Chapter 8: The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The name hung in the darkness.
Marcus Vale.
For a moment, none of us moved.
Nathan's gun slipped from his hand and struck the stone floor.
I stared at him.
“You know him.”
Nathan didn't answer.
“Who is Marcus Vale?”
His face had gone completely white.
Adrian grabbed my arm.
“We have to move.”
“No.”
I pulled away.
“Not until someone tells me the truth.”
Another gunshot exploded outside.
Stone fragments flew from the doorway.
Adrian shoved me against the wall.
“They're coming.”
“Who is Marcus Vale?”
Adrian looked into my eyes.
“The man your father spent his entire life trying to hide from.”
Nathan finally spoke.
“He was our father's business partner.”
“That’s what you told me before.”
“It was a lie.”
I stared at him.
“What was he really?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Your father's closest friend.”
Adrian shook his head.
“More than that.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Don't.”
Adrian ignored him.
“Marcus Vale was the man who helped our father build the clinic.”
My stomach tightened.
“The clinic where he experimented on us?”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
“What exactly did they do?”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“They studied twins.”
“Why?”
“To determine whether identical genetics could be manipulated.”
I looked at him.
“You're saying our father experimented on his own children?”
“He didn't see us as children.”
Adrian's voice became bitter.
“He saw us as a project.”
Another gunshot.
Closer.
Adrian grabbed my shoulder.
“Keep moving.”
We ran through the narrow passage behind the mausoleum.
Nathan followed.
The passage eventually opened into a small stone chamber.
There was an old wooden door.
Adrian pushed it open.
We emerged behind the cemetery wall.
Rain poured down.
I turned toward him.
“You said one of us isn't Dad's son.”
Adrian nodded.
“Which one?”
He stared at me.
“I don't know.”
“What?”
“The DNA records were altered.”
“By whom?”
“Marcus.”
Nathan shook his head.
“No.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew enough to be afraid.”
I stepped between them.
“Stop talking around me.”
I grabbed Nathan's coat.
“Tell me.”
He looked at me for several seconds.
Then said:
“Your father had a DNA test performed before he died.”
“For me and Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“The results showed something impossible.”
“What?”
Nathan looked toward Adrian.
“They weren't identical twins.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Identical twins should share almost all of their DNA.”
“I know.”
“But you and Adrian didn't.”
My heart began pounding.
“How different?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Different fathers.”
The world seemed to stop.
I looked at Adrian.
He didn't deny it.
“So we're not twins.”
“Not biologically,” Adrian said.
“Then why do we look identical?”
“Because that's what your father wanted.”
I stared at him.
Adrian continued.
“He used genetic material from one of us to alter the other.”
I shook my head.
“This is insane.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“This is what our family was built on.”
Another sound came from the cemetery.
Voices.
They were searching for us.
Adrian pointed toward the road.
“We need a vehicle.”
We ran.
A black SUV was parked beside the cemetery gate.
Its engine was running.
The driver's door was open.
I stopped.
“Whose car?”
Adrian smiled.
“Marcus's.”
I stared at him.
“How did you know?”
“Because he wanted us to find it.”
Nathan looked around nervously.
“It's a trap.”
“Everything tonight is a trap,” Adrian replied.
He got into the driver's seat.
I climbed into the passenger side.
Nathan sat in the back.
The moment Adrian started the engine, the headlights illuminated the road.
A figure appeared in the rain.
My mother.
Evelyn stood twenty yards away.
She wasn't holding the gun anymore.
She simply stared at me.
“Daniel!”
I rolled down the window.
“What?”
She stepped forward.
“Don't trust him.”
I looked at Adrian.
My twin smiled.
My mother shouted,
“Marcus isn't his father!”
Adrian's expression changed.
She continued:
“Marcus is yours.”
Silence.
Nathan whispered,
“No.”
My mother looked directly at me.
“Daniel, you have to listen to me.”
Adrian slammed the accelerator.
The SUV shot forward.
My mother disappeared behind us.
I stared at Adrian.
“Is she telling the truth?”
He didn't answer.
“Adrian.”
“She knows enough to frighten you.”
“Is Marcus my biological father?”
His hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Maybe.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Maybe?”
“You've been lied to your entire life.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
“I don't know all of it.”
“You've had eight years to find out.”
“I spent eight years hiding.”
“From whom?”
“From Marcus.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked at me.
“Because he knows what happened to you.”
I felt a chill.
“What happened to me?”
