Chapter 11 - Rachel’s Assignment
Rachel had been nineteen when Evelyn Bennett approached her.
Their father was dying from cancer. Medical bills had consumed the family’s savings. Claire had dropped out of graduate school to work two jobs.
Evelyn offered help.
In exchange, Rachel had to become close to Claire.
At first, the assignment seemed harmless because they were already sisters.
Evelyn asked for information about Claire’s health, relationships, menstrual cycles, and plans for children.
Rachel was told the Bennett Foundation was conducting a hereditary disease study.
Their father received private treatment.
The bills disappeared.
“I thought I was helping you,” Rachel said.
Claire stood beside the hospital bed, feeling as though the floor had opened beneath her.
“You gave strangers information about my body.”
“I was nineteen.”
“You continued for twelve years.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“At first, I didn’t understand.”
“When did you understand?”
“After you met Daniel.”
The charity auction had been arranged.
Rachel received instructions to bring Claire and place her at a specific table.
Daniel had not known.
Evelyn wanted to determine whether Claire and Daniel would form a natural connection.
“What if we hadn’t liked each other?” Claire asked.
“They would have tried another meeting.”
“And when we got married?”
“I was told the project had ended.”
“But you kept reporting to Evelyn.”
“She threatened Dad’s medical records. Some of the treatments he received were illegal. She said our mother could be prosecuted for signing documents.”
Their father had died despite the treatment.
Rachel continued obeying Evelyn out of fear, shame, and financial dependence.
Claire wanted to hate her completely.
It would have been easier.
But Rachel looked broken in the bed, and Claire remembered the sister who had slept beside her during thunderstorms, who had held Lily hours after her birth, who had helped Claire survive the separation.
Love did not disappear when betrayal was revealed.
It simply became painful.
“What were they studying?” Grant asked.
Rachel looked toward the door.
“Miriam believed the Bennett bloodline carried a rare regenerative trait. Most descendants did not show it. Laura did.”
Daniel stood near the wall.
“My sister?”
“She recovered from injuries unusually fast. Cuts healed within hours. Infections disappeared. Charles allowed Miriam to experiment on her.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“My father used his own daughter?”
“He believed the research could make the family powerful.”
“What happened at the pool?”
Rachel took a shallow breath.
“Laura tried to help the other children escape.”
The night of the drowning, Laura stole a key and opened several doors in the underground room.
Miriam and Charles caught her near the garden.
During the struggle, another child wearing Laura’s white dress fell into the pool.
Charles used the death to make Laura disappear.
Daniel had seen the other child’s body.
“The wrong girl died,” Claire whispered.
Rachel nodded.
“Laura was taken away under a new identity.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Miriam Laura?”
“No. Miriam is her mother.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
Rachel looked at him with pity.
“Evelyn did not give birth to Laura.”
Miriam and Charles had been having an affair. Laura was their child.
Evelyn discovered the truth after Laura’s supposed death. By then, Miriam had vanished with the girl.
Evelyn spent years trying to find them.
“Why did Evelyn continue the project?” Claire asked.
“She wanted to locate the genetic trait in Daniel’s future children. Daniel and Laura shared the same father.”
Claire understood.
The predicted female descendant.
Lily.
“Does Lily have this regenerative trait?”
“No,” Rachel said. “You do.”
Claire laughed once, certain she had misunderstood.
“That’s impossible.”
“Your father was Subject 7.”
Claire stopped moving.
Their father had not been an ordinary cancer patient selected for experimental treatment.
He had been connected to Project Thirty-Six long before his illness.
Miriam believed the rare trait required genetic markers from two different family lines.
The Bennetts carried one.
Claire’s family carried the other.
Lily was the first child to inherit both.
“That is why Miriam took her,” Rachel said. “Not to kill her. To prove the trait exists.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“She nearly killed Lily with magnets.”
“That was not part of the original plan.”
“Then who fed them to her?”
Rachel’s eyes filled with fear.
“Miriam forced me to steal my bracelet and uniform supplies, but she did not give Lily the magnets.”
“The camera showed someone wearing your bracelet.”
“It was someone working for her.”
“Who?”
“I never saw her face.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You said you didn’t know they would hurt Lily.”
“I knew they were planning to take blood. I thought it would happen during a routine appointment.”
Claire felt rage rising.
“You allowed them access to my daughter.”
“I tried to stop it. That is why Miriam kidnapped me.”
Grant asked, “Where would Miriam take Lily now?”
Rachel looked at Claire.
“There is one place where the project began.”
“The original clinic burned.”
“Not that clinic.”
May you like
Rachel’s voice dropped.
“The first laboratory is beneath Evelyn’s house.”
