Chapter 10 - Lydia Comes Home
They found Lydia before they found Marcus.
She walked into Detective Bennett’s precinct at 11:32 a.m.
No lawyer.
No announcement.
No white parka.
Victoria saw her through the interview-room glass and forgot how to breathe.
Eleven years changed people.
Lydia’s dark hair was shorter.
Lines had formed around her eyes.
She looked thinner.
Harder.
But she was unmistakably Lydia.
Victoria entered slowly.
Neither sister moved.
Finally Victoria whispered, “You’re alive.”
Lydia’s expression did not soften.
“I’ve been alive every day.”
The words hurt.
Victoria nodded.
“I deserved that.”
Lydia studied her.
“You look like Mom.”
“So do you.”
“No.”
Silence.
Victoria wanted to embrace her.
She did not.
“Why now?”
“Sophie.”
Victoria’s throat tightened.
Lydia looked toward Bennett.
“I should have come the moment I learned Helena was watching her.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because every time I came close to Kane Holdings, someone found me.”
“Marcus?”
“Usually Helena.”
Victoria stared.
“She pushed Sophie?”
“I believe so.”
“Believe?”
“I didn’t see it.”
Caleb entered.
Lydia’s composure broke.
“You’re Thomas’s son.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
Caleb looked at her.
“You left.”
Lydia absorbed the accusation.
“Yes.”
“My mother spent eleven years believing Dad died because he was careless.”
“I sent documents.”
“To who?”
“Regulators. Journalists.”
“And?”
“Marcus’s lawyers buried them. Some said the files were stolen and unverifiable.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
“So you gave up.”
“I got scared.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Lydia looked at him directly.
“I gave up.”
The honesty stopped him.
She continued.
“I thought surviving meant I could expose them later.”
Her voice trembled.
“Later became eleven years.”
Bennett asked about the lower spillway.
Lydia explained.
Thomas had hidden a hardened data recorder in an unused inspection cavity beneath the auxiliary gate.
“It copied raw maintenance feeds.”
“Video?” Bennett asked.
“Video, sensor logs, access records.”
“Would it still work?”
“If nobody found it.”
“Why is Marcus going there?”
Lydia looked toward the wolf card.
“Because the card tells him the same thing.”
Victoria frowned.
“How?”
“The ledger includes an equipment purchase tied to Thomas’s backup.”
Caleb said, “Marcus will destroy it.”
Bennett was already calling Blackridge security.
Lydia grabbed her arm.
“Do not use Kane security.”
“Why?”
“Helena built half that system.”
The lower spillway was temporarily sealed under police order.
Marcus’s access lasted only four minutes.
He later claimed he went there to “assess physical risk after media allegations.”
The backup recorder remained hidden.
They did not know exactly where.
Finding it required draining part of a maintenance channel.
That would take days.
Marcus used those days brutally.
He released Victoria’s signed 2015 certification.
Not privately.
Publicly.
Every page.
Every signature.
He portrayed himself as the executive who relied on legal advice from Victoria.
Commentators shifted blame.
VICTORIA KANE SIGNED BLACKRIDGE SAFETY REPORT
FORMER CEO’S ROLE IN COVER-UP DEEPENS
State regulators opened an inquiry into Victoria.
Her attorneys warned she could face professional licensing consequences.
Caleb watched anger consume him again.
“You signed this after Lydia warned you.”
Victoria nodded.
“Yes.”
“You told me you didn’t know the data was false.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you chose not to investigate.”
“Yes.”
Lydia watched her sister.
Victoria turned.
“Say it.”
Lydia’s face remained cold.
“You chose Dad.”
“Yes.”
“You chose Marcus.”
“Yes.”
“You chose the company.”
“Yes.”
“Thomas died.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
Lydia slapped her.
The room went silent.
Victoria did not raise a hand.
Lydia’s breathing shook.
“I called you.”
“I know.”
“I begged you.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Victoria finally shouted back.
“What do you want me to say?”
Lydia stared.
“That I was twenty-nine? That Dad scared me? That Marcus showed me evidence designed to make you look unstable?”
Her voice broke.
“That I thought I was saving twenty thousand jobs?”
Lydia’s eyes filled.
Victoria continued.
“None of it changes that I chose wrong.”
Silence.
“I cannot make Thomas alive.”
She looked at Caleb.
“I cannot give Lydia eleven years back.”
Then toward the room where Sophie waited with a counselor.
“And I cannot make my daughter forget that somebody tried to drown her because of secrets I helped preserve.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“So stop waiting for me to defend myself. I’m done.”
Lydia looked away.
No reconciliation followed.
Only exhaustion.
That night Caleb found Victoria alone outside the precinct.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She looked at him.
He shrugged.
“You’d be terrifying if you were okay.”
She almost smiled.
Then Lydia came outside.
“I know the password to Thomas’s backup housing.”
Caleb frowned.
“What?”
“It isn’t digital.”
She looked at him.
“Thomas designed the cavity lock.”
“How does it open?”
“Two mechanical releases at the same time.”
“Where?”
“Opposite sides of the lower spillway gallery.”
Victoria understood.
“Meaning one person can’t open it.”
Lydia nodded.
“Thomas didn’t trust any single person after the report changed.”
Caleb looked toward Blackridge Reservoir in the distance.
“Then we need two.”
Lydia shook her head.
“We need three.”
“Why?”
“One to open each release.”
“And the third?”
“To pull the recorder before the automatic gate reseals.”
Caleb almost smiled.
“My father was paranoid.”
Lydia answered quietly.
“He was right.”
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Lydia opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Helena Cross.
Standing inside the lower spillway gallery.
In her hand was a white winter parka.
May you like
The caption read:
COME GET THE TRUTH BEFORE MARCUS BURIES IT AGAIN.
