Page 98 of Never the Same

“Neither was I,” Julian quickly added.

“Tristan, then. I was working with him privately. Did he double-cross me?”

Gideon checked the security camera on the ceiling again. “What I say here never leaves this room, am I clear?” I could hear the Or I’ll kill ya embedded in his icy tone.

Agreeable but hesitant nods from everyone happened one by one.

“After you left Surrey, I demanded Mum talk and tell me what she was keeping back about the book,” Gideon shared, eyes on me.

And? I asked in my head.

“We’re required by our oaths to keep records of whatever we do, right down to who we kill and why. It’s meant to keep us honest and servants to the truth. All those records were housed in vault seven before the fire,” Gideon explained, and I remembered Julian telling me something similar in Surrey. “Mum is the arsonist. She burnt the place down in ’92, which is why she always refused to talk about it. She couldn’t destroy the one archive she was after without drawing attention to herself, so she took down the whole place to bury the truth.”

Shock sent me back from the table yet again, but I remained seated as I waited for the rest of the story.

But then it came to me on my own.

Not a memory.

Just an oh shit moment.

“The mission where she got pregnant with Tristan,” I whispered. “She didn’t want any evidence to exist about him. That’s why she burnt the place down, right?”

Gideon nodded. “Aside from Tristan himself, that was the only proof that he existed, and who his father was. He doesn’t even know who his dad is, and believe me, he’s asked. His dad could be alive or dead, for all I know. Mum won’t tell us anything about that.”

“So she was willing to destroy the entire library to protect her son.” Part of me understood that. She truly loved him, even though it was too risky to raise him herself.

“There was an investigation into the fire. No blame was assigned to anyone, and the case was closed,” Gideon continued. “Did our grandfather remove the book from the library before the fire . . . ?” He shook his head. “Maybe?”

I’m living proof he saved it.

“Why’d she wait until ’92 to burn it down?” Jason asked, and there was a subtle something poised in his expression I couldn’t quite decipher.

“Something had to have set her off to do it then and not when he was born, but she wouldn’t tell us.” Julian gestured toward the window. “Pops lived in Meiringen, a Swiss town at the base of the Reichenbach Falls. To outsiders, he was an eccentric aristocrat with a retreat in the Bernese Alps. In truth, he was a recluse to keep Tristan hidden, and the vault was housed on the property. It was on the back end of the—”

“Mountainside,” I remembered, drawing up an image of the before-and-after paintings Julian had shown me in Surrey. “The manor survived, just the library was burned.”

Jason took hold of my hand and asked, “Another reason why you chose to meet us here?”

Gideon nodded. “It’s a thirty-minute helicopter ride away. Also, Benjamin Putcheski is currently at his home in Austria. We may need to pay him a visit together. Get the truth of what happened directly from him; he’s the only one who can currently provide us answers. But he’ll have an army of guards, so we’ll need to be a united front to approach his property.”

“I figured a few of us could go look around Pop’s place with a fresh set of eyes first. We still own the property, but no one has lived there since he passed,” Julian added before I could digest everything. “We can divide and conquer. If the Putcheskis are holding Kylo, and he’s still alive, I doubt he has much time left.”

“Would Tristan really hurt him?” My stomach somersaulted from his betrayal. “Does he have a protector, too?”

“Tristan does, but he ditches him quite often,” Gideon confirmed. “He’s always been a lone wolf.”

“Because we did that to him by separating him from us,” I said somberly. “At least, our parents did, since we didn’t even know he was our brother until we were all eighteen.”

“I still refuse to believe Tristan is tied to this.” Julian stood. “It has to be someone else. Dad vouched for his brothers and sister. Our cousins and protectors have alibis. But I suppose if any of them have my source code, it’s possible their alibis are bullshit.”

“Another reason you need to work with us now. You can’t trust your own family,” Carter said while rising, focusing on Easton. “Can you pilot the bird to Meiringen?”

Easton glanced at Gwen as if uncomfortable with the idea of leaving her here with Julian, but he nodded. “I’ll go prepare. Looks like a storm is on the horizon. We’ll need to leave soon.” He stood, shot Gwen one last look, then took off.

The air in the room barely had a chance to settle before Jason took me by surprise by asking, “Any chance you happen to know why whoever did this to Hollis would plant a false, dreamlike memory into her brain like a reset point?”

Julian’s eyes snapped to mine. “Wait, what?”