Chapter 14 - The Woman in the Glass
Claire approached the chamber.
The young woman inside appeared no older than forty.
Her silver-blond hair floated around her face in clear preservation fluid. Sensors covered her chest and temples.
A metal plate beneath the chamber read:
SUBJECT E-1.
Evelyn gripped Claire’s arm.
“That is not me.”
Harold’s voice sounded through the speakers.
“Technically, she is.”
Cole examined the control panel.
“Cryogenic preservation?”
“Not exactly,” Harold replied. “The Bellweather medical division developed suspended metabolic therapy decades before the technology became public.”
Claire looked at the young woman.
“Who is she?”
“The original Evelyn Bellweather.”
Evelyn’s grip tightened.
Harold displayed a photograph of three girls.
Two were identical infants.
The third was a slightly older child.
“Silas and Margaret Bellweather could not conceive,” Harold said. “They entered an experimental fertility program operated by Adrian Vale Senior.”
Claire turned toward her grandmother.
Evelyn’s face had gone pale.
Harold continued.
“The program created two genetically matched embryos using Margaret’s cells and donor material. One became Martha. One became the woman in the chamber.”
“And Grandma?”
“An orphan selected to replace the infant when the original Evelyn developed a rare metabolic disorder.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“My name was Rose.”
Harold’s revelation moved through the room like a shock wave.
“My adoptive records were destroyed,” Evelyn said. “Silas and Margaret raised me as Evelyn because they feared the scandal would destroy the company.”
“What happened to the real Evelyn?”
“She was placed in experimental treatment.”
“And Martha?”
“Declared dead and adopted away because Silas wanted only one public heir.”
Claire looked between the elderly woman beside her and the preserved woman in the chamber.
“Then the trust doesn’t belong to our family.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with pain.
“Not by blood.”
“But Silas’s amendment said choice determines succession.”
“I added that note.”
“You forged it?”
“I clarified what he intended.”
Harold laughed through the speakers.
“She rewrote the trust to justify stealing the Bellweather empire.”
Evelyn looked toward the camera.
“I spent my entire life protecting what your father would have destroyed.”
“You mean what he was entitled to inherit.”
“Adrian was entitled to nothing.”
“He preserved Silas’s daughter.”
“For experiments.”
Harold’s expression hardened.
“For the future.”
Cole found an emergency release control for Martha’s chamber.
“It needs chairman authorization.”
Claire placed her hand on the scanner.
ACCESS DENIED.
Harold said, “Activation is incomplete.”
“What else do you need?”
“The chairman must validate the continuity charter.”
A document appeared on the monitor.
It transferred oversight of Bellweather medical subsidiaries to a Continuity Council chaired by Harold.
“You want me to sign over the companies.”
“I want you to restore the structure Silas designed.”
“And then?”
“You return to your ordinary life with five million dollars.”
“What happens to Evelyn?”
“Rose committed fraud, theft, and conspiracy.”
“She exposed your father.”
“She stole my inheritance.”
Evelyn spoke with renewed strength.
“Your father did not preserve the real Evelyn to save her. He used her blood to develop treatments sold through secret military contracts.”
Harold’s face disappeared from the monitor.
Alarms sounded.
Water began pouring into the far corridor.
“He’s flooding the house,” Daniel said.
The tactical team attempted to force the exit, but steel barriers sealed the tunnel.
Water climbed across the floor.
Claire looked at the continuity charter.
“Can signing it open the chambers?”
Cole read the controls.
“It may grant full system authority.”
“Or give Harold the company,” Ortiz said.
Martha’s chamber began filling with dark fluid.
Daniel pounded on the glass.
“Do it.”
Claire placed her hand on the scanner and signed the charter.
CHAIRMAN AUTHORITY VALIDATED.
The chamber released.
Daniel and Cole pulled Martha onto the floor.
The young woman’s chamber also opened.
Preservation fluid rushed into the room.
Claire caught the woman as she fell forward.
Her skin was cold.
Her eyes remained closed.
The system announced that emergency exits were unlocked.
They carried Evelyn, Martha, and the preserved woman through the rising water.
At the chapel entrance, armed agents arrested two of Vale’s men.
Harold and Adrian had escaped.
Medical teams rushed the three women to separate ambulances.
Claire rode with the woman labeled E-1.
Halfway to the hospital, the monitor detected a heartbeat.
One beat.
Then another.
The young woman opened her eyes.
May you like
She stared at Claire and whispered one word.
“Silas?”
