Chapter 9 - The Treatment Center Without Patients
The address led to a private medical complex two hours outside the city.
The building stood behind iron gates and tall pine trees.
No sign identified the facility.
Ryan arrived alone in Evelyn’s car as instructed.
Jonah, Maya, and two officers followed at a distance in an unmarked vehicle.
Evelyn waited near the entrance in her pearl-gray suit.
She opened the passenger door.
“You brought your phone?”
Ryan held it up.
“Leave it in the car.”
He placed it on the seat.
The tracker was hidden inside his belt.
Evelyn touched his cheek.
“You look like your father when you’re angry.”
“Don’t talk about him.”
“He understood difficult choices.”
“Did he know Celia was alive?”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“Your father knew less than he believed.”
She led Ryan through the entrance.
Inside, the corridors were clean and silent.
No receptionists.
No patients.
Only locked doors and soft mechanical sounds behind the walls.
“What is this place?”
“A research facility.”
“Who runs it?”
“People who gave Celia a chance when every hospital abandoned her.”
Ryan stopped.
“You told me she died.”
“She did.”
He stared at her.
Evelyn continued walking.
“The girl you knew died. Her organs failed. Her immune system destroyed itself. She survived because we rebuilt what we could.”
“Where is she?”
“Close.”
They entered an elevator.
Evelyn pressed a button requiring a code.
Ryan watched the numbers.
Below ground level.
The elevator descended for nearly a minute.
“How is Oliver involved?”
Evelyn did not answer.
“Did you replace his medication?”
“I controlled his symptoms.”
“You made them worse.”
“Temporary respiratory stress creates measurable immune responses.”
Ryan’s hands curled into fists.
“You experimented on my son.”
“I prepared him.”
“For what?”
“To save your sister.”
The doors opened.
A long glass corridor stretched ahead.
Behind one window was a laboratory filled with sealed chambers.
Behind another were empty hospital beds.
At the end of the corridor stood a reinforced door.
Evelyn entered a code.
The door opened.
A woman lay inside a transparent medical enclosure.
She had dark hair threaded with silver.
Her skin was pale.
Machines surrounded her.
Ryan stepped closer.
“Celia?”
The woman’s eyes opened.
They were the same green as his.
Her lips moved beneath an oxygen mask.
Ryan could not hear her.
Evelyn pressed an intercom button.
Celia’s voice emerged weakly.
“Ryan.”
He placed both hands against the glass.
For a moment, he was eleven again.
“I’m here.”
A tear moved down Celia’s cheek.
“You shouldn’t be.”
Ryan turned to Evelyn.
“What did you do to her?”
“I kept her alive.”
Celia shook her head.
“No.”
Evelyn switched off the intercom.
Ryan grabbed her wrist.
“Turn it back on.”
“Listen to me. Celia needs a compatible marrow donor. Oliver is the closest match we have ever found.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he was created from the correct line.”
Ryan released her.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn looked through the glass at Celia.
“Your father funded an embryo program before he died.”
Ryan felt the room shift.
“My father?”
“He knew Celia’s disease was inherited. He believed another child carrying selected genetic traits might provide a cure.”
“Oliver was not conceived in a laboratory.”
“Not by you.”
Ryan’s face drained of color.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“The infant you took home was never yours. He belonged to this program.”
“No child belongs to a program.”
“He was meant for Celia.”
“Then why place him with us?”
“Because someone at the hospital switched the infants and disappeared with the records.”
“Anna Vale.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you take him back immediately?”
“We were not certain he was the correct child. Anna changed the bracelets. DNA tests were compromised. We had to watch him grow.”
Ryan looked at Celia.
“And when you confirmed it?”
“I began preparing legal custody.”
“You poisoned him to make Maya look dangerous.”
“I created evidence that would survive judicial review.”
Ryan moved so close to Evelyn that she stepped back.
“You hurt my wife. You endangered my son.”
“I protected your blood family.”
“Maya and Oliver are my family.”
Evelyn’s expression became cold.
“Oliver is not your son.”
Behind the glass, Celia struck the enclosure weakly.
Ryan turned.
She pointed toward the ceiling.
A red warning light had begun flashing.
The intercom activated by itself.
May you like
Celia whispered, “She lied about Father too.”
Then every door in the facility locked.
