He looked at the message.
His expression changed.
"What is it?" Evelyn asked.
James turned the screen toward her.
It was an email from an unknown sender.
There was an attached photograph.
Daniel.
Alive.
Standing outside a military hospital.
The date on the photograph was six months after his supposed death.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
"No."
James read the message beneath it.
If you want to know where your brother really is, stop investigating your father.
Then a second sentence appeared.
Daniel Ashford is not dead.
Evelyn felt her knees weaken.
For eighteen months, she had mourned her brother.
And now someone was telling her that he might still be alive.
Evelyn read the email again.
Then she read it a third time.
Daniel Ashford is not dead.
The sentence seemed impossible.
She had attended his funeral. She had stood beside his grave. She had watched her mother cry over his coffin.
She had spent eighteen months believing she had lost the only person who had ever truly understood her.
And now someone was claiming that he was alive.
"James, where did this email come from?"
He examined the sender information.
"It's encrypted. The account was created less than ten minutes ago."
"Can you trace it?"
"I'm trying."
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
"That photograph. Is it real?"
James enlarged it.
Daniel was standing outside a military hospital. His hair was shorter, and he appeared thinner, but there was no mistaking his face.
Behind him was a sign displaying the name of a medical facility in Germany.
The date was September 12.
Six months after the funeral.
Evelyn whispered his name.
"Daniel."
Her eyes filled with tears.
James examined the photograph more carefully.
"There's something strange."
"What?"
"Look at his left hand."
Evelyn leaned closer.
A small silver ring was visible on Daniel's finger.
It was the same ring their father had given him when he graduated from university.
But that wasn't what caught her attention.
There was a second person standing behind him.
A man in military uniform.
Evelyn recognized the insignia immediately.
It belonged to the same private military division that had been operating near her deployment area.
She felt her stomach tighten.
"That's the unit that attacked my convoy."
James nodded.
"Then whoever sent this photograph knows what happened in the desert."
At 8:30 the following morning, Evelyn arrived at the hospital where Victoria was being treated.
Her mother had survived the gunshot.
The doctors had removed the bullet, but she remained unconscious.
Evelyn stood beside the bed.
Victoria looked strangely fragile beneath the white hospital sheets.
The woman who had once controlled one of the most powerful business families in the country now seemed smaller than Evelyn remembered.
She reached for her mother's hand.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
There was no answer.
"Why did you let me believe Daniel was dead?"
Evelyn swallowed.
"I don't know if I can ever forgive you."
Her voice broke.
"But I need you to wake up. There are things you still need to explain."
She remained beside the bed for several minutes.
Then she noticed something beneath Victoria's pillow.
A small folded piece of paper.
Evelyn carefully removed it.
There were only a few words.
The desert operation was not a rescue mission.
She turned the paper over.
Another sentence had been written underneath.
It was designed to bring you to him.
Evelyn stared.
Who was him?
Daniel?
General Hale?
Or someone else?
At the bottom of the page was a hospital room number.
Room 417.
She immediately called James.
"I found something."
Room 417 was located in the oldest section of the hospital.
The corridor was quiet.
A nurse stood near the reception desk, reviewing a patient's medical records.
Evelyn approached.
"I'm looking for a patient who may have been admitted under the name Daniel Ashford."
The nurse checked her computer.
"I'm sorry. I can't release private medical information."
Evelyn showed her military identification.
"I'm his sister."
The nurse looked at the identification.
Then she looked at Evelyn's face.
For a moment, she seemed surprised.
"Please wait here."
She disappeared through a door.
A few minutes later, an older doctor approached.
He was wearing a white coat and carrying a medical folder.
"Sergeant Ashford?"
"Yes."
"My name is Dr. Samuel Bennett. I treated a patient who may be connected to your family."
Evelyn felt her heart pounding.
"Was his name Daniel?"
The doctor looked around.
"Come with me."
He led her into a small consultation room.
James arrived shortly afterward.
Dr. Bennett closed the door.
"I need you both to understand something. The patient was brought here under a false identity. He had suffered multiple injuries and had been unconscious for several weeks."
"Was it Daniel?"
The doctor opened the medical folder.
There was a photograph attached.
Evelyn immediately recognized him.
It was her brother.
"Yes," she whispered.
Dr. Bennett nodded.
"He was alive when he arrived."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
"Where is he now?"
The doctor hesitated.
"He disappeared three months ago."
James leaned forward.
"Disappeared?"
"Someone came to collect him. They presented official transfer documents and claimed he was being moved to a secure military facility."
"Who signed the documents?"
The doctor opened another page.
"General Marcus Hale."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
The same man who had helped her father.
The same man who had approved her deployment.
The same man who had stood inside the chapel with a weapon.
"Why didn't you report it?"
"I did. The investigation was closed within forty-eight hours."
"Who closed it?"
The doctor looked at her.
"Someone from the Ministry of Defense."
He handed her a small envelope.
"This was left by the patient before he disappeared. He instructed me to give it to you if you ever came looking for him."
Evelyn opened it.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Evelyn,
I know you think I'm dead.
I wanted to come home. I wanted to see you. But I couldn't.
The people who attacked your convoy were not trying to kill you. They were looking for something you were carrying.
Something you don't even know you have.
Find the man who pulled you out of the desert.
He knows where I am.
I'm sorry, sister.
Daniel.
Evelyn read the letter silently.
Then she looked at James.
"What was I carrying?"
James shook his head.
"I don't know."
Dr. Bennett quietly closed the medical folder.
"There's something else."
They both turned toward him.
"The man who brought Daniel here left a message for him. He said that if his sister ever returned, she should be told that the operation in the desert had been compromised from the beginning."
Evelyn frowned.
"Who brought him here?"