Chapter 6 - The Daughter He Left Behind
Julian’s security team returned fire from outside the church.
Stone fragments burst from the columns.
Clara crouched behind the altar with Lucas pressed against her body. The baby began to cry.
Julian covered them both with his jacket.
Arthur walked through the smoke with a pistol in his hand.
Beatrice followed behind him.
Her cream suit had been replaced by dark clothing, but her jewelry remained. Even while fleeing federal custody, Beatrice had apparently refused to abandon her diamonds.
Celia crawled toward the fallen key.
Beatrice saw her.
“Don’t,” she said.
Celia looked up.
For the first time, fear vanished from her face.
“You never could look at me.”
Beatrice’s mouth tightened.
“You were not my child.”
“Neither was Clara.”
“No. But Clara could pass.”
Clara felt the words like a physical blow.
Arthur pointed the gun toward Celia.
“She was healthy,” Beatrice continued. “Beautiful. Presentable. You were sick from the treatments.”
“I was six months old.”
“You cried constantly.”
Celia laughed bitterly.
“So you left me in a laboratory?”
Arthur spoke sharply.
“That is enough.”
“No,” Clara said.
Her voice cut through the chaos.
Arthur turned toward her.
“You wanted me because of the shares.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Something almost human moved across Arthur’s face.
“We raised you.”
“You trained me.”
“We gave you everything.”
“You gave me rules.”
“We gave you a name.”
“It was already mine.”
Gunfire sounded outside again.
Arthur glanced toward the doors.
He was running out of time.
“Give me the key,” he ordered.
Celia closed her hand around it.
“No.”
Arthur aimed at her.
Julian moved slightly in front of Clara.
“Lower the weapon.”
Arthur looked at him.
“Your father once gave the same command.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
Arthur smiled.
“Gabriel Vance was very convincing when he wanted to appear moral. He came to Meridian House promising to rescue children. Then he learned what the research was worth.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask your mother.”
“My mother died when I was five.”
Arthur’s smile deepened.
“That is what Gabriel told you.”
Julian went still.
Clara watched him absorb the possibility that his own childhood might contain the same kind of lie as hers.
Sirens approached in the distance.
Arthur stepped toward Celia.
“The key.”
Celia slowly raised her hand.
Then she threw the key toward Clara.
Arthur fired.
The shot struck Celia in the shoulder.
She fell.
Julian lunged across the aisle and knocked Arthur’s arm aside as a second shot fired into the ceiling.
Beatrice rushed toward the key.
Clara reached it first.
Beatrice grabbed Clara’s wrist.
“You ungrateful little fool.”
Clara stared into the face of the woman she had called Mother for thirty-one years.
Beatrice’s nails cut into her skin.
“You were nothing when we found you.”
Clara pulled Beatrice closer.
“And you are nothing without what you stole.”
She struck Beatrice across the face with the metal key.
Beatrice stumbled backward.
The church doors burst open.
Security officers entered from both sides.
Arthur shoved Julian away and ran through a narrow passage behind the altar.
Beatrice followed him.
Julian could have pursued them.
Instead, he turned toward Clara and Lucas.
That choice told Clara more than any promise could have.
Celia lay bleeding near the pews.
Clara crawled toward her.
“You’re going to be all right.”
Celia smiled weakly.
“You always said that.”
“When?”
“When we were little.”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“I don’t remember.”
“You will.”
Paramedics rushed inside.
As they treated Celia, she gripped Clara’s hand.
“The archive contains birth records, payment ledgers, and surgical reports.”
“Room 614?”
Celia nodded.
“Amelia Vance wasn’t an accident.”
Julian heard her.
“What happened to my sister?”
Celia’s gaze shifted to him.
“She found Meridian House.”
“How?”
“She was searching for your mother.”
Julian’s face emptied.
Celia’s grip weakened.
“Arthur did not order Amelia’s death.”
“Who did?”
Celia looked toward the passage where Arthur had disappeared.
May you like
“Ask the woman who gave birth to you.”
Then her eyes closed.
