Chapter 12 - THE MOTHER WHO BUILT HER CHILDREN
Lakewood Clinic had burned thirty-eight years earlier.
But beneath the ruins, a second facility remained.
Federal agents surrounded the property before dawn.
Daniel’s agency insisted he was operating undercover.
Evelyn did not believe them.
No one could explain why he removed Thomas without authorization.
No one could explain why Margaret answered his phone.
No one could explain why Adrian Vale’s private aircraft had landed at a nearby airstrip two hours earlier.
Evelyn was ordered to remain in a command vehicle.
She ignored the order.
With Nora beside her, she entered through an underground service tunnel identified in Thomas’s files.
The tunnel opened into a modern laboratory.
Lakewood had never truly closed.
It had evolved.
Rows of sealed medical rooms extended beneath the ground.
Some were empty.
Others contained equipment that appeared recently used.
On one wall, photographs documented children at different ages.
Evelyn recognized herself.
Baby photographs.
School photographs.
College graduation.
Images taken from a distance outside her apartment.
Ryan’s photographs covered another section.
He had been monitored his entire life.
A third section belonged to a woman Evelyn did not recognize.
Subject M.
A fourth showed a man whose face had been removed from every photograph.
Subject J.
Nora found a central computer.
“These files are active.”
“Can you access them?”
“I’ll try.”
Footsteps approached.
Evelyn and Nora hid behind a storage unit.
Margaret entered with Adrian Vale.
Margaret wore the same dark coat she had worn at the hospital.
Vale carried the stolen vial.
“You said the original sample would stabilize Thomas,” Margaret said.
“It may.”
“May?”
“The sample is more than thirty years old.”
“You promised.”
Vale looked at her with amusement.
“You still believe promises are contracts.”
“I gave you access to Ryan.”
“You gave me a damaged subject.”
“He is my son.”
“He is a failed neurological design.”
Margaret slapped him.
Vale barely reacted.
“You always were emotional about your experiments,” he said.
“My children are not experiments.”
“You selected their modifications.”
“I wanted them protected.”
“You wanted Evelyn intelligent enough to inherit Thomas’s company and Ryan bold enough to challenge her.”
Margaret’s face tightened.
“I wanted them strong.”
“And instead Evelyn’s heart is failing, while Ryan cannot resist destruction.”
Margaret looked toward a glass chamber at the end of the room.
Ryan sat restrained inside.
Thomas lay on a medical bed beside him.
Daniel was tied to a chair near the wall.
Evelyn’s anger became focused.
Daniel was a prisoner.
Whatever lies he had told, he had not willingly delivered them to Vale.
Vale placed the vial into a refrigeration unit.
“The current sample is the only reliable solution.”
“Evelyn will never cooperate,” Margaret said.
“She will when she learns Thomas has hours left.”
“And afterward?”
“We begin the final trial.”
“On whom?”
Vale smiled.
“On all surviving subjects.”
Margaret stepped back.
“You said you only needed Evelyn.”
“I said what was necessary.”
“You do not have Subject M.”
“Not yet.”
“And Subject J?”
Vale looked toward the darkened corridor.
“Subject J has always been closer than you think.”
Nora quietly copied files from the computer.
A progress bar moved slowly.
Thirty percent.
Vale entered the glass chamber.
Margaret remained outside.
Evelyn moved behind her.
“Mother.”
Margaret spun around.
For a moment, fear crossed her face.
Then it vanished.
“You should not have come.”
“You knew I would.”
Margaret looked at Nora.
“You brought your assistant into this?”
“Nora is more loyal than anyone in our family.”
“Loyalty is only ignorance with better manners.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You created me at Lakewood.”
“I gave you advantages.”
“You damaged my heart.”
“I did not know that would happen.”
“You did it again with Ryan.”
“I was trying to correct the first mistakes.”
“You wanted children designed to serve your ambitions.”
“I wanted children no one could control.”
“You have spent our entire lives controlling us.”
Margaret looked toward Thomas.
“He took everything from me.”
“He raised me.”
“He stole you.”
“You volunteered me.”
“I was told the procedure was safe.”
“And when it was not?”
“I stayed.”
“You stayed because Dad had money and Julian disappeared.”
Margaret’s composure cracked.
“You know nothing about Julian.”
“Then tell me.”
“He abandoned me after the fire.”
“Because you lied about my father?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I lied because I did not know.”
“Who is my biological father?”
Margaret looked toward Vale.
Evelyn followed her gaze.
The answer struck before Margaret spoke.
“No,” Evelyn whispered.
Margaret’s voice broke.
“Vale used his own genetic material in several embryos.”
Evelyn stared at Adrian Vale through the glass.
“My father?”
“Possibly.”
“You still don’t know?”
“The records were destroyed.”
Nora looked at the computer.
“Not all of them.”
The copy reached seventy percent.
An alarm sounded.
Vale had noticed them.
Security doors began closing.
Daniel shouted from inside the chamber.
“Evelyn, run!”
Vale pressed a control.
Gas hissed into Ryan’s section.
Ryan began coughing.
Evelyn rushed to the panel.
“Stop it!”
Vale stood behind the glass.
“Give me a fresh blood sample.”
“Release them first.”
“Your brother has less than two minutes.”
Margaret moved toward the panel.
“Adrian, stop.”
Vale ignored her.
Thomas opened his eyes on the bed.
He turned his head toward Evelyn.
Even through the glass, she saw recognition.
Her father lifted one weak hand.
Then he pointed toward Margaret.
Not Vale.
Margaret.
May you like
Thomas mouthed two words.
She knows.
