Chapter 6 - What Linda Survived
Linda survived the shooting.
One bullet struck her shoulder.
The other passed through the side of her neck without severing the artery.
The attacker escaped through a secured service corridor dressed as a police technician.
Every camera on that floor failed for ninety-two seconds.
When Detective Reyes informed Emily, she did not sound relieved.
“Linda may be our best source,” the detective said. “Someone wanted her silenced.”
“Or wanted us to believe that,” Daniel replied.
He had not spoken much since learning the truth about his birth.
The revelations had hollowed him out.
Emily wanted to comfort him, but the photograph of Grace remained open on the bedside screen. Every minute mattered.
“What greenhouse?” she asked.
“The message may refer to the greenhouse at the Mercer estate,” Reyes said.
“The underground room was beneath it,” Daniel added.
“Police already searched it.”
“They searched the visible room.”
Emily looked at him.
“There’s another section?”
“My father designed the greenhouse himself. I remember maintenance tunnels beneath the property.”
Reyes immediately contacted the officers stationed at the estate.
They entered the underground chamber again.
Behind a row of empty filing cabinets, they found a concealed metal door.
It required a biometric scan.
Not Linda’s fingerprint.
Not Daniel’s.
Not Natalie’s.
A small brass plate beside the scanner displayed one name.
EMILY CARTER.
Emily stared at the photograph sent by the officers.
“I have never been inside that room.”
“Someone expected your hand to open it,” Reyes said.
“Can they force the door?”
“Possibly, but if it contains evidence or explosives, we need to proceed carefully.”
Emily understood what the detective was not saying.
Grace and Natalie could be behind it.
“Take me there.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“The message specifically demanded me.”
“That is why you cannot go.”
“If my fingerprint opens the door, waiting may kill them.”
Reyes agreed to transport Emily only after the hospital cleared her and a tactical team secured the estate.
Dr. Wells strongly objected.
She had undergone two surgeries in less than twenty-four hours. She required blood transfusions, antibiotics, and constant monitoring.
Emily signed the discharge refusal form and left anyway.
The journey to the Mercer estate took thirty-five minutes.
Rain began falling halfway there.
Daniel sat beside Emily in the armored police vehicle but did not touch her.
“You believe Linda?” Emily asked.
“About what?”
“Rebecca. Your father. You.”
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“She wanted to hurt you.”
“She succeeded.”
“Truth can still be used as a weapon.”
Daniel looked out the rain-streaked window.
“She raised me. Every birthday. Every illness. Every graduation. Even if none of it was real to her, it was real to me.”
Emily reached for his hand.
He let her hold it.
The Mercer estate appeared behind iron gates and rows of dark hedges. The wedding decorations remained untouched. White ribbons hung from trees. Empty tables stood beneath rain-soaked awnings.
The ceremony arch had collapsed on one side.
A champagne tower leaned dangerously near the ballroom doors.
It looked like a celebration abandoned at the moment disaster arrived.
Officers escorted Emily through the greenhouse.
The underground room smelled of damp concrete and fertilizer.
The biometric panel glowed beside the hidden door.
“Place your hand there,” Reyes said.
Daniel stood behind Emily.
She pressed her palm against the scanner.
A green light traveled beneath her fingers.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
The metal locks released.
The tactical team pulled the door open.
Beyond it was not a storage room.
It was a nursery.
Five small beds stood in a circle beneath painted stars.
Each bed had a brass plaque.
GRACE.
NOAH.
LUCY.
ELIAS.
EMILY.
Emily stared at the fifth name.
“That is my name.”
Daniel approached the bed.
“No,” he said. “It’s your mother’s.”
Emily looked at him.
“My mother was named Sarah.”
“Sarah was the name she used when we met her.”
“What are you saying?”
Daniel pointed toward a framed photograph above the bed.
A young woman stood inside the same nursery holding an infant.
She had Emily’s eyes.
Emily’s cheekbones.
Emily’s crooked smile.
Across the bottom of the frame were handwritten words.
EMILY VALE WITH SUBJECT E-5.
Emily stepped closer.
“My mother’s maiden name was Vale.”
The same name as the consortium buying Mercer Medical.
Reyes examined the photograph.
“Who is Subject E-5?”
Daniel turned the frame over.
A second image had been hidden behind it.
Five infants lay in clear bassinets.
Numbers were written above them.
D-1.
N-2.
L-3.
E-4.
E-5.
The final infant wore a bracelet.
EMILY.
Emily’s knees weakened.
She grabbed the bed rail.
“I was born in Ohio.”
Reyes found a cabinet filled with paper files.
The first folder contained Emily’s childhood photograph.
Not a copy.
The original.
The second contained records of her vaccinations, school transfers, and adoption placement.
Emily sank onto the edge of the bed.
“My parents never told me I was adopted.”
Daniel opened another folder.
His own name appeared on the tab.
Inside were photographs of him as a newborn.
The woman holding him was Rebecca.
In the next photograph, Linda stood beside Rebecca.
Both wore Mercer Medical laboratory coats.
A handwritten note appeared on the final page.
D-1 and E-5 remain genetically compatible. Future reproductive pairing recommended.
Emily felt physically ill.
“They planned our marriage,” she whispered.
Daniel shook his head.
“We met by accident.”
“Did we?”
They had met at a charity dinner sponsored by Mercer Medical.
Linda had invited Emily’s employer.
Linda seated Emily beside Daniel.
Everything Emily believed about her life began rearranging itself into a shape she did not recognize.
Reyes opened the last cabinet.
It was empty except for a monitor.
The screen turned on automatically.
A live video feed appeared.
Grace sat in a dark vehicle beside Natalie.
Both were untied.
A woman drove.
Her face remained hidden beneath a hood.
Natalie looked toward the camera as if she knew Emily was watching.
“Emily,” she said, “do not trust Daniel.”
Daniel stepped toward the screen.
“Natalie?”
The feed was one-way.
Natalie continued.
“Mother did terrible things, but she was trying to stop something worse. Daniel has the access code they need. He may not remember because they erased parts of his childhood.”
The hooded driver reached toward the camera.
Before the feed ended, Emily saw the woman’s hand.
Three dark stones gleamed on a narrow gold ring.
Natalie’s ring.
The screen went black.
A printer beneath the monitor activated.
One page emerged.
It contained an address and a time.
Midnight.
At the bottom was a photograph of Emily asleep in her hospital bed.
Someone stood beside her.
May you like
Daniel.
In his hand was the device later found beneath her bandage.
