Chapter 12 - The Man Wearing Ethan’s Face
The police established checkpoints around every known Hale Biotechnologies facility.
Victor Lang remained missing.
Margaret remained captive.
Adrian remained everywhere and nowhere.
Three days after the fire, Ethan was arrested.
Security footage showed him entering a private clinic and assaulting a researcher. The researcher was found unconscious with several confidential files missing.
Emily knew immediately that Adrian had done it.
The prosecutor did not.
Ethan’s DNA was found on the door.
His face appeared on twelve cameras.
His employee card had opened the laboratory.
Only one detail saved him.
The attacker signed a digital log with his right hand.
Ethan was left-handed.
He was released pending investigation, but the damage was done.
News reports portrayed him as unstable.
Hale Biotechnologies’ stock collapsed.
Victor’s board of directors blamed Ethan for sabotaging the company.
Then Adrian appeared publicly.
He walked into a police station carrying no weapon.
He identified himself as Adrian Mercer.
The media exploded.
Two identical men stood on opposite sides of a glass interview room.
Emily watched Ethan face his brother for the first time as an adult.
Adrian wore a dark suit nearly identical to one Ethan owned. His hair was styled the same way. Even his posture seemed intentionally copied.
Only the scar distinguished them.
“You look tired,” Adrian said.
Ethan sat across from him.
“Where is Margaret?”
“Safe.”
“Where is Victor?”
“Less safe.”
“What do you want?”
“To meet my nephew.”
“No.”
Adrian smiled.
“You didn’t ask why.”
“I don’t care why.”
“Victor told me you were selfish.”
“Victor raised you to hate me.”
“Yes.”
The easy admission unsettled Ethan.
“Then you know he manipulated you.”
“Of course.”
“Why continue helping him?”
“I stopped helping him years ago.”
“Then why take Noah?”
“I did not take Noah.”
“You brought him to the laboratory.”
“Margaret brought him. I stopped Victor from beginning the final procedure.”
Ethan stared at him.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Your mother was not rescuing Noah from Emily. She was rescuing him from Victor.”
“She drugged him.”
“Because he saw me.”
“She framed my wife.”
“Because Victor had already arranged for Emily to be arrested. Margaret created a competing custody claim to keep Noah inside the family.”
“That does not excuse anything.”
“No. It explains it.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Where is she?”
“I will tell you after Noah is protected.”
“Protected from whom?”
Adrian looked toward the observation camera.
“Everyone listening.”
Detective Bennett entered the room.
“You surrendered voluntarily,” she said. “Start talking.”
Adrian studied her.
“Your department has three officers receiving payments from Victor Lang.”
“Names.”
“I’ll trade them.”
“For what?”
“Witness protection for Margaret.”
Emily almost laughed from behind the glass.
Margaret, who had lied, assaulted, drugged, surveilled, and manipulated them, now needed protection from the conspiracy she had helped create.
Bennett remained calm.
“And Victor?”
“Immunity for me.”
“You kidnapped a woman.”
“I removed her from a murder scene.”
“Where is she?”
“Alive.”
“You impersonated Ethan.”
“To collect evidence.”
“You assaulted a researcher.”
“He had experimented on children.”
“That is not a legal defense.”
“No. But the files I took will convict Victor.”
Adrian placed a small drive on the table.
The police examined it.
It contained financial records, patient lists, internal correspondence, and video documentation of illegal procedures.
More than enough to prosecute senior employees at Hale Biotechnologies.
But Victor’s personal authorization was absent.
“He kept his orders verbal,” Adrian said. “Margaret recorded him.”
“On Anna’s tape?” Ethan asked.
“No. On the surveillance server she removed from your house.”
Emily understood.
Margaret had not stolen the hard drives only to hide evidence against herself.
They also contained Victor’s conversations.
“Where are the drives?” Bennett asked.
“With Margaret.”
“Then bring her in.”
Adrian looked at Ethan.
“First, I meet Noah.”
“No.”
“He needs to see us together.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor has been telling him that one of us is fake.”
Emily entered the room before Bennett could stop her.
“What did you say?”
Adrian turned toward her.
For a second, she forgot how to breathe.
The resemblance was perfect enough to feel unnatural.
Yet his eyes were different.
Ethan’s eyes softened when he looked at her.
Adrian’s studied her as if learning a role.
“Victor spoke to Noah during the appointments,” Adrian said.
“What did he tell him?”
“That his father had been replaced.”
Emily remembered Noah’s nightmares.
“Why?”
“To destabilize his attachments. A frightened child is easier to condition.”
She wanted to strike him.
“Did you help?”
Adrian’s expression shifted.
“No.”
“But you watched.”
“Yes.”
“Then you helped.”
He accepted the accusation without argument.
Emily leaned closer.
“You will never be alone with my son.”
“I expected that.”
“You will never call him yours.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
“I never did.”
“He told us you said I took him from you.”
“I told him Victor took my family from me. He misunderstood.”
“Convenient.”
Adrian looked at Ethan.
“You chose well.”
Ethan stood so quickly that the chair fell backward.
“Do not speak about my wife.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“There you are.”
“What?”
“The brother I remember.”
Before anyone could respond, the lights went out.
Gunfire erupted in the lobby.
Officers shouted.
The interview room door locked automatically.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
“That’s Victor.”
“How do you know?” Bennett asked.
“Because I told him I was here.”
Ethan grabbed his brother’s collar.
“You used us as bait.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
May you like
Adrian’s voice became cold.
“Because he brought Margaret.”
