Chapter 10 - DANIEL’S TWO YEARS
Daniel recovered in a private hospital under armed guard.
For forty-eight hours, he drifted between consciousness and nightmares. Rachel remained beside him. Emma slept in a chair with Mr. Snow tucked beneath her chin. Adrian visited only when the doctors allowed.
The public story was impossible to contain.
A fire at a Westwood property. A missing fiancée. An abducted child. An unidentified man shot in the shoulder and arrested near the woods.
Julian survived.
He was transferred to a federal medical facility, where he refused to speak to anyone except Emma.
Adrian refused the request.
Madison’s body was not found.
Neither was the film reel.
On the third morning, Daniel asked to see Adrian alone.
Rachel resisted, but Daniel insisted.
“There are things I can’t say in front of Emma.”
They met in a secure consultation room. Daniel’s wrists bore scars from restraints. His voice was weak, but his mind was clear.
“I didn’t abandon them,” he began.
“I know.”
“No. You know I was taken. You don’t know why I stayed gone.”
Adrian waited.
Daniel looked at the camera in the ceiling. “Turn it off.”
“It’s isolated.”
“Nothing in a Westwood building is isolated.”
Adrian disabled the system and placed a white-noise device on the table.
Daniel continued.
“Your father recruited me eleven years ago. He was living under the name Thomas Wren. He had proof Project Heir was still operating through the foundation.”
“My father was dead.”
“That’s what Margaret told you.”
“Why would he disappear from his own son?”
“He believed Charles would use you to find him.”
“Did Charles survive?”
“Yes. He controls part of the network. Julian controls another. They hate each other, but both wanted the archive.”
“And Madison?”
Daniel laughed once, without humor.
“Madison worked for your father.”
Adrian leaned back.
“That makes no sense.”
“She was supposed to get close to you, identify who had access to the original project files, and protect you from Charles.”
“She surveilled my family.”
“She changed sides.”
“When?”
“After your father died for real.”
Adrian’s throat tightened.
“How?”
“Madison killed him.”
The room went silent.
Daniel described a meeting at a hotel in Prague. Adrian’s father had planned to deliver evidence to international investigators. Madison discovered he intended to expose her role in previous operations. She poisoned him and took the archive key.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“Because Charles controlled the investigation team. I returned to Westwood Hall to collect independent proof. Madison discovered me in the red room.”
“She kept you alive for two years?”
“She needed access to files encrypted with my biometrics.”
“And the man who looked like you?”
“A surgical double. One of Charles’s methods. Create a replacement, control the evidence, rewrite a person’s choices.”
“Was he driving the car?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
Daniel looked toward the dark camera.
“Closer than you think.”
Adrian thought of Owen.
Daniel saw the suspicion.
“Not him.”
“Who?”
“The double was trained to replace me inside Rachel’s life if necessary. He knows our memories. Our routines. Emma’s songs.”
Adrian felt cold.
“Could Rachel identify him?”
“Eventually.”
“Could Emma?”
“She already did.”
Daniel reached beneath his hospital blanket and removed a narrow strip of cloth. Stitched into it was a sequence of letters.
M V A C P H.
“What is this?”
“Madison’s access route. Madison Vale, Archive, Charles, Project Heir.”
“That tells me nothing.”
“It’s not an acronym. It’s a bloodline.”
Daniel explained that the archive used genetic locks. The system required samples from multiple Westwood branches. Madison had spent years collecting them from glasses, hairbrushes, medical vials.
“Why Emma?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with shame.
“Because Rachel is not who she thinks she is.”
Adrian said nothing.
“Rachel was adopted. Her birth records were sealed by the foundation. Her biological father was Charles Westwood.”
Rachel was Julian’s half-sister.
Emma was Westwood blood.
That was why the child could open the archive.
“That is impossible,” Adrian said.
“I tested it twice.”
“Does Rachel know?”
“No.”
“Does Julian?”
“Yes.”
Adrian stood.
Daniel caught his wrist.
“There’s more. Emma isn’t the only child they need.”
“Who else?”
Daniel looked toward the hospital door.
“Sophie.”
A scream sounded in the corridor.
Adrian rushed out.
Rachel stood beside Emma’s empty chair.
The window was open.
May you like
On the glass, written in a child’s finger through the condensation, were four words.
SOPHIE TOOK ME HOME.
