Chapter 12: The Daughter Hidden From Me
The screen remained frozen.
A photograph.
A name.
A truth that felt impossible.
PROJECT PHOENIX SUBJECT 347: LILY CARTER.
My daughter.
Those two words destroyed the last piece of reality I thought I had.
I stared at the image.
A little girl.
Dark hair.
Bright eyes.
A small smile.
She looked about ten years old.
Ten years old.
And somehow...
I had never known she existed.
My breathing became uneven.
"No."
The word escaped before I could stop it.
"No, that's not possible."
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone knew.
The truth was already there.
Waiting.
Waiting for me to discover it.
I turned slowly toward my mother.
She was crying.
Not pretending.
Not hiding.
Real tears.
The kind I had not seen from her in my entire life.
"You knew."
My voice was quiet.
She looked at me.
"Ethan..."
"You knew I had a daughter."
Her lips trembled.
"I wanted to tell you."
I laughed.
A painful laugh.
"Everyone always wants to tell me."
"But somehow nobody ever does."
My mother stepped forward.
"I was trying to protect her."
"From who?"
My eyes moved toward William's screen.
"From him?"
Silence.
That was enough.
The room felt smaller.
Like the walls were closing around me.
A daughter.
A child.
Someone who had existed while I spent three years believing my only purpose was survival.
"When?"
My mother looked down.
"When was she born?"
She didn't answer.
I felt anger rising.
"Mom."
"Ten years ago."
The number hit me.
Ten years.
I was twenty-six years old.
I remembered that period.
I remembered my life.
My work.
My relationships.
My choices.
But not her.
Not Lily.
"Who is her mother?"
My mother looked at me.
Then toward the screen.
"I don't know if you remember."
The sentence immediately bothered me.
"If I remember?"
She nodded.
"Ethan, before your accident..."
She paused.
"You had already started discovering Novacore."
I knew that.
"But you also discovered something else."
"What?"
"A woman inside the company."
My mind searched through memories.
Nothing.
Blank.
Like a page had been torn from a book.
"Her name was Anna."
My heart skipped.
Anna.
The name felt familiar.
A shadow of a memory.
A voice.
A smile.
A person I had forgotten.
"She helped you investigate."
My mother continued.
"She found evidence against William."
"And Lily?"
My mother looked at the photograph.
"Anna was pregnant when you found out."
I closed my eyes.
Fragments appeared.
A hospital hallway.
A woman's hand holding mine.
A promise.
"Everything will be okay."
I opened my eyes.
"Where is Anna?"
Nobody answered.
I already knew.
Another person who disappeared.
Another accident.
Another secret.
"What happened to her?"
Gabriel looked away.
That scared me.
Because Gabriel was not someone who avoided answers.
"Gabriel."
He finally spoke.
"Anna discovered the truth about Project Phoenix."
"And?"
"She tried to escape."
My voice became cold.
"Did she make it?"
A long silence.
"No."
The room became silent.
My hands clenched.
Another life destroyed.
Another person sacrificed.
All because my family believed they had the right to decide who lived and who disappeared.
"And Lily?"
My mother answered.
"William took her."
The anger inside me became overwhelming.
"He took my daughter?"
"He believed Lily was important."
"Why?"
My mother looked at the screen.
"Because she was the first child born after Phoenix research began."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Gabriel stepped forward.
"It means Lily wasn't created through the experiment."
"She inherited it."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
Gabriel looked at me.
"Your abilities."
The room became silent.
"Lily has them too."
Suddenly, everything made sense.
William wasn't just interested in me.
He wasn't trying to prove his theory.
He was trying to create something beyond himself.
A next generation.
A person who didn't need experiments.
A person born with what he had spent decades chasing.
My child.
My daughter.
A living result of everything he had done.
I looked at William's screen.
"You used her."
"No."
His answer was immediate.
"I protected her."
I almost laughed.
"Protected?"
"You stole her."
"I saved her from a world that would destroy her."
"You created that world."
Silence.
For the first time...
William had no answer.
The facility suddenly shook.
A warning alarm activated.
The lights turned red.
Gabriel looked toward the hallway.
"They found us."
Hayes immediately moved.
"Who?"
Gabriel looked serious.
"William's security team."
My mother grabbed my arm.
"We need to leave."
But I didn't move.
I stared at Lily's file.
"Where is she?"
Nobody answered.
"Where is my daughter?"
William's voice came through the speakers.
"Ethan."
I looked up.
"You need to understand something."
"What?"
"Lily is not a prisoner."
"Then where is she?"
"She is with people who understand her."
My expression hardened.
"You mean people like you?"
"No."
A pause.
"People who can teach her."
My blood ran cold.
"Teach her what?"
William looked directly at the camera.
"How to survive."
The screen changed.
A live video appeared.
A room.
A young girl sitting at a table.
Lily.
She looked scared.
But alive.
I stepped closer.
"Lily."
She looked toward the camera.
And my heart stopped.
Because she heard me.
She knew my voice.
"Dad?"
The word destroyed me.
A child I never held.
A child I never protected.
A child who somehow still knew me.
"Lily..."
The video flickered.
A man entered the room.
His face was hidden.
But his voice was familiar.
"Say goodbye, Ethan."
The screen went black.
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
Not William.
Not Adrian.
Not Vince.
Someone else.
Someone I thought was on my side.
I turned slowly.
Everyone looked confused.
Except one person.
Rachel.
Her face had gone pale.
"Ethan..."
I stared at her.
"What?"
She couldn't speak.
"Rachel."
She swallowed.
"The person with Lily..."
"Who is he?"
Her eyes filled with fear.
"Your doctor."
My blood ran cold.
"My doctor?"
She nodded.
"The man who treated you after the accident."
A terrible realization entered my mind.
The person who helped me survive.
The person who knew my injuries.
The person who knew my recovery.
The person who had access to my medical records.
The person who had been there from the beginning.
Rachel whispered his name.
"Dr. Samuel Reed."
The room went silent.
Because suddenly...
the man who saved my life...
might have been the person controlling it.
And somewhere in the Carter Institute...
my daughter was waiting.
Waiting for me.
Waiting for the father she never knew.
And I had only one choice left.
May you like
Stop searching for the truth.
Or destroy everyone who had hidden it from me.
