Chapter 31 - The Chairman’s TableThe platform stopped inside a circular laboratory.
August Hale sat at the head of a long table.
He was old.
Older than the photographs.
Transparent tubes entered his arms. Machines breathed beside him.
Daniel Wren stood behind his chair, his wounded shoulder bandaged.
Elias stood on the opposite side.
He had escaped custody.
Victor moved Ethan and Noah behind him.
August looked at the boys.
“My heirs.”
“They are not yours,” Victor said.
“Every child in this room exists because I designed the line that produced them.”
Celeste stepped forward.
August smiled.
“The original voice returns without a voice.”
Her hand tightened around her tablet.
Mara stood beside her.
August regarded both women.
“My finest identity pair.”
“You failed to make either of them obedient,” Victor said.
August’s smile disappeared.
Elias activated the table.
Metal restraints closed around Adrian and Marcus.
Daniel aimed a weapon at Lily.
Victor remained still.
August gestured toward two locks built into the table.
“The keys.”
“No.”
“Then Noah learns what abandonment feels like again.”
Daniel pointed the gun at the boy.
Victor placed Ethan’s key into the first lock.
Noah removed the silver fox pendant.
Hidden inside it was the second gold key.
He looked at August.
“You said Father would not come.”
August’s eyes narrowed.
Noah placed the key into Victor’s hand instead.
Victor inserted it into the second lock.
The table opened.
Inside was not a registry.
It was a glass cradle containing two small vials.
One labeled VICTOR.
The other labeled ADRIAN.
August looked confused.
Celeste typed on her tablet.
THOMAS CHANGED THE SAMPLES.
Adrian stared at his father’s name on the old files.
Victor understood.
Thomas Hale had discovered August’s plan years ago.
He had switched the biological records of both boys.
August did not know which brother carried the chairman line.
Victor looked at him.
“You built an empire on blood.”
May you like
He lifted both vials.
“And you no longer know whose blood it is.”
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