CHAPTER 7: THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL
CHAPTER 7: THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL
Rain began falling before sunrise.
A convoy of black SUVs left Rossi Manor and disappeared onto the empty highway. Leo sat in the lead vehicle with Mateo beside him. The note from Lily rested in his pocket.
Neither man believed the invitation was genuine.
But neither believed it could be ignored.
If Adrian Keller wanted Leo to find something, it was because it served his plan.
The question was why.
Three hours later, the convoy stopped outside St. Augustine Memorial Hospital.
The building had been abandoned for years.
Broken windows stared like empty eyes.
Weeds pushed through cracked pavement.
The faded emergency sign still hung above the entrance.
Mateo checked his pistol.
"Too quiet."
Leo nodded.
"Half the team stays outside."
"No one enters unless I call."
The guards spread around the building while Leo and Mateo stepped inside.
Dust covered the lobby.
Old wheelchairs lay overturned.
Medical files were scattered across the floor as if someone had left in a hurry years ago.
Yet fresh footprints crossed the dust.
Someone had been here recently.
They followed the tracks down a dim hallway.
The trail ended outside the maternity ward.
Room 214.
The door stood slightly open.
Leo pushed it inward.
Inside sat a single hospital bed.
Everything else had been removed.
Only one object remained.
A small video projector.
As soon as they entered, it switched on automatically.
A woman's face appeared on the wall.
Emily.
She looked thinner than in the first recording, her eyes red from crying.
"Leo..."
"If you've reached this place, then Keller is still alive."
She glanced over her shoulder before continuing.
"I don't have much time."
"You deserve to know why I disappeared."
"I didn't leave you."
"I was taken."
Leo felt his chest tighten.
Emily continued.
"Keller believed Lily was the key to something he called Project Lilac."
"I never understood everything."
"I only knew he wanted our daughter."
"He said she belonged to him."
The recording suddenly shook.
Someone outside the room shouted.
Emily looked terrified.
"If anything happens to me..."
"Promise me one thing."
"Never let Keller decide who Lily becomes."
The video ended.
The room fell silent.
Mateo looked around.
"No computer."
"No projector operator."
"It started by itself."
Leo walked to the projector.
A timer had been attached to its power source.
Someone had expected them to arrive.
Mateo searched the room while Leo examined the old hospital bed.
Underneath the mattress he found a worn leather notebook.
Its cover carried a familiar symbol.
A black lily inside a circle.
Inside were handwritten research notes.
Most were impossible to understand.
Medical terminology.
DNA references.
Behavioral observations.
Then one sentence caught Leo's attention.
Phase Three begins when Subject meets Father.
Leo frowned.
"Father?"
Before he could read further, a gunshot echoed somewhere upstairs.
Both men reacted instantly.
Another shot.
Then shouting.
Mateo touched his earpiece.
"Outside team, report!"
Only static answered.
Leo's expression darkened.
"They're under attack."
The two men sprinted back into the hallway.
As they reached the lobby, one of the guards stumbled through the front doors, blood running down his arm.
"They're gone!"
"Who?"
"The archives!"
"What happened?"
The guard struggled to breathe.
"A group in black uniforms..."
"They didn't try to kill us."
"They only took the hospital records."
Leo stopped.
"They came for documents."
Not revenge.
Not him.
Evidence.
Mateo looked outside.
Three black vans were already disappearing down the road.
"They planned this."
Leo nodded slowly.
"We were the distraction."
Back inside, Leo searched the empty records office.
Every cabinet had been forced open.
Thousands of files had been scattered across the floor.
Only one remained untouched.
A birth register from six years earlier.
Leo flipped through the pages until he reached Lily's birth date.
His hands froze.
There were two female babies born that night.
Not one.
The first entry:
Female Infant - Emily Carter
The second:
Female Infant - Unknown Mother
The second page had been torn in half.
Someone had deliberately removed the rest of the record.
Mateo stared at the damaged page.
"Keller didn't just erase evidence."
"He took one child's identity."
Leo slowly closed the register.
For the first time since this nightmare began...
He wondered if the mystery wasn't only about Lily.
Perhaps another child had vanished that same night.
A child no one had spent six years looking for.
As the rain hammered against the broken windows, Leo slipped the register into his jacket.
Somewhere ahead, Keller had the missing half of the story.
May you like
And Leo had just found the first half.
End of Chapter 7
