobbing.
“Not in that fire. In the earlier apartment fire that Project Seventeen caused. I couldn't save them. I thought if I created enough chaos, I could save your father.”
“Did you?”
“I don't know.”
Tessa looked toward Roman.
He was watching her carefully.
Her mother whispered, “There is something else.”
“What?”
“Your father wasn't just a witness.”
Tessa's stomach tightened.
“He helped design the financial system.”
The world seemed to shift beneath her feet.
“He worked for them?”
“At first. Before he understood what they were doing.”
Tessa stared at the photograph on the wall.
Her father had spent years telling her that good people sometimes made mistakes.
She had never understood how much he meant it.
Evelyn continued.
“He tried to undo what he'd helped create.”
Tessa wiped her eyes.
“And they punished him.”
“Yes.”
Roman approached.
“Tessa?”
She ended the call.
“My father wasn't innocent.”
Roman didn't contradict her.
Instead, he said, “Neither am I.”
She looked at him.
“Then what makes you different from Arthur?”
May you like
Roman's answer came quietly.
“What I choose to do next.”
