Chapter 7 - Rebecca Vale
The woman in green closed the dining room doors.
Claire instinctively stepped between her and Melissa.
“You’re Rebecca.”
The woman nodded.
“My name is Rebecca Vale.”
Melissa gripped the back of her chair.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Meridian prefers dead women. We are easier to discredit.”
Claire studied her.
Rebecca appeared to be in her late forties, though exhaustion made her look older. Her green coat was damp, and a thin silver chain hung around her neck.
“Were you visiting Lily at the hospital?” Claire asked.
“Yes.”
“You took her blood.”
“To compare it with mine.”
“You had no right.”
“No,” Rebecca said. “But I had very little time.”
Melissa moved closer.
“Why didn’t you come for me?”
Rebecca’s composure cracked.
“I tried.”
“You abandoned me.”
“Anna took you because Meridian was following me.”
“You knew where I was.”
“Not until you were sixteen.”
Melissa’s face twisted.
“And then?”
“Daniel threatened to put you into a permanent research ward if I approached.”
Claire remembered Daniel’s influence at St. Catherine’s.
“Why does Meridian want Lily?”
Rebecca looked toward the staircase.
“Because Lily’s condition is reversing itself.”
Claire stared at her.
“She is getting worse.”
“Her symptoms are worsening because someone is forcing her body to remain dependent.”
“The formula,” Claire said.
Rebecca nodded.
“The nutritional compound activates the altered genes. Without it, Lily may experience a dangerous withdrawal, but her body could begin correcting the response.”
Claire thought of the replacement boxes.
“Dr. Warren changed her dosage.”
“He discovered the truth.”
“Is he alive?”
Rebecca did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Hidden.”
“Why did the police find his blood?”
“He left it deliberately to make Meridian believe he was injured.”
Claire’s anger rose.
“He let me be arrested.”
“He did not know Daniel would frame you so quickly.”
“Everyone keeps deciding what risks I should take.”
Rebecca lowered her head.
“You are right.”
Melissa stepped closer to her biological mother.
“Did Grandma tell me to inject Lily because she knew this would happen?”
“Yes.”
Melissa slapped Rebecca.
The sound echoed through the room.
Rebecca did not defend herself.
Melissa struck her again.
“You knew!”
“I learned about the injection years later.”
“You could have warned Claire.”
“I sent messages.”
“We never received them.”
“Daniel intercepted them.”
Claire looked around the mansion.
“Where are Daniel and Evelyn?”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“They are meeting Meridian’s directors.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel intends to transfer Lily into a private treatment program.”
“He cannot take her.”
“He can if he proves you are medically negligent or mentally unstable.”
The arrest.
The planted blood.
The false security footage.
They were building a case.
Claire reached for her phone.
“We need the police.”
Rebecca gave a bitter laugh.
“Daniel has donated millions to the department.”
“Then the press.”
“They will call the documents fabricated.”
“I have Jordan.”
“They will destroy him too.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Then tell me what will stop them.”
Rebecca removed the silver chain from her neck.
Attached to it was a small key.
“Miriam Vale kept the original Meridian trial archive inside St. Catherine’s old research chapel.”
“A chapel?”
“The hospital was built over a convent. Meridian converted part of the basement into a laboratory decades ago.”
“What is in the archive?”
“Consent forms, patient lists, treatment formulas, recordings, and the names of every director.”
“Why haven’t you taken it?”
“The vault requires two genetic keys.”
Claire looked at the physical key in Rebecca’s hand.
“That doesn’t sound like genetics.”
“The metal key opens the outer door. The vault scans blood from two lines.”
“Which lines?”
“Mine and Anna’s.”
Claire understood.
“You need me.”
“Yes.”
A siren sounded outside.
Red and blue lights filled the windows.
Melissa moved toward the curtain.
“Police.”
Rebecca stepped back.
“I was followed.”
A voice boomed through the entrance hall.
“Claire Mercer, come out with your hands visible.”
Daniel.
Not a police officer.
Claire looked through the window.
Daniel stood beside three uniformed officers and a woman from child protection services.
Evelyn waited inside a black car.
Daniel held a court order.
“Claire,” he called, “we are here to protect Lily.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Lily was not in the mansion.
She was still at Jordan’s house.
Daniel smiled as though he had heard her thought.
“Your friend’s home is being searched now.”
Claire called Jordan.
No answer.
She called his sister.
No answer.
Then Lily’s feeding pump sent an alert to Claire’s phone.
CONNECTION LOST.
Claire ran toward the back door.
Rebecca caught her arm.
“They want you to panic.”
“They have my daughter.”
“If they wanted Lily at the hospital, she would already be there. They need you for the vault.”
Claire pulled free.
“I don’t care about the vault.”
“You will when you understand what is inside it.”
“What could matter more than Lily?”
May you like
Rebecca looked toward Daniel through the window.
“A record proving that Daniel Mercer is not your father.”
