Chapter 12 - The House of White Lilies
Evelyn Bennett’s mansion stood behind iron gates on the northern edge of the city.
Police arrived with a search warrant shortly after midnight.
Evelyn waited in the entrance hall wearing a gray silk robe.
She appeared unsurprised.
“You will not find Lily here,” she said.
Claire stepped toward her.
“You knew Miriam was alive.”
Evelyn’s expression remained controlled.
“I suspected.”
“You watched my family for years.”
“I protected my family.”
“You selected me to produce a child.”
Daniel moved between them before Claire could strike his mother.
Evelyn looked at him.
“I did what was necessary.”
“For what?”
“To find Laura.”
Daniel stared at her.
“All this time, you knew she might be alive.”
“I knew Charles lied. I did not know where Miriam took her.”
“So you used Claire.”
“I funded research.”
“You arranged our meeting.”
“You loved her.”
“That does not excuse what you did.”
Evelyn’s composure cracked.
“Do you think I wanted this? Your father gave my life to that woman. He used my name, my money, my foundation. He placed sick children beneath my home and told me they were receiving treatment.”
“You signed the documents,” Claire said.
“I signed what my husband placed before me.”
“You continued after he died.”
“Because Miriam contacted me.”
The room fell silent.
Evelyn admitted that Miriam had threatened to reveal Project Thirty-Six unless the foundation continued funding her research.
She sent periodic photographs proving Laura remained alive.
Evelyn paid.
Then, seven years earlier, Miriam demanded access to Daniel’s future children.
Evelyn began searching for a genetically compatible partner.
She found Claire.
“You could have gone to the police,” Grant said.
“And destroy Daniel’s life? Destroy the foundation? Send innocent employees to prison?”
“You protected your reputation.”
“I protected the only family I had left.”
Claire looked around the mansion.
White lilies filled crystal vases on every table.
Lily associated the scent with the masked woman because someone in Evelyn’s house had handled the magnets.
“Where is the laboratory?” Grant asked.
Evelyn denied that one existed.
Police searched the basement and found nothing.
Rachel had insisted the entrance was beneath the house.
Daniel began walking through the lower hallway.
He stopped before a large portrait of Charles Bennett.
As a child, Daniel had been forbidden to touch it.
He lifted the frame.
Behind it was an old elevator panel.
Evelyn’s face changed.
“You knew,” Claire said.
“I knew there was a service lift. Charles told me it had been sealed.”
Daniel entered the code he had remembered at the estate.
The elevator doors opened.
A metal platform descended into darkness.
Grant’s tactical officers went first.
Claire followed before anyone could stop her.
The underground laboratory was larger than the mansion above it.
Modern equipment filled several rooms. Refrigerated storage units hummed beside computer stations.
Someone had been using the facility recently.
They found Lily’s pink hospital blanket near the elevator.
Claire picked it up.
It was still warm.
“Lily!”
Her voice echoed through the corridors.
A child cried somewhere ahead.
Claire ran.
Daniel and Grant followed.
They entered a treatment room surrounded by glass walls.
Lily lay on a table, awake and frightened.
Electrodes were attached to her chest.
A woman in a white coat stood beside her.
Dr. Miriam Vale appeared to be in her late sixties. Her dark hair was streaked with silver, but her posture was strong.
She held a syringe against Lily’s intravenous line.
“Step back,” Miriam said.
Claire stopped.
“Let her go.”
“I will, when the test is complete.”
“You already have her blood.”
“Blood reveals only markers. I need to observe the response.”
“To what?”
Miriam raised the syringe.
“A controlled toxin.”
Daniel moved forward.
Miriam pressed the needle closer.
“I will inject it if anyone enters.”
Lily sobbed.
“Mommy.”
Claire forced herself to remain still.
“You fed her the magnets.”
“No.”
“Your employee did.”
“No employee of mine would damage the subject before testing.”
“Subject?”
Miriam looked at Lily with almost religious fascination.
“She is the culmination of forty years of work.”
“She is a child.”
“She is proof that death can be delayed, perhaps defeated.”
Claire looked through the glass wall.
A second door stood behind Miriam.
A shadow moved beyond it.
Someone else was inside.
Miriam noticed Claire’s gaze.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed her face.
The door opened.
A younger woman stepped into the room wearing blue hospital scrubs.
Rachel’s bracelet circled her wrist.
Lily screamed.
“That’s the lady.”
The woman removed her mask.
Daniel made a sound Claire had never heard before.
The face was older than the girl in the photograph, but the gray-blue eyes were unchanged.
May you like
Laura Bennett smiled at her brother.
“Hello, Daniel.”
