Chapter 9 - The Room Beneath the Garden
The underground room had not been opened in years.
Dust covered the metal beds, medical cabinets, and observation windows.
Yet someone had entered recently.
Fresh footprints crossed the floor.
A battery-powered lamp stood near Bed 19.
The photograph of Laura had been placed there within the past few days.
Detective Grant ordered everyone out until the forensic team arrived.
Claire refused to leave the stairwell.
“This place held children.”
Daniel stood behind her, unable to move.
He remembered more with every passing minute.
A nurse giving him a sweet drink.
Laura crying behind a glass door.
His father carrying a child wrapped in a yellow blanket.
A woman with dark hair arguing near the stairs.
“I was here,” he whispered.
Claire turned.
“You were one of the children?”
“No. I came down looking for Laura.”
“What happened?”
“My father caught me.”
Grant approached.
“Did he hurt you?”
Daniel touched the back of his neck.
“He gave me an injection.”
Claire stared at him.
“You never told anyone?”
“I didn’t remember.”
The forensic team discovered old medical charts inside a locked cabinet.
Most names had been replaced by numbers.
Children had undergone experimental treatments involving immune disorders, neurological conditions, and rare genetic diseases.
The Bennett Foundation had funded private research performed outside legal oversight.
Some children had been seriously ill.
Others appeared healthy.
Project Thirty-Six had not merely hidden children.
It had used them.
Claire felt physically sick.
“Why would Evelyn create this?” she asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“My father controlled the foundation then.”
“Your mother’s signature is on the records.”
“She signed everything he gave her.”
“You used that excuse yourself.”
The resemblance wounded him.
Daniel looked away.
Grant found a chart marked Subject 19.
The date of birth matched Lily’s.
The record had been created six years earlier, months before Claire became pregnant.
“How can a file exist before Lily was born?” Claire asked.
The chart contained predicted genetic markers.
Several matched information from Daniel’s family medical history.
One page mentioned a future female descendant.
Grant read silently.
“This looks like a monitoring plan.”
“For an unborn child?”
“Someone expected Daniel to have a daughter.”
Claire took the page.
Her name appeared near the bottom.
CLAIRE MORGAN, POTENTIAL MATERNAL CARRIER.
Morgan was her maiden name.
The date beside it was two years before she met Daniel.
Claire’s knees weakened.
“They knew who I was.”
Daniel reached for her.
She moved away.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Your family had a file on me before our first date.”
“I swear I didn’t know.”
Claire remembered meeting Daniel at a charity auction. Rachel had persuaded her to attend. A seating mistake placed Daniel beside Claire.
At least she had believed it was a mistake.
“Rachel brought me to that event.”
Grant looked up.
“Did Rachel know Daniel before you did?”
“No.”
The answer came automatically.
Then Claire remembered Daniel’s apartment code.
Rachel’s fierce defense of him.
Her private meetings with Evelyn.
The fifty-thousand-dollar request.
Rachel had said she found something connected to Daniel’s family.
Maybe she had not discovered it recently.
Maybe she had always been part of it.
A forensic technician called Grant toward the back wall.
Behind a movable cabinet, they found a steel door.
The electronic lock had been installed recently.
Daniel entered an old family access code.
The door opened.
Inside was a small modern office with computers, surveillance screens, and file cabinets.
One screen displayed a live video feed.
Lily slept in her hospital room.
Claire lunged toward the monitor.
“They’re watching her.”
Grant called the officers guarding Lily.
No answer.
He tried again.
Static.
The second surveillance screen flickered on.
A masked woman stood outside Lily’s recovery room.
May you like
She held a syringe.
Claire turned and ran for the stairs.
