Chapter 21 - CASSANDRA’S BLOODHart Meridian Tower had been evacuated after a false chemical alert.
Victor controlled the upper thirty floors.
Amelia, Nathaniel, Elias, Samuel and Theodore entered through the underground parking structure.
Helena remained connected to the factory archive.
Gabriel was transferred to federal custody, though Amelia doubted any prison could contain a man who had planned his surrender.
Julian guided them through the tower’s security system.
He did not reveal his location.
“Cassandra’s genetic profile includes Hart markers,” he said.
Amelia stopped.
“How?”
Theodore answered.
“Cassandra’s mother was my cousin.”
Cassandra had always been a Hart by blood, though not close enough to inherit openly.
Victor had chosen her because her DNA could stabilize the three-successor sequence.
Nathaniel scanned the elevator shaft.
“Why create another heir when he can control one of the existing three?”
“Because none of us trust him,” Elias said.
“A constructed successor would have no history,” Samuel added. “No divided loyalties.”
They climbed through a maintenance stairwell.
On the sixty-second floor, they found the first laboratory.
Glass tanks contained blood samples labeled with names from Hart Meridian’s board, military contracts and political allies.
The company had collected biological material from hundreds of people.
Theodore looked sick.
“This division was closed.”
Elias glanced at him.
“You keep saying that about rooms that are still operating.”
An alarm sounded.
Steel shutters closed around Amelia and Nathaniel, separating them from the others.
Victor’s voice filled the laboratory.
“Welcome home, Mrs. Vale.”
Amelia looked at Nathaniel.
Victor continued.
“You still have not asked why a stranger called you his wife before you remembered marrying him.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
Amelia had spent days accepting that their marriage had been hidden for her protection.
Victor suggested something else.
A screen illuminated.
It showed security footage from seven years earlier.
Amelia entered a courthouse with Nathaniel.
She signed a marriage license.
Then a second video appeared, recorded four hours later.
Amelia sat inside an Orpheus treatment room.
Helena injected something into her neck.
Nathaniel stood behind the observation glass.
He did not intervene.
Victor’s voice softened.
“He did not protect your memory.”
“He authorized its removal.”
Amelia turned toward Nathaniel.
“Tell me he is lying.”
Nathaniel did not.
Above them, Cassandra screamed.
The synthesis display reached sixty-eight percent.
Amelia raised her weapon toward the shutters.
May you like
Nathaniel stepped into her path.
“There is something you need to know before you remember why you asked me to erase you.”
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