Chapter 8 - The Blood Beneath the Chapel
Claire escaped through the mansion’s greenhouse.
Rebecca led her and Melissa along an old service path concealed behind rows of white lilies.
At the rear wall, a narrow gate opened into the neighboring woods.
Elena waited there with her car running.
“Jordan is safe,” she said as Claire climbed inside.
“What about Lily?”
“Daniel’s people took her from the house ten minutes ago.”
Claire felt as if the ground had vanished.
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Rebecca sat beside her.
“They need Lily as leverage.”
“Drive.”
Elena sped toward the city.
On the way, Melissa explained the court order. Daniel had submitted evidence claiming Claire refused necessary formula deliveries, suffered paranoid delusions, trespassed at Dr. Warren’s home, and endangered Lily during an attempted escape.
The order granted temporary emergency custody to Daniel.
“They planned everything,” Claire said.
“Since the birthday dinner,” Elena replied. “Possibly longer.”
At St. Catherine’s, the main entrances were guarded.
Rebecca directed Elena to an underground parking structure connected to the abandoned east wing.
They entered through a maintenance tunnel.
The old hospital corridors had been closed for twenty years. Paint peeled from the walls. Broken wheelchairs stood beneath sheets of plastic.
At the end of the tunnel, they found a wooden door marked with a faded cross.
The chapel beyond had no altar.
Instead, rows of metal cabinets lined the walls.
At the center of the floor stood a stone baptismal basin.
Rebecca inserted the silver key into a slot beneath the basin.
The entire structure shifted with a mechanical groan, revealing stairs descending underground.
Melissa stared into the darkness.
“You grew up here?”
“For part of my childhood,” Rebecca said.
They followed her down.
The hidden laboratory remained largely intact.
Glass rooms surrounded a central corridor. Child-sized hospital beds stood behind observation windows. Old monitors rested beside cabinets of sealed medical equipment.
Claire imagined children waking there alone.
At the final door, a red scanner illuminated.
Rebecca pressed her thumb against a needle plate.
A drop of blood disappeared into the machine.
One light turned green.
Claire did the same.
The second light flashed red.
ACCESS DENIED.
Rebecca tried again.
Red.
“That’s impossible,” she whispered.
“You said Anna’s bloodline.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked at her.
“Daniel isn’t my father.”
“That should not matter. Anna is your mother.”
Melissa approached the scanner.
“Try mine.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“It needs Anna’s line.”
Melissa pressed her thumb against the needle.
The second light turned green.
The vault opened.
No one spoke.
Claire stared at Melissa.
“You’re Anna’s biological daughter.”
Melissa’s face went blank.
Rebecca stepped backward.
“No.”
Inside the vault, a wall of files stretched from floor to ceiling.
A video monitor activated automatically.
Anna Mercer appeared on the screen.
She looked tired and frightened.
“If this recording is playing, then Rebecca and one of my daughters have opened the archive.”
Claire moved closer.
Anna continued.
“Meridian manipulated birth records to hide the identity of the second-generation child. Rebecca was told Melissa was hers. I was told Claire was mine.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“The truth is more complicated.”
The recording flickered.
“Rebecca gave birth to Claire.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“Anna gave birth to Melissa.”
Melissa began crying silently.
“You were switched to protect both lines. Miriam wanted to study how environment altered the treatment’s inheritance. Daniel agreed to raise Claire because he believed she carried the valuable response.”
Claire could barely hear over the pounding in her ears.
Anna looked directly into the camera.
“Claire, Daniel Mercer is not your biological father. Your father was Dr. Samuel Warren.”
The screen went black.
Rebecca reached toward Claire.
Claire stepped away.
“All of you knew except me.”
“I didn’t know,” Rebecca whispered.
“My entire life was an experiment.”
“So was mine.”
“And Lily?”
Rebecca looked toward the files.
“Lily is Miriam Vale’s great-granddaughter.”
An alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed across the laboratory.
A mechanical voice announced:
VAULT ACCESS REPORTED.
SECURITY RESPONSE ACTIVATED.
Elena began loading files into a medical cart.
“We cannot take everything.”
“Take the patient lists,” Claire said. “And the treatment formula.”
Rebecca searched the shelves.
Melissa found a box labeled GENERATION THREE.
Inside were only two folders.
One carried Lily’s name.
The other carried a name Claire had never seen.
ROSE ELLISON.
Status: Stable.
Location: Hollow Creek.
Claire remembered Anna’s photograph.
Rebecca’s daughter survived.
Her name is Rose.
But if Rebecca was Claire’s biological mother, who was Rose?
A screen on the wall displayed live security footage.
Daniel entered the chapel above with armed guards.
Evelyn walked beside him.
Lily was between them.
Her feeding backpack was gone.
She looked weak and frightened.
Daniel faced the hidden camera.
“I know you can see me, Claire.”
He placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder.
“Bring me the archive.”
Claire rushed toward the stairs, but Rebecca blocked her.
“He will take the files and keep Lily.”
“He already has her.”
Daniel’s voice continued through the speaker.
“You have five minutes. After that, Lily receives the final Meridian dose.”
Lily began to cry.
Claire looked around the vault.
On a lower shelf sat a row of black vials.
Each bore the Meridian symbol.
Beside them was a red vial labeled REVERSAL PROTOCOL.
Claire picked it up.
Rebecca stared at the label.
“Miriam told us it never existed.”
May you like
Claire held the vial tightly.
“Then tonight we find out who was lying.”
