Chapter 11 - The Brother Who Refused to Be Found
Brooke put the call on speaker.
Rain struck the stone steps of the mausoleum.
Daniel stared at the phone.
“Are you my brother?”
The man on the line remained silent for several seconds.
“Biologically, yes.”
Victoria moved closer.
“Alexander?”
“My name is Adrian Cole.”
“I’m your mother.”
“No. You are the woman whose foundation purchased the pregnancy that created me.”
Victoria recoiled.
Richard’s recording had suggested Alexander was the child born to Victoria and Richard, then secretly removed.
Adrian’s words suggested something else.
Daniel spoke carefully.
“Our father said you were registered as their son.”
“I was registered under several names.”
“Where are you?”
“Far enough away to survive.”
Brooke looked at Daniel.
“Why shouldn’t we go to the lake house?”
“Because Marcus Hale is already there.”
Emily’s heart raced.
“How do you know?”
“I have been watching him.”
“Why?”
“Because he works for Eleanor Whitmore.”
Victoria gripped the phone.
“My sister is seventy-two years old and lives in Switzerland.”
“She lives wherever the program needs her to live.”
Daniel looked toward the cemetery road.
Police lights passed in the distance, heading toward the institute.
“Arthur said the ledger is at the boathouse.”
“Arthur does not know Richard moved it.”
“Where is it?”
“I will tell you after Sophie is safe.”
Emily stepped closer.
“You know about my daughter?”
“I know about every child descended from Richard.”
“You’re part of Vale’s network.”
“No. Vale’s network watches children. Mine watches Vale.”
Daniel’s patience broke.
“My daughter has months to live. We do not have time for another man to control information.”
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“Then listen carefully. Sophie does not need the ledger tonight. She needs Brooke’s cells and a treatment protocol identified as R-17.”
Emily held up the flash drive Arthur had given her.
“We have a protocol.”
“Do not use it.”
“Arthur said it could save her.”
“It can. It can also make her dependent on continued treatments only his institute can produce.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“What do you mean dependent?”
“The regenerative cells are modified with a synthetic protein. Without follow-up infusions, the repaired tissue may deteriorate.”
“Is there another version?” Emily asked.
“Yes. R-17B.”
“Where?”
“In the private archive at the hospital.”
“Arthur said the protocol was already there.”
“He sent the original version. Dr. Bennett secretly received the corrected one from me.”
Emily looked at the hospital in the distance.
“Why would Dr. Bennett trust you?”
“Because his daughter was one of the program’s descendants.”
No one spoke.
Adrian continued.
“Return to the hospital. Ask Bennett about Nora.”
The call disconnected.
They flew back to Boston.
Dr. Bennett met them in a private consultation room.
When Emily said Nora’s name, he closed the door.
“My daughter died twelve years ago,” he said.
“From the same heart disease?”
“Yes.”
“Did Arthur treat her?”
“He tried. The treatment repaired part of her heart, but she developed a severe immune reaction.”
Emily sat down.
“She was the child who died.”
“Yes.”
Dr. Bennett looked at the flash drive.
“Arthur has carried the guilt ever since.”
“Why did Adrian say there is a safer protocol?”
The surgeon removed a drive from his locked drawer.
“Because Nora’s death taught us what went wrong.”
“You worked with Adrian?”
“I received anonymous research files for years. I did not know his real name.”
Daniel paced the room.
“Can you use the safer version on Sophie?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly is not enough.”
“No experimental treatment comes with certainty.”
Emily looked through the glass at Sophie’s room.
Sophie was awake, drawing planets on a hospital tray.
“What happens if we do nothing?”
“She may stabilize for weeks or months. Or she may suffer another crisis tomorrow.”
“And if we use the treatment?”
“She could experience meaningful heart recovery.”
“Or die like Nora.”
“Yes.”
Daniel sat beside Emily.
For the first time, he did not tell her what he thought she should do.
He waited.
Emily looked at Brooke.
“Would donating cells endanger you?”
Dr. Bennett answered.
“The collection procedure is usually safe, but Brooke’s own heart must be evaluated first.”
Brooke nodded.
“Test me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You have already lost enough because of my family.”
Brooke met his eyes.
“Sophie is not responsible for your family.”
The examination revealed that Brooke carried the mutation but showed no active heart damage.
She was approved for cell collection.
The process would begin in the morning.
Daniel remained outside Sophie’s room until Emily finally allowed him to enter.
“Do not tell her who you are,” Emily said.
“Not yet.”
Daniel nodded.
He sat beside the bed.
Sophie studied him.
“You’re the sad man.”
“I suppose I am.”
“Mommy says you’re from her past.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know me when I was a baby?”
Daniel struggled to answer.
“No. But I wish I had.”
Sophie considered this.
“Do you like Jupiter?”
“It is the king of the planets.”
Her eyes widened.
“That’s what I say.”
Daniel smiled.
For ten minutes, they talked about space.
When Sophie fell asleep, Daniel quietly cried beside her bed.
Emily watched from the doorway.
She did not forgive him.
But for the first time, she believed he had truly lost something too.
At midnight, a nurse delivered a sealed envelope addressed to Emily.
Inside was a copy of Sophie’s birth certificate.
The father’s name field, once blank, had been filled in.
Daniel Richard Whitmore.
May you like
A second page contained a court order requesting emergency custody review.
The petitioner was Victoria Whitmore.
