Chapter 13 - THE SECOND DANIEL
Panic spread through the garden.
Guests rushed toward the gate, but the black van blocked the exit.
Hale’s officers entered from the neighboring yard.
Lila stepped beside Samuel.
Emma kept Grace behind her.
Connor held the tablet against his chest.
Samuel looked so much like Daniel that Emma’s mind searched for differences.
The voice was slightly colder.
The left eyebrow carried a faint scar.
The wedding ring was absent.
“You are Daniel’s brother,” Emma said.
“Twin,” Samuel replied.
Grace began to cry.
Sabrina stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“Most useful things appear impossible until someone pays enough to create them.”
Emma understood the photographs from Montreal.
The sightings.
The uncertainty.
Some of them had shown Samuel, not Daniel.
“Adrian placed Daniel with the Reeves family,” she said. “Where did he place you?”
Samuel smiled.
“He kept me.”
Lila moved toward Connor.
“Give me the tablet.”
Connor backed away.
Hale raised his weapon.
“Stop.”
Samuel opened his jacket enough to reveal a small device.
A red light blinked.
“If my hand releases this switch, the archive chamber fills with gas.”
Emma looked at the frozen video of Daniel trapped underground.
“Thomas is with him.”
“Thomas is no longer in control.”
“You work for Adrian.”
“I work for my father’s legacy.”
“Your father experimented on you.”
“He perfected me.”
The words sounded rehearsed.
Emma wondered how many memories Adrian had placed inside him.
Margaret stepped forward.
“Samuel, you were not perfected. You were hurt.”
He looked at her without recognition.
“You signed the consent forms.”
Margaret stopped.
Samuel continued.
“You watched both of us scream.”
Her face collapsed.
“I was told the treatments were necessary.”
“You always believed what allowed you to remain comfortable.”
Emma almost felt pity for her mother.
Almost.
Sabrina moved toward the house.
Samuel lifted the device.
“Stay.”
She froze.
Lila reached for the tablet again.
Connor suddenly threw it toward Grace.
Grace caught it.
Emma blocked Lila while Grace ran beneath the table.
Hale’s officers advanced.
Samuel pressed a button.
A muffled explosion sounded under the house.
Smoke rose from the basement windows.
Emma screamed Daniel’s name.
The tablet reconnected.
The archive camera showed shattered glass.
Daniel was no longer in the chamber.
Thomas lay on the floor.
A dark figure dragged Daniel toward a tunnel.
Connor crawled beneath the table and took the tablet.
“I can track the signal.”
Samuel looked toward the screen.
For the first time, he appeared surprised.
“That isn’t Adrian’s team.”
“Then who is it?” Emma asked.
Samuel did not answer.
A vehicle engine roared behind the house.
Hale shouted into his radio.
Officers moved toward the driveway.
Samuel used the distraction to grab Grace.
He held her in front of him.
Emma went still.
“Let her go.”
“Give me the tablet.”
Grace bit his hand.
Samuel cursed.
She dropped to the ground and rolled away.
Sabrina launched herself at him.
They crashed into the ruined birthday table.
The device flew from Samuel’s hand.
Margaret caught it.
Everyone froze.
Her thumb rested above the trigger.
Samuel rose slowly.
“You don’t understand how it works.”
Margaret looked at the device.
“No. But I understand you.”
“You abandoned us.”
“I failed you.”
“Then finish it.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“No.”
She threw the device toward Hale.
Samuel reached for a weapon.
Sabrina struck him with a metal cake stand.
Hale tackled him.
Officers placed him in handcuffs.
Lila ran toward the gate.
Emma followed and caught her beside the van.
Lila turned, holding a syringe.
“You don’t know what Adrian promised me.”
“He promised you Sophie would stay well.”
Lila’s hand trembled.
“The treatment is failing.”
Emma saw the terror beneath her betrayal.
“She’s forgetting again?”
“Last week she called me by her teacher’s name.”
Emma moved closer.
“Adrian cannot save her.”
“He can if he has the archive.”
“He has been using your daughter to control you.”
Lila began to cry.
The syringe fell from her hand.
“He said there was another treatment.”
“There is always another treatment when someone needs you obedient.”
Lila sank against the van.
Sirens approached.
Connor shouted from the garden.
“Mom! I found Dad!”
The tablet map showed a signal moving toward the old Reeves industrial estate on the southern edge of the city.
Emma turned toward Hale.
He secured Samuel in the police vehicle.
“Take care of Grace and Connor,” she said.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No. Samuel knows more than he is saying.”
Sabrina approached, blood running from her lip.
“I’ll go.”
Emma looked at the sister who had helped create the nightmare.
Trust did not return because someone chose one brave moment.
But neither could the moment be ignored.
They took Lila’s van.
As Emma drove away, Grace ran to the gate.
“Bring Dad home!”
Emma looked at her daughter through the mirror.
“I will.”
May you like
She did not make it a promise.
Promises had become too fragile.