“You were the first successful child.”
“Successful at what?”
Adrian didn't answer.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“What did they do to me?”
He slammed the brakes.
The SUV stopped.
Nathan nearly hit the back of the seat.
Adrian turned toward me.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“You may never look at Claire the same way again.”
My chest tightened.
“What did Claire do?”
Adrian pulled a small envelope from his coat.
He handed it to me.
I opened it.
Inside was a hospital photograph.
Claire was standing beside a newborn baby.
The baby was Lucas.
But Claire wasn't smiling.
She was crying.
Behind her stood my father.
And beside him...
Marcus Vale.
I turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten note.
The mother knows the child is not Daniel's.
I stared at Adrian.
“You said Lucas was mine.”
“He was.”
“Then why does this say otherwise?”
“Because the person who wrote it didn't know the whole story.”
“Who wrote it?”
Adrian's eyes darkened.
“Your mother.”
I looked at Nathan.
He closed his eyes.
I opened the envelope further.
There was another document.
A DNA report.
This time, the names were different.
Daniel Parker.
Lucas Parker.
The result:
Biological relationship: 99.98%.
I couldn't breathe.
Lucas was mine.
My son.
Claire had lied when she said he wasn't.
Or she had been forced to say it.
I looked at Adrian.
“Why did Claire tell me the baby wasn't mine?”
“Because she was scared.”
“Of Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“What does Marcus want?”
Adrian looked toward the rearview mirror.
“Lucas.”
“Why?”
“Because Lucas inherited something.”
“What?”
“Not money.”
“Then what?”
Adrian's voice dropped.
“Memory.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Your father discovered that some neurological traits could be passed through families.”
I stared at him.
“Lucas remembers things he never experienced.”
My skin prickled.
“Like what?”
Adrian looked at me.
“He remembers the clinic.”
I shook my head.
“He's eight.”
“He remembers the night you were born.”
I couldn't speak.
“How?”
“Because your father used him as a witness.”
“A witness to what?”
Adrian's expression became grim.
“To the night your twin brother disappeared.”
I stared at him.
“Adrian disappeared?”
He nodded.
“I was taken from the clinic.”
“By whom?”
“Marcus.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed I was the wrong child.”
I frowned.
“Wrong child for what?”
Adrian looked at me.
“To inherit the company.”
I almost laughed.
“All of this is about money?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“The company was only the cover.”
“Then what was the real purpose?”
Adrian reached into the glove compartment.
He pulled out a small cassette tape.
Old.
Black.
Labeled in my father's handwriting.
PROJECT ECHO.
I stared at it.
“What is Project Echo?”
Adrian's face became expressionless.
“The reason your father was willing to fake his death.”
Nathan whispered from the back seat:
“And the reason Marcus has been hunting us for twenty years.”
I looked at the cassette.
“What is on it?”
Adrian started the car again.
“My father's confession.”
“Where can we play it?”
He looked at me.
“At the house.”
“My house?”
“No.”
He turned onto a dark road.
“Your mother's house.”
I stared at him.
“She'll be there.”
“I know.”
“And Marcus?”
Adrian's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.
“He'll be there too.”
My phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a man's voice spoke.
“Daniel.”
I knew the voice.
The same voice that had called me at the hospital.
Marcus.
“Where is my son?”
I froze.
Adrian's hands tightened on the wheel.
Marcus continued.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
I said nothing.
“You're holding a cassette.”
My blood ran cold.
“How do you know?”
A quiet laugh.
“Because I gave it to your father.”
“What do you want?”
“I want Lucas.”
“You're not taking my son.”
“Then Claire dies.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“You won't touch her.”
“You still don't understand.”
His voice became colder.
“Claire was never the target.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“Then who was?”
A pause.
“You.”
The line went dead.
Adrian looked at me.
“What did he say?”
I stared through the windshield.
“He wants me.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Why?”
I looked down at the cassette.
Then at the road.
“I think we're about to find out.”
The SUV disappeared into the darkness.
None of us noticed the second black car following us from a distance.
Inside it, my mother sat in the back seat.
Beside her was a man I had never seen before.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Calm.
He held a photograph of me as a child.
He looked at my face.
Then whispered:
“He still doesn't remember.”
My mother closed her eyes.
“Not yet.”
The man smiled.
“Then tonight, we'll make him remember everything.”
He was Marcus Vale.
May you like
And he wasn't following us to kill me.
He was following us to take back what he believed had belonged to him since the day I was born.
