Chapter 8 - The Other Son
The possibility changed everything.
Ethan had a brother.
An identical twin who might still be alive.
A man with Ethan’s face could explain the traffic camera image.
It could explain why Margaret warned Emily not to trust him.
It could also explain how someone had accessed Ethan’s workplace accounts without triggering security alerts.
Detective Bennett ordered a deeper review of the facility footage.
At first, the man entering the research center appeared identical to Ethan. The same height. The same posture. The same dark hair.
But the forensic analyst noticed one difference.
Ethan wore his wedding ring on his left hand.
The man in the footage wore no ring.
The timestamp showed Ethan’s employee identification card had been used at the gate. Facial recognition identified him with ninety-nine percent confidence.
Yet hospital security footage showed Ethan entering the lobby with Emily two minutes later, twenty-three miles away.
He could not have been in both locations.
“There is another man,” Bennett said.
Ethan stared at the frozen image of his own face.
“My brother.”
“We need DNA confirmation.”
Claire provided a strand of Anna’s hair preserved inside an old locket. Testing confirmed a maternal relationship between Anna and Ethan.
The twin story remained unverified until the laboratory analyzed the St. Catherine’s bracelet.
Two infants had been registered under the same temporary record number.
Baby A and Baby B.
Both male.
Baby A was transferred out of the maternity unit at 4:42 a.m.
Baby B disappeared from the records at 5:05 a.m.
Anna was pronounced dead at 5:17 a.m.
Ethan was one of the babies.
The other had vanished.
Detective Bennett searched birth and adoption records, but nothing matched.
Then Emily remembered the initial on the memory card.
Noah was Candidate N-7.
Maybe N did not stand for Noah.
Maybe it referred to a classification.
They searched the recovered files for other candidates.
N-1 through N-6 appeared in encrypted directories.
Digital forensics managed to open one.
Candidate N-4 was a thirteen-year-old girl in Oregon.
Her father had been adopted from St. Catherine’s.
Candidate N-5 was a seven-year-old boy in London.
His mother had been born at the same hospital.
All carried the same rare genetic marker.
An altered sequence on chromosome 6 associated with unusually rapid immune response.
The marker appeared in Ethan.
It also appeared in Noah.
“Victor has been tracking an inherited mutation,” Emily said.
Bennett nodded.
“And collecting children who carry it.”
“Collecting?”
“Three of the identified candidates are missing.”
Noah woke later that afternoon.
Emily sat beside him.
“Sweetheart, I need to ask you about the night Grandma took you somewhere.”
Noah’s face became blank.
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s okay.”
“Grandma said remembering makes bad things real.”
Emily swallowed her anger.
“Did she take you in the car?”
Noah looked toward Ethan.
“Daddy drove.”
Ethan flinched.
“No, buddy. Daddy was home.”
Noah frowned.
“It looked like Daddy.”
Emily kept her voice gentle.
“Did he talk like Daddy?”
“No.”
“How was he different?”
Noah touched his own chin.
“He had a little line here.”
A scar.
Ethan had no scar on his chin.
Noah continued.
“He called me Nathan.”
“Who is Nathan?”
“He said that was my real name.”
Emily and Ethan exchanged a look.
“What else did he say?”
“He said Mommy took me from him.”
Emily’s blood ran cold.
“Did he say he was your father?”
Noah nodded.
“He said Daddy stole his life.”
The room fell silent.
That night, Ethan received an email from his own address.
The subject line read OUR TURN.
The message contained a photograph.
Margaret sat in a chair inside an unfamiliar room. Her hands were tied behind her back. A newspaper rested across her lap, showing that day’s date.
Beside her stood a man whose face was hidden in shadow.
The message read:
Bring Noah to the place where we were separated.
Come without the police.
Ask Mother which son she chose.
The attachment contained coordinates.
They led to a private estate owned by Victor Lang.
Detective Bennett warned them not to respond.
Ethan responded anyway.
Who are you?
May you like
The answer arrived seconds later.
The boy she left behind.
