“Maybe there is no code,” Daniel says. Lynell and Zach both frown at him. “I mean, look at what he wrote. Love, joy, and forgiveness. Not very Registration-like, if you ask me.”

“What about when people use the Registration out of love?” Lynell asks.

“And joy? forgiveness?” Daniel shakes his head in disagreement. “Maybe the code is simply refusing the Registration.”

Lynell’s eyebrows furrow together. “Except he also told me to use mine wisely.”

“The Registration was Grandfather’s greatest accomplishment,” Zach says. “The code isn’t refusing it. It was created to control it.”

Daniel drops his idea, and they keep working. Lynell is on alert the whole time, expecting to hear their burner phone ring at any moment with bad news about Eric looking for or finding Anna. Three hours into working, Daniel sees Lynell pick up the phone, look at the screen, and put it down for the hundredth time.

“Baby,” he says. “We don’t want them to call, remember? That would mean she’s in danger.”

“She already is,” Lynell says.

Zach sighs, handing out three fresh cups of tea. “He may never find her.”

“May? Not exactly reassuring,” Lynell says, accepting her herbal tea.

Sitting across from her, Zach rubs his face. “He’s lived two decades in constant fear that someone would challenge his hold on the company. He’s desperately tried to cover up his own illegitimacy while looking for possible children of Eli’s.”

“Which is how he found Lynell?” Daniel asks.

Zach nods. “He’s found another child, too.”

Lynell turns to him sharply, eyes wide and mouth open. “What?” Zach glances at her, guilt filling his face. “My father had another kid? Who?”

Zach sighs. “I think his name was Alexander. He was five years older than you. But he was illegitimate. We don’t think Eli even knew about him.”

“What do you mean ‘was?’” Lynell prompts.

“One of the senior Researchers, the men my dad sends to find stuff out for him, kind of like his personal private investigators, found him two years ago and used his Registration. Alexander was questioned briefly, and when they realized that he knew nothing about Eli, they killed him.”

Lynell looks down at her feet, but she can feel Daniel staring at her.

“Lyn?” he says, grabbing her hand. He ventures into the silence to pull her out of her thoughts. She closes her eyes and pictures him climbing into the pit she continually finds herself falling into. He’s good at it now. Good at climbing down, pulling her into his arms, and carrying her out. God knows he’s had to do it a million times before.

Zach glances between them, eyebrows low. “So . . .” Lynell says, “is Alexander the only other kid they’ve found?”

Zach nods. “But he has a whole team of Researchers looking for other possible children. And, unfortunately, that includes children of existing heirs. They dug into Alexander’s past for an entire year before deciding there was nothing to find.”

Daniel and Lynell exchange a look filled with fear.