Chapter 9 - Elena’s Choice
Elena looked exactly as Nathan remembered Claire describing her.
Quiet eyes.
Dark hair.
A scar near her right eyebrow.
But the woman behind the glass was thinner than the photograph Nathan had once seen in Claire’s office. Her clothes were torn, and one wrist was wrapped in a makeshift bandage.
Lily turned and threw one arm around her.
Nathan pressed the intercom.
“Elena, can you open the door?”
She shook her head.
“Hale controls the security system.”
“Where is Noah?”
“They are preparing to remove the device.”
“What device?”
Elena looked toward the cameras.
“They implanted monitors beneath both babies’ skin after they were born.”
Nathan kept his voice controlled. “Where?”
“Near the shoulder.”
“Why?”
“They said the devices only tracked temperature and breathing. I learned later that they were testing a remote medication delivery system.”
Rosa moved closer to the intercom.
“Are the devices active?”
“Elena nodded. “Hale can trigger them from the control room.”
Nathan looked toward the corridor with the blue light.
“What medication?”
“I don’t know. Marcus never allowed me to see the complete trial file.”
“Why would he allow your children to be used?”
“Because he needed healthy newborns with a documented family connection to the foundation.”
Lily held Eva tighter.
Elena placed her palm against the glass.
“Claire discovered the program years ago. It was smaller then. She tried to expose it.”
Nathan felt as if the floor had shifted beneath him.
“Did Marcus hurt Claire?”
“I don’t know.”
“You met her on March fourteenth.”
“Yes.”
“She came home injured.”
“Marcus’s security team followed us. Claire helped me escape.”
“And after Claire died?”
“She left evidence with Philip and created a deposit box at St. Catherine’s. But she believed someone inside the hospital would destroy it if only one person could open it.”
“Why me and Rosa?”
“Because Claire trusted that grief would not change who you were.”
A door opened behind Elena.
Dr. Victor Hale entered wearing a white coat.
He appeared calm, almost disappointed.
“Elena, step away from the child.”
She moved in front of Lily instead.
Hale looked through the glass at Nathan.
“You are frightening children who require specialized treatment.”
“You abducted them from an ambulance.”
“I corrected an unauthorized transport.”
“The sheriff is standing beside me.”
Hale glanced at the deputies.
“Then the sheriff should understand that this facility contains confidential medical research protected by federal agreements.”
One deputy held up a phone. “The warrant is being prepared.”
Hale smiled.
“By the time it arrives, the emergency will be over.”
A blue light illuminated the room at the end of the corridor.
Nathan heard an infant cry.
Noah.
He examined the electronic lock beside the glass door.
“Hale,” Nathan said, “if you activate an unapproved device inside that child, every person here becomes a witness.”
“The device is safer than the surgery required to remove it.”
“Then why are you preparing an operating room?”
Hale’s expression changed slightly.
Elena answered.
“Because the missing page includes Noah’s device serial number.”
Nathan understood.
If the device remained inside Noah, it physically connected the infant to the illegal trial.
“They want to remove the evidence,” he said.
Hale reached for Elena.
Lily moved suddenly.
She pulled the black key marked 314 from beneath her hospital gown and pushed it into a small emergency access slot beside the glass door.
The mechanism clicked.
The doors slid open.
Rosa rushed forward and took Eva.
Nathan stepped between Hale and Elena.
The deputies restrained Hale without violence.
May you like
But the blue light at the end of the corridor began flashing faster.
Nathan ran toward Noah.
