Chapter 10 - Anna’s Final Recording
The red house near the railway bridge had belonged to Robert Hale’s parents.
It had been abandoned for more than twenty years.
Detective Bennett entered first with a tactical team.
The building was empty.
In the kitchen, beneath three layers of rotting flooring, they found a metal container.
Inside was the missing cassette.
The tape had degraded, but the audio laboratory recovered most of the recording.
Anna’s voice filled the evidence room.
She sounded exhausted.
“My name is Anna Mercer. It is June eighteenth, 1990. If anyone hears this, Margaret Hale and Victor Lang have taken my sons.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Emily held his hand.
Anna continued.
“Robert told me the first baby died. I heard him crying. Then I heard another child. The nurse said I had twins.”
The recording crackled.
“Victor wants the children because of my family’s blood. My father survived an infection that killed everyone in his unit. Victor believes it was genetic.”
Anna coughed violently.
“Dr. Reed says both babies are healthy. Margaret says she will raise one. Victor says he needs the other for observation.”
A man’s voice appeared faintly in the background.
Robert.
“Anna, stop recording.”
“Tell them what you did.”
“I tried to protect you.”
“You sold our children.”
“I arranged care.”
“You sold them.”
There was a struggle.
Then Robert’s voice became clearer.
“If Victor discovers you made this tape, he’ll kill all of us.”
Anna answered, “He is already killing me.”
Another voice entered.
Margaret.
“You should have stayed away from my husband.”
“You can hate me,” Anna said. “But those boys are brothers.”
“They are nothing to each other.”
“They will find each other.”
“No, they won’t.”
Anna’s next words were barely audible.
“One of them has the mark.”
Margaret paused.
“What mark?”
“The one Victor cannot see.”
The tape ended.
“What mark?” Ethan asked.
Claire had no answer.
Neither did the doctors.
The twins were physically identical except for Adrian’s reported scar, which had likely been acquired later.
The audio team found something else.
A second recording beneath the first, made over an older tape.
The underlying conversation was incomplete.
Victor’s voice said, “The mutation activates under exposure.”
Robert asked, “Exposure to what?”
Victor answered with a word obscured by damage.
Then Margaret said, “And if both boys carry it?”
Victor replied, “They do not.”
The remainder was lost.
“One twin carried the mutation,” Bennett said. “The other didn’t.”
“But Noah carries it,” Emily said.
“Which means Ethan carries it.”
Unless Noah’s biological father was not Ethan.
The thought entered the room without anyone saying it.
Emily felt every gaze shift toward her.
She stood.
“No.”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You thought it.”
“Only because Victor may have falsified records.”
“Noah is your son.”
“I know.”
Detective Bennett spoke carefully.
“A standard paternity test can eliminate the uncertainty.”
The results arrived twelve hours later.
Probability of Ethan’s biological paternity: 99.99 percent.
Ethan carried the mutation.
Therefore, if Victor was correct, Adrian did not.
That explained why Victor valued Ethan’s descendants.
But it did not explain Adrian’s claim that Noah was his child.
Unless Victor had lied to him.
Or unless Adrian wanted something beyond genetics.
The police found a second message hidden in the cassette container.
Robert’s handwriting.
Margaret thinks she chose Baby A.
Victor switched the bracelets.
Ethan read the line repeatedly.
“What does this mean?”
Claire covered her mouth.
“If Victor switched them, Margaret took Baby B.”
“And Adrian was Baby A,” Emily said.
Margaret believed she had chosen the stronger infant.
But Victor had secretly exchanged them.
Why?
The answer came from Dr. Reed.
Detective Bennett located him in a remote assisted-living center under a different surname.
He agreed to speak through a secure video connection.
His white hair was thin, and oxygen tubes rested beneath his nose.
“Victor believed Baby A carried the mutation,” Reed said. “He wanted that child.”
“But Ethan carries it,” Emily said.
“Then Victor was wrong.”
“Why switch the bracelets?”
“So Margaret would take the infant he considered ordinary.”
Ethan leaned toward the screen.
“Did my brother grow up in a laboratory?”
Dr. Reed’s eyes filled with regret.
“For the first seven years.”
“What happened after that?”
“Victor created a household for him. Teachers. Caregivers. Simulated family experiences.”
“Simulated?”
“Birthdays with paid guests. Holidays staged for photographs. A mother who changed every few years.”
Ethan went pale.
Adrian had not merely watched Ethan’s life.
He had been given a counterfeit version of it.
“Why did you stay silent?” Ethan asked.
Reed looked away.
“Because Victor threatened my daughters.”
“They’re adults now.”
“One died in a car accident after I contacted a journalist.”
Silence filled the room.
Reed continued.
“Margaret did terrible things. But Victor made fear into a prison around everyone.”
“Where is Adrian now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said you were present when we were separated. Where?”
“Below the maternity wing.”
“The old hospital basement?”
“There was a surgical level beneath the official basement.”
Detective Bennett checked the building plans.
No surgical level appeared.
Reed gave them another location.
A sealed elevator behind the original laundry room.
Before ending the call, he looked directly at Ethan.
“Your brother is dangerous.”
“Because Victor raised him that way?”
“No.”
Reed’s voice shook.
“Because Adrian learned the truth years ago.”
May you like
“What truth?”
“That Victor had chosen the wrong twin.”
