The Hidden heir’s revenge

Chapter 79 — The Woman in the Photograph

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

The photograph remained on the screen, showing a young woman standing beside five children. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders, and one hand rested gently on the shoulder of a little boy.

She had Naomi’s face.

Not someone who looked like Naomi.

Not someone who shared a few features with her.

It was Naomi.

The same eyes. The same nose. The same small scar above her left eyebrow.

Even the slight curve of her lips was identical.

Beneath the photograph, the computer displayed three lines.

ORIGINAL GUARDIAN: NAOMI THORNE.

DATE: TWENTY-NINE YEARS AGO.

STATUS: REMOVED FROM ACTIVE REGISTER.

Varek stared at the screen.

“Naomi,” he whispered.

Adrian stepped closer. “That’s impossible.”

“Do you know her?” Varek asked.

Adrian shook his head. “I know Naomi. I know her history. I’ve seen her childhood photographs. That woman is her.”

“Then explain how she could have been here twenty-nine years ago.”

“I can’t.”

The little girl approached the screen. She studied the photograph with unusual attention.

“She was here,” she said.

Varek turned towards her. “You remember her?”

The girl nodded slowly.

“She used to stand near the door. She didn’t wear white like the others. She wore black clothes and carried a book.”

Mary’s expression changed.

“What book?”

The girl looked at her.

“The black one.”

Alistair immediately moved towards the computer.

“Don’t touch that screen.”

Varek caught his arm.

“You’re not giving orders anymore.”

Alistair looked at him. “You have no idea what you’re looking at.”

“Then explain it.”

“That photograph is not proof that Naomi was here.”

“Her name is written beneath it.”

“Names can be transferred.”

Varek released his arm.

“Is that what you did to all of us? Transferred names until nobody knew who they were?”

Alistair said nothing.

At the secure location, Naomi had stopped breathing for a moment.

She stared at the image on her laptop while Evelyn stood behind her.

“That’s your face,” Evelyn said quietly.

Naomi nodded.

Isabella sat beside them, looking between the screen and Naomi.

“Maybe it’s someone from your family.”

Naomi shook her head.

“I’ve seen photographs of my mother, my grandmother and everyone we knew. Nobody looks like this.”

“Could it be an old photograph of you?” Evelyn asked.

Naomi gave a short, nervous laugh.

“Twenty-nine years ago? I wasn’t even born.”

“That’s what we’re trying to understand.”

Naomi zoomed in on the photograph.

The woman wore a small necklace. It had a round pendant with a strange symbol engraved on it.

Naomi’s fingers froze.

She reached towards her neck.

The same pendant hung beneath her shirt.

Evelyn noticed immediately.

“Naomi?”

Naomi pulled the necklace out.

It was old, slightly scratched, and had been in her possession for as long as she could remember. Her mother had told her it belonged to her grandmother.

She had never questioned it.

“Where did you get that?” Isabella asked.

“My mother gave it to me.”

“Can I see it?”

Naomi removed the necklace and placed it on the table.

Isabella turned it over.

The back was engraved with two letters.

N.T.

Evelyn leaned closer.

“Naomi Thorne.”

Naomi shook her head.

“No. My surname is Cross.”

“Your mother’s surname?” Isabella asked.

Naomi hesitated.

“She never talked about her family. She said the Thorne name was connected to people she wanted nothing to do with.”

The room went silent.

Evelyn slowly picked up the necklace again.

“Naomi, where is your mother now?”

“She’s dead.”

“How long ago?”

“Twenty years.”

Isabella looked at the photograph again.

“Then she may have known exactly who that woman was.”

Naomi’s eyes returned to the screen.

“Or she may have been that woman.”

Back in the nursery, Varek noticed the necklace in the photograph.

“Can you enlarge that?”

The little girl stepped closer.

“That’s her.”

“Whose?”

“The guardian.”

Mary moved towards the computer.

“That necklace belonged to the first Naomi.”

Varek turned sharply.

“The first Naomi?”

Mary looked uncomfortable.

“Yes.”

“How many people have been using that name?”

“More than you think.”

Jonathan gave a dry laugh.

“You’re still trying to make this sound simple, Mary.”

Mary glared at him.

“Be quiet.”

“No. You’ve spent years pretending you were the only person who understood what happened here. Now the records are opening, and you are afraid.”

