Chapter 6 - The Dead Son
David’s death destroyed my first marriage.
A boating accident.
No body recovered.
Only his red jacket.
Afterward, my husband left.
Years later, I met Adrian.
I had never consciously replaced David.
At least that was what I told myself.
Now his name appeared on a fraudulent trust amendment.
Rosa found me staring at the document.
“Who’s David?”
“My son.”
She frowned.
“I thought Adrian—”
“Biological.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
She sat beside me.
“Then someone is using his identity.”
“Yes.”
But Samuel looked unconvinced.
The amendment contained details never released publicly.
David’s childhood Social Security number.
His birth hospital.
A nickname.
Davy-Bird.
Only three people knew that nickname.
Me.
My former husband.
And Thomas Bell.
Thomas had been my husband’s best friend.
Suddenly the past no longer felt buried.
It felt engineered.
Samuel investigated the boating accident.
The original file contained an anomaly.
One witness statement had been removed.
Filed by Thomas.
I could barely breathe.
“What did he see?”
“We don’t know.”
The page is missing.
Then Samuel found the responding officer.
Retired.
Still alive.
His recollection was imperfect but clear on one point.
Thomas had arrived at the lake before police.
And he had been holding a child’s shoe.
Not the red jacket.
A shoe.
Police never logged it.
Why?
Because Thomas later claimed he had been mistaken.
I stared out the window.
Fourteen years of secret Orpheus development.
David’s identity inside my trust.
Thomas missing.
Adrian desperate.
Everything was connected.
But not in the way I expected.
Then Rosa entered holding Mia’s tablet.
“You need to see this.”
Mia had received a friend request through a children’s game.
The account sent one message:
ASK EVELYN WHY THOMAS SAVED THE WRONG BOY.
My blood went cold.
Rosa immediately disconnected the tablet.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
But I did know one thing.
Someone wanted me emotionally destabilized.
Adrian preferred brute force.
This was different.
Precise.
Personal.
Someone understood my history.
Someone knew exactly which wounds to open.
Samuel arranged federal protection.
That evening, Special Agent Marcus Hale arrived.
He had been investigating Adrian’s corporate fraud quietly for months.
I gave him the encrypted drive.
He examined the Orpheus references.
Then asked:
“Why did you shut this project down?”
“Privacy concerns.”
“That’s not what Thomas told us.”
I froze.
“You spoke to Thomas?”
“Seven months ago.”
Agent Hale placed a document before me.
Thomas had become a confidential federal source.
He was investigating Orpheus.
And Adrian.
But also someone else.
“Who?”
Hale looked uncomfortable.
“Thomas believed someone had infiltrated Shaw Meridian before Adrian ever joined it.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Hale showed me Thomas’s final message to the FBI.
May you like
Four words.
DAVID SHAW IS ALIVE.
