Chapter 9 - The FatherJonathan Vale was not dead.
He had been listed as missing for fourteen years.
I found him through a private investigator whose name appeared in one of Nate's financial records.
A woman named Mara Quinn.
She agreed to meet me in a diner near the river.
She arrived wearing a red scarf and carrying a small leather folder.
"You look like him."
"Like who?"
"Jonathan."
I sat down.
"Tell me everything."
She studied me.
"You're sure?"
"I just discovered my entire marriage may have been built around a research program."
She smiled sadly.
"Then you're ready."
She opened the folder.
Photographs.
Jonathan.
My mother.
Me.
As a baby.
Another photograph showed me at approximately six years old.
I looked happy.
Behind me stood a man I didn't recognize.
Nate.
Young.
Maybe twenty-five.
I stared.
"He knew me before our wedding."
"Yes."
"How long?"
"Since you were a child."
I felt sick.
"Why?"
"Because your father owed the Turner family."
"Owed them what?"
"Money."
"That's all?"
"No."
She slid another photograph across the table.
My mother.
In a laboratory.
Wearing a research badge.
ORCHID DIVISION.
My hands shook.
"My mother worked for them."
"Yes."
"And my father?"
"He designed the original system."
"What system?"
"The implant technology."
I stared.
"The device that killed Eleanor."
"Yes."
"My father invented it."
"Partially."
"Then why did he disappear?"
"Because he discovered the company was changing the device without telling patients."
"Like Eleanor."
Mara nodded.
"Jonathan tried to stop them."
"Who stopped him?"
"The Turners."
I looked down.
"And Nate?"
"He was twenty-four. He was assigned to monitor your father."
"Monitor?"
"Track."
I felt the anger rising.
"Did Nate know who I was?"
Mara looked directly at me.
"He knew exactly who you were."
I pushed back from the table.
"Then our entire relationship was a lie."
"Not entirely."
I stared.
"What does that mean?"
"Nate fell in love with you."
I laughed.
"Don't."
"I'm not defending him."
"Then don't romanticize it."
"I'm telling you what happened."
She leaned closer.
"He was supposed to hand your father over."
"Did he?"
"No."
"Why?"
"He helped Jonathan disappear."
I froze.
"What?"
"Nate betrayed his own family."
"Then why marry me?"
"He believed you were safer with him than without him."
I thought about the video.
"If I marry Hannah, we can move forward with the plan."
Mara sighed.
"The plan changed."
"When?"
"The night of your wedding."
"Why?"
"Because Jonathan came back."
My phone vibrated.
A message.
COME TO THE OLD ORCHID FACILITY. ALONE.
I looked up.
Mara's face had gone pale.
"Don't go."
"Why?"
"Because that's where Jonathan disappeared."
I stood.
"You said he was alive."
"He is."
"Then why is someone calling me there?"
Mara's eyes filled with fear.
"Because somebody wants to finish what they started fourteen years ago."
I walked toward the door.
"Where is my father?"
May you like
She grabbed my wrist.
"He's already inside."
