Chapter 14 - The Confession Daniel Wanted Recorded
Detective Bell stood behind Valeria with two officers.
The conversation was being recorded.
Daniel knew it.
That was why he had requested the meeting.
He did not intend to confess privately.
He intended to shape the official story.
“Which girl died?” Valeria asked.
Daniel leaned back.
“The researchers called her Eight.”
Valeria thought of the girl from the observation chamber.
“She’s alive.”
“Then perhaps Seven died.”
“My blood says I’m Seven.”
Daniel laughed.
“You keep trusting their labels.”
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
“The continuity trial involved more than physical exchanges. Vale developed a method of transferring conditioned memory patterns between subjects.”
“You cannot transfer a person.”
“Not perfectly.”
Valeria felt cold.
“What did you do?”
“After the lake accident, the surviving child had severe brain damage. Vale used stored neural mapping from the other subject to rebuild missing pathways.”
Bell moved closer to the glass.
“Are you claiming one girl’s memories were implanted into another?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I am claiming Novagen will spend billions proving I am insane before allowing that statement into court.”
Valeria lifted the receiver harder against her ear.
“Did you kill one of us?”
“No.”
“Did you leave us on the ice?”
“It was part of the test.”
“You let two five-year-olds walk onto a frozen lake?”
“There were safety teams.”
“One of us drowned.”
“That was not planned.”
“You brought back the surviving girl and pretended nothing happened.”
“Elena needed a daughter.”
“And you needed your trust.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“I kept you alive.”
“You experimented on me.”
“I protected the viable line.”
“You let them make me pregnant.”
“I opposed the gestational trial.”
“Because you cared?”
“Because it threatened your survival.”
“Which threatened your money.”
Daniel looked toward the camera in the corner.
“The trust was not for me.”
“Then who?”
“For you.”
Valeria stared at him.
“At eighteen, control of the patents transfers to the surviving iteration.”
“Elena said you would control it.”
“As your legal guardian, I would have managed the assets until the continuity review was completed.”
“I turn eighteen in three weeks.”
“Yes.”
“What is the continuity review?”
Daniel leaned forward again.
“They determine whether you are legally the same person who entered the Mercer home seventeen years ago.”
“How could they determine that?”
“Memories.”
Valeria looked through the glass.
“You were making me forget because I remembered being exchanged.”
“We suppressed destabilizing recollections.”
“You erased evidence.”
“I prevented you from being disqualified.”
“Why would memories disqualify me?”
“Because the trust belongs to Violet Mercer.”
“My original name was Violet.”
Daniel’s smile returned.
“Was it?”
Valeria wanted to smash the glass between them.
Bell spoke.
“Where is the girl taken from the hospital?”
Daniel’s eyes stayed on Valeria.
“With the only person who knows which child survived the lake.”
“Dr. Vale is in custody.”
“Vale arrived after the rescue.”
“Who was there first?”
Daniel did not answer.
Valeria remembered the child beneath the ice.
A figure on the shore.
Not Dr. Vale.
A woman in a nurse’s coat.
“You were there,” Valeria whispered.
Daniel shook his head.
She turned.
Evelyn had driven them to Saint Orison.
Evelyn had known the back road.
Evelyn had found the control box connected to the explosives.
Evelyn had been present when the hidden phone was opened.
She had photographed the files.
She had been assigned to Valeria before child protection arrived.
“She was there,” Valeria said.
Bell understood.
“Nurse Hart?”
Daniel’s expression confirmed it.
Bell reached for his radio.
Before he could speak, the detention center lights flashed red.
An alarm sounded.
A guard shouted from the corridor.
Daniel calmly placed his receiver back on the wall.
“What did you do?” Valeria asked.
“Nothing.”
Doors began locking throughout the facility.
Bell pulled Valeria away from the glass.
Daniel remained seated.
“You asked for the truth,” he said through the barrier.
Valeria could barely hear him over the alarm.
“Evelyn Hart was the first nurse assigned to the continuity program.”
Bell’s radio crackled.
A dispatcher reported an incident at the hospital.
Evelyn had disappeared.
So had Mia.
So had Teresa.
Security footage showed them leaving through the ambulance entrance.
Mia was not restrained.
She walked beside Evelyn willingly.
Valeria stared at Daniel.
“No.”
Daniel raised one finger.
Then pointed toward the telephone receiver.
Valeria reluctantly picked it up.
May you like
His final words came softly.
“Mia was never Six.”
