Chapter 29 - HARPER’S FATHERThe explosion countdown began at four minutes.
Nolan ordered everyone toward the warehouse exits.
Harper refused to leave Laura’s chamber.
“Who is my father?”
Laura struggled against the breathing tube.
Victor watched from the bridge.
“He wants you to ask that question,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the answer divides you from Bennett even after his death.”
Harper looked toward Benjamin and Daniel.
Neither man moved.
Laura forced the words out.
“Bennett was your father in every way that mattered.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“Victor used fertility samples without my consent.”
Harper felt the world narrow.
“Victor?”
“No.”
Victor smiled above them.
Laura looked toward Adrian.
Harper followed her gaze.
Adrian’s face emptied.
Laura shook her head.
“Not Adrian either.”
She whispered a name.
“Samuel.”
Harper turned.
Samuel Reed stood near the exit.
His skin went pale.
“I never—”
Laura explained that Samuel donated genetic material to a Hale Family Health research program years earlier.
Victor substituted it during Laura’s treatment.
Samuel had not known.
Bennett discovered the truth in Geneva after reviewing old clinic records.
He planned to tell Harper after returning.
Victor killed him and placed Daniel in his life.
Samuel looked at Harper as though afraid to step closer.
“I did not know.”
Harper believed him.
But belief no longer brought comfort.
The countdown reached two minutes.
Daniel climbed the bridge toward Victor.
Benjamin joined him.
The two surviving brothers attacked from opposite sides.
Victor dropped the remote.
Evelyn caught it.
She studied the controls.
“There are ten charges.”
“Disarm them,” Nolan shouted.
“The system requires one chamber to remain armed.”
Another forced choice.
One Laura had to die.
Harper looked at the original and the nine vessels.
Laura pressed her palm against the glass.
“Choose mine.”
“No.”
“I created this.”
“Victor created this.”
“I helped him build the first memory map.”
The other Lauras began approaching the original chamber.
Rebecca placed her hand against it.
“You do not get to decide alone.”
Each vessel entered a disarm code from a different memory fragment.
The system recognized the combined identity again.
Nine charges stopped.
One remained beneath the central archive.
The original recording.
Laura smiled weakly.
“She always planned to destroy the evidence after Harper saw it.”
The archive exploded.
The floor split.
Laura’s chamber fell into darkness.
Harper reached for her.
The glass disappeared below.
A woman’s hand caught the edge.
May you like
Harper grabbed it.
But she could not tell which Laura she was holding.
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