HE PUSHED HIS PREGNANT WIFE OUT OF A HELICOPTER — BUT SHE HAD PREPARED FOR THE FALL

The maintenance shaft climbed through the center of the lighthouse wall.

Amelia followed Elias upward, gripping iron rungs slick with condensation. Every movement pulled at the healing muscles of her abdomen. She ignored the pain. Below, gunfire and explosions reverberated through the facility.

Richard’s countdown reached zero.

The central laboratory door blew inward.

Maya’s agents returned fire. Noah and Daniel dragged a steel cabinet into the breach. Claire’s voice came through Amelia’s earpiece from the cutter, reporting that two unmarked boats had landed on the island’s southern shore.

Meridian had sent more than Richard’s mercenaries.

At the top of the shaft, Elias opened a panel behind the lighthouse lens. The tower room was circular, surrounded by glass windows clouded with salt. The massive Fresnel lens stood motionless in the center.

Helena’s recording said the second formula fragment was stored in the lens mechanism.

Elias inserted the metal cylinder into the base.

Nothing happened.

Amelia noticed two hand-shaped plates on opposite sides of the mechanism.

“Both children,” she said.

They placed their palms against the plates.

The lens began to rotate.

Light swept across the fog. A hidden compartment opened beneath the floor, revealing a sealed case and a small black notebook.

Before Amelia could reach it, the tower door opened.

Richard entered holding a gun.

His clothes were wet from the sea. A cut crossed his forehead. Yet he still carried himself with the calm arrogance of a man arriving late to a meeting he owned.

“Move away from the case,” he said.

Elias stepped between Richard and Amelia.

Richard laughed. “The lost prince protecting the forgotten daughter.”

“You were ordered to retrieve her,” Elias said. “Not kill her.”

“I improved the plan.”

“You always confuse cruelty with intelligence.”

Richard aimed at him. “And you confuse obedience with leadership.”

Amelia moved toward the emergency beacon panel on the wall.

Richard noticed. “Do not.”

“You cannot leave the island,” she said. “Federal ships are surrounding it.”

“Federal ships obey budgets. Meridian writes budgets.”

He offered Amelia a bargain. Give him the formula and join him. Together, he claimed, they could control the council and protect Helena from becoming a laboratory subject.

“You pushed me from a helicopter,” Amelia said.

“And you survived. That is why you matter.”

The words revealed the emptiness at the center of him. Richard did not understand survival as pain, fear, or grace. He understood it only as proof of value.

Amelia looked at Elias. “Did our mother ever love him?”

Elias answered softly. “She tried to save him.”

Richard’s face changed.

For the first time, the mask slipped completely.

“She abandoned me,” he said.

“She was forced to surrender you after Charles took control,” Elias replied. “She spent years trying to reach you.”

“Liar.”

Elias took the black notebook from the compartment and opened it to a letter written in Helena’s hand. It was addressed to Richard.

She called him her son.

She apologized for failing to remove him from the Vale estate. She warned that Charles would teach him to see people as experiments. She begged him to choose a different life.

Richard listened to the first lines, then fired.

The bullet struck Elias in the side.

Amelia lunged for the gun. Richard hit her across the face and dragged her against the glass. Far below, waves broke against black rock.

“This is where you were meant to die,” he whispered.

He forced open the lighthouse service door. Wind exploded into the tower.

Amelia saw the cliff edge outside, narrow and slick.

Richard pulled her toward it.

Elias, bleeding, reached for the dropped gun.

Richard kicked it away.

“You should have stayed dead,” he told him.

Amelia gripped the doorframe. “Helena will never belong to you.”

“She already does. Her blood sample left the hospital an hour ago.”