Chapter 13 - THE FRIEND WHO BETRAYED HIM
Dylan hit Ethan before anyone could stop him.
One punch.
Hard.
Ethan fell against the wall.
Olivia grabbed Dylan.
“Stop.”
“He knew.”
“I know.”
“He knew everything.”
Ethan wiped blood from his mouth.
“Not everything.”
Dylan lunged again.
Adam stepped between them.
“We need answers.”
Dylan pointed at Ethan.
“He sent me to Zurich.”
Ethan nodded.
“Yes.”
“You arranged it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get you out of Boston.”
“That’s what my mother wanted.”
“No.”
Ethan looked at him.
“That’s what I wanted.”
Dylan stared.
“Why?”
“Because I knew Olivia was going into labor early.”
Olivia frowned.
“How?”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“I had access to medical monitoring.”
Dylan nearly hit him again.
Adam held him back.
Ethan continued.
“I believed if you were here, Wren would accelerate the protocol.”
“Protocol?”
“Convergence.”
Olivia’s voice trembled.
“Explain.”
Ethan looked at her.
“North Winter has spent decades trying to reconstruct the Founders Vault access sequence.”
“Using children?”
“Yes.”
“What happens to them?”
Ethan hesitated.
Dylan grabbed his collar.
“What happens?”
“Mostly nothing.”
“Mostly?”
“Testing. Monitoring. Blood collection.”
Adam’s face became murderous.
“You’re lying.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Some children were removed.”
“Removed?”
“Relocated.”
Adam laughed bitterly.
“You mean kidnapped.”
“Yes.”
Olivia thought of Noah.
Her entire body tightened.
Ethan continued.
“The network weakened after Charles Hayes and Michael Carter began interfering. Rebecca stole the central index. Without it, North Winter could identify bloodlines but not complete the access protocol.”
Adam stared.
“And now?”
“Now Noah exists.”
Dylan shoved Ethan against the wall.
“Why did you help me discover my mother’s investigation?”
“Because Victoria’s method was failing.”
“What method?”
“Destroy your relationship. Keep Olivia angry. Keep the baby legally disconnected from Hayes.”
Olivia stared.
“She wanted Noah listed only as Carter.”
“Yes.”
“So North Winter wouldn’t detect the combination?”
“Yes.”
Margaret’s hospital request flashed through Olivia’s mind.
“Then who forged the birth amendment?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Me.”
Dylan stared.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To trigger the alert.”
Olivia slapped him.
Ethan did not resist.
“You marked my son.”
“I needed Adam.”
Everyone looked at Adam.
Ethan continued.
“We thought Adam was dead for years. Then we discovered someone was monitoring old North Winter codes.”
Adam’s jaw tightened.
“You used Noah to flush me out.”
“Yes.”
Dylan grabbed him again.
“You endangered my child.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“Because Wren has Rebecca.”
Silence.
Adam’s face lost color.
Olivia whispered:
“What?”
Ethan looked at Adam.
“Your mother is alive.”
Adam stopped breathing.
Dylan released Ethan.
“No.”
Ethan nodded.
“Rebecca Carter never died.”
Adam’s weapon dropped slightly.
“Where?”
“I don’t know the exact location.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere under Wren’s control.”
Adam slammed Ethan into the wall.
“You expect me to believe my mother has been alive for twenty-nine years?”
“She’s why North Winter never opened the Vault.”
“Why?”
“She refuses to give them the missing sequence.”
Adam’s face twisted.
“They tortured her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know enough.”
“I know she’s alive because I saw her eighteen months ago.”
Adam froze.
“You saw her.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A facility.”
“Where?”
Ethan looked toward Dylan.
“Massachusetts.”
Dylan shook his head.
“That’s not enough.”
“North Winter rotates patients.”
Olivia flinched at the word.
“Patients?”
Ethan corrected himself.
“Captives.”
Adam turned away.
For the first time, he looked less like a mysterious survivor and more like a boy who had spent his entire life believing his mother was dead.
Dylan understood that pain.
He had spent twenty-eight years believing his father’s death was natural.
Their families had been living inside fabricated histories.
Ethan opened his jacket carefully.
Adam raised the weapon again.
Ethan removed a flash drive.
“This is why they shot at Black Harbor.”
He placed it on a metal table.
“What is it?”
“A partial North Winter directory.”
Adam stared.
“Where did you get it?”
“Wren’s office.”
“You’ve seen Wren recently?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Dylan stepped closer.
“Where?”
Ethan hesitated.
Then spoke.
“Hayes Tower.”
Dylan laughed in disbelief.
“My building?”
“The executive medical suite beneath Level B.”
“There is no Level B.”
“There is.”
Dylan felt sick.
A hidden facility beneath a building carrying his family name.
Ethan looked at him.
“Your father found it thirty years ago.”
“Why didn’t he expose it?”
“He tried.”
“And died.”
“Yes.”
Olivia took the flash drive.
“We go back.”
Adam nodded.
“No.”
Ethan’s voice stopped them.
Everyone turned.
Ethan looked terrified.
“You cannot return to Boston.”
“Why?”
“Because Wren knows Dylan is with you.”
“So?”
“He doesn’t need Noah anymore.”
Olivia’s face went white.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan stared at Dylan.
“The Vault doesn’t require a living infant.”
Silence.
“It requires a verified combined sample.”
Dylan understood.
“My blood.”
“And Olivia’s,” Ethan said.
Olivia stepped backward.
Ethan’s next words were worse.
“But there’s another combination.”
Adam stared.
“What?”
“Hayes and Carter through direct sibling lines.”
Dylan slowly turned toward Adam.
May you like
Ethan nodded.
“You two may be enough.”