Varek stepped between them.

“Enough. Who was the first Naomi Thorne?”

Alistair answered.

“She was the guardian appointed to the original five children.”

“And what happened to her?”

“She disappeared.”

“When?”

“Before the fire.”

The little girl shook her head.

“That’s not true.”

Everyone turned towards her.

Alistair’s expression hardened.

“Careful.”

The girl ignored him.

“She didn’t disappear. They took her downstairs.”

Jonathan closed his eyes.

Mary looked at the child.

“Are you sure?”

The girl nodded.

“I saw them take her. She was holding the black book. She was crying, but she didn’t let it go.”

Varek looked at Alistair.

“Where is downstairs?”

“The medical archive,” Adrian answered.

He looked towards the lower passage.

“That’s where Richard went.”

Victor moved closer.

“Then we need to find him.”

“Not yet,” Varek said.

Victor frowned.

“Why?”

“Because we still don’t know what the black book contains. And if Richard has it, he may already know we’re looking for it.”

Matthew Cross stepped forward.

“There is something else.”

Everyone turned towards him.

He pointed at the screen.

“Look at the five children.”

Varek studied the photograph again.

The first child stood close to the woman.

The second was sitting on a chair.

The third was being held by someone outside the frame.

The fourth stood beside a medical table.

The fifth was partially hidden behind the woman.

Matthew enlarged the image.

“Those children aren’t all the same age.”

“So?” Victor asked.

“Look at their faces.”

Matthew pointed at the first child.

“That’s the girl.”

He pointed at the second.

“That’s the boy.”

Then he pointed at the third.

“Samuel.”

Samuel stepped forward.

“That’s not me.”

Matthew looked at him.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I remember that day.”

The nursery fell silent.

Varek crouched in front of him.

“What do you remember?”

Samuel looked at the photograph.

“The woman was angry. She said they had changed the names again.”

“Whose names?”

“Everybody’s.”

He rubbed his left thumb.

“She said the children were not supposed to be separated. She said the family was supposed to remain together.”

Mary’s face went pale.

“Samuel, what else?”

The boy swallowed.

“She said one of the children wasn’t a child.”

Varek stared at him.

“What does that mean?”

Samuel looked directly at the little girl.

“She said one of them was already dead.”

A strange silence settled over the nursery.

Then the computer beeped.

A new document had opened automatically.

GUARDIAN TRANSFER RECORD.

NAOMI THORNE — REMOVED.

REPLACEMENT GUARDIAN — APPROVED.

The name beneath it was hidden behind a black security bar.

Varek leaned closer.

“Can you open it?”

Matthew shook his head.

“Not without the original access key.”

“Where is the key?”

Alistair slowly raised his eyes.

“With the person who replaced her.”

“Who?”

Before Alistair could answer, Naomi’s voice came through the communication device.

“Varek, listen to me.”

Everyone turned towards the device.

Naomi sounded shaken.

“I found something on my end. My mother’s old documents. There is a name I have never seen before.”

Varek moved closer.

“What name?”

Naomi took a breath.

“Her birth certificate doesn’t say Naomi Cross.”

Evelyn stared at her.

“What?”

Naomi continued.

“It says Naomi Thorne.”

Mary stumbled backwards.

Jonathan gripped the edge of the table.

Even Alistair looked surprised.

Varek’s voice dropped.

“Naomi, what was your mother’s name?”

Naomi looked down at the old document in her hand.

Then she answered.

“Isabella Thorne.”

Mary let out a broken sound.

“That’s impossible.”

Naomi turned the paper towards the camera.

There was another line beneath her mother’s name.

CHILD DELIVERED: FEMALE.

DATE OF BIRTH: TWENTY-NINE YEARS AGO.

GUARDIAN: NAOMI THORNE.

Varek looked from the document to the photograph.

The woman in the photograph was Naomi.

The birth certificate said Naomi was born twenty-nine years ago.

And the guardian’s name was also Naomi Thorne.

Then the little girl in the nursery whispered something that made everyone’s blood run cold.

“That’s why they kept changing the names.”

Varek turned towards her.

“Why?”

She looked at Naomi’s image on the screen.

“Because the woman in the photograph wasn’t my guardian.”

She pointed at the fifth child.

“She was the fifth child.”