Chapter 13 - THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF GRANDFATHER
Jonathan Hale’s vessel disappeared from every radar system before dawn.
The Coast Guard found no distress signal, wreckage, or fuel trace.
It was as if the sea had swallowed him again.
Sophia returned to CrossHale headquarters under federal protection.
Her resignation remained in effect, but the founder vault recognized her biometric key.
Inside the vault, Peter opened Sophia’s fragment of the registry.
Most files were unreadable.
Names had been separated from locations.
Medical data had been split from legal records.
Yet one video file remained complete.
It had been recorded aboard Jonathan’s vessel.
Lily sat at a polished wooden table.
She wore dry clothes now.
A cup of hot chocolate rested before her.
Jonathan sat across from her.
He looked older than Sophia remembered, but not weak.
His hair was white. His posture remained precise.
He spoke gently.
“Do you know who I am?”
Lily shook her head.
“I am your grandfather.”
“My grandfather is dead.”
“So is your mother, according to many records.”
Lily looked toward the camera.
“Sophia said she’s my mother.”
“She is one of them.”
“One of what?”
“One of the people whose choices created you.”
Lily frowned.
Jonathan continued.
“Hannah carried you. Sophia gave you your genetic inheritance. Ethan arranged your birth. Daniel protected your identity.”
“They all lied.”
“Yes.”
“Did you lie?”
Jonathan smiled.
“Many times.”
Lily pushed the hot chocolate away.
“I want Hannah.”
“She is alive.”
“I want Sophia.”
Jonathan’s expression changed slightly.
“Why?”
“She came for me.”
“So did I.”
“She looked scared.”
“Fear is not love.”
“She said she looked for me.”
“She learned about you yesterday.”
Lily stared at him.
“Then she started yesterday.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
Her daughter’s answer was simple.
And devastating.
Jonathan leaned back.
“You are intelligent.”
“People keep saying that like it belongs to them.”
For the first time, Jonathan’s calm cracked.
Lily noticed.
“Am I a science project?”
“No.”
“Then why do people call me Lark?”
Jonathan did not answer.
The video ended.
Sophia wiped tears from her face.
Miriam stood beside her.
“She is strong.”
“She had to be.”
Agent Dean entered the vault.
“Lauren has agreed to cooperate.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Protective custody and consideration at sentencing.”
“She helped kidnap Lily.”
“She claims Daniel controlled the operation.”
“She still participated.”
“Yes.”
Sophia closed the video.
“What does she know?”
“Jonathan’s destination.”
They questioned Lauren in a secure room.
She wore plain gray clothing and no makeup.
Without the hospital performance and expensive clothes, she looked smaller.
Sophia felt no sympathy.
Lauren looked at her through the glass partition.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t begin there.”
“I never knew about Lily until three months ago.”
“You knew about my embryos.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to carry one.”
“I thought it was Ethan’s and mine.”
“It was genetically mine.”
“He told me the donor was anonymous.”
“And when you learned the truth?”
“I refused.”
Sophia remembered Dr. Vale’s video.
That part matched.
“Why were you in the hospital room?”
“Ethan needed you to catch us.”
Sophia went still.
“He wanted me there?”
Lauren nodded.
“He knew Daniel planned to move the embryo and remove you from the company. Ethan thought public scandal would force you to activate the protection clause.”
Sophia looked through the observation window at Ethan in another room.
“Then the photograph came from him?”
“No.”
“Who sent it?”
“Adrian Vale.”
The fake investigator.
Lauren continued.
“Ethan told Adrian where we would be. Adrian sent you the photograph and posed as an investigator so he could stay close to the evidence.”
Sophia thought of the explosion.
“Did Adrian kill his brother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he now?”
“He went after Jonathan.”
“How?”
“Jonathan has a private research platform in international waters.”
“A ship?”
“An old offshore medical station.”
Dean placed a map on the table.
“Location?”
Lauren hesitated.
Sophia leaned forward.
“You called me an ATM while sitting beside my husband. You helped clone my identity. You put your hands on my daughter. This is the only moment you will ever have to do something that does not disgust me.”
Lauren looked down.
Then she pointed to a coordinate in the North Atlantic.
“Here.”
Dean studied it.
“That’s outside normal shipping routes.”
“Exactly.”
Sophia looked at Lauren.
“Why did you help Ethan?”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because he told me you were leaving him.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
Lauren’s voice broke.
“Because you always had the life I thought I deserved.”
Sophia felt only exhaustion.
“You did not want my life.”
“I wanted to be chosen.”
“So you helped people take my child.”
Lauren wiped her eyes.
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough.”
Sophia stood.
Lauren spoke quickly.
“There is something else.”
Sophia paused.
“The embryo marked SH-01.”
“What about it?”
“It isn’t in storage.”
“Where is it?”
Lauren looked toward Ethan’s interrogation room.
“He transferred it four years ago.”
“To whom?”
Lauren swallowed.
“Your mother.”
Sophia turned slowly toward Evelyn, who stood behind the observation glass.
May you like
Evelyn’s face revealed nothing.
But she did not deny it.
