Chapter 13 - Martin's Last TruthLucas sat across from us.
He told us his mother died three days after he was born.
His father raised him inside the same system he had created.
"But I learned the truth."
"How?"
"My father kept everything."
"Why?"
"Because he believed one day he'd need leverage."
Lucas looked at the girls.
"The records show that your mother discovered a list of children."
Ava leaned forward.
"How many?"
"Forty-three."
Claire's face went pale.
"Forty-three?"
Lucas nodded.
"Babies taken from hospitals over fourteen years."
June whispered:
"Where are they?"
"Some were sold."
"Some were experimented on."
"Some disappeared."
Silence.
I felt sick.
"Why us?"
Lucas looked at June.
"Because your mother found the ledger."
"What ledger?"
"The one containing the buyers."
He reached into his jacket.
A photograph fell onto the table.
I recognized it immediately.
The graduation auditorium.
The dean.
The stage.
The crowd.
And in the corner, sitting alone:
Dr. Elias Mercer's lawyer.
The man who had been watching us.
"He's alive," Lucas said.
"What?"
"That article was false."
My stomach dropped.
"The man who died six months ago wasn't Elias."
Lucas nodded.
"He used a body double."
I stared.
"So Mercer is alive."
"Yes."
"Where?"
Lucas gave me an address.
An abandoned research facility two hours outside the city.
"That's where he keeps the original files."
June stood.
"Then we go."
"No," I said.
She looked at me.
"Dad, he has been hunting us for twenty-two years."
"I know."
"Then we stop running."
Ava nodded.
Claire grabbed my hand.
"We do it together."
I looked at my daughters.
All three.
Blood or no blood.
Secrets or no secrets.
They were mine.
"We go."
The facility was abandoned.
At least, from the outside.
Inside, we found cameras.
Hallways.
Locked rooms.
Old medical equipment.
And thousands of files.
One room was labeled:
COLLINS.
June stopped.
Inside were photographs of her mother.
Every year.
Every pregnancy appointment.
Every medical test.
Someone had been following her from the beginning.
Then we found another room.
BENNETT.
My name.
My childhood.
My first job.
My apartment.
The girls' birthdays.
Everything.
One photograph showed me carrying the babies home.
A note beneath it:
SUBJECT HAS BONDED WITH ALL THREE.
My blood boiled.
They hadn't just watched us.
They had studied us.
Then we heard footsteps.
We turned.
Dr. Elias Mercer stood at the end of the hallway.
Older than the photographs.
But alive.
He smiled.
"Twenty-two years."
His eyes settled on me.
"You've done exactly what I needed."
I stepped forward.
"What did you need?"
He smiled wider.
"A father."
He looked at the girls.
"A protector willing to sacrifice everything."
June whispered:
"Why?"
Mercer answered.
"Because I knew one day the truth would surface."
He pointed at me.
"And when it did, you'd bring my missing evidence straight back to me."
My heart dropped.
"What evidence?"
Mercer smiled.
"June's DNA."
Then he pressed a button.
A steel door slammed behind us.
We were trapped.
May you like
And Mercer spoke through the intercom.
"Now we'll finally find out which one of you was born with the mutation."
