Chapter 14 - THE FINAL CHOICEI refused.
There was no deal.
No negotiation.
No fear.
I would get my children back.
We found a maintenance tunnel beneath the laboratory.
Jonathan knew the system better than anyone.
He led us underground.
Flynn stayed beside me.
For once, we moved together.
Not as husband and wife.
Not as lovers.
As parents.
We reached the central chamber.
Marcus was waiting.
Selina stood beside him.
Flynn's mother was there too.
And the twins were in the incubators.
“You're finished,” Detective Mason said.
Marcus laughed.
“You still think the law matters.”
He pointed toward the ceiling.
Hundreds of documents were projected around us.
Government contracts.
Medical grants.
Financial records.
Politicians.
Doctors.
Judges.
The conspiracy was enormous.
Mason stared.
Marcus smiled.
“You cannot arrest everyone.”
“No.”
Mason raised his gun.
“But I can arrest you.”
Marcus turned toward me.
“Tell them.”
I looked at him.
“Tell them what?”
“That you agreed.”
“I never agreed to anything.”
“You will.”
He pressed a button.
One incubator began losing oxygen.
I screamed.
“Stop!”
Marcus smiled.
“Choose.”
Flynn stepped forward.
“Take me.”
Marcus laughed.
“You are irrelevant.”
Flynn looked at Selina.
Then at his mother.
“I was your weapon.”
His mother cried.
“I wanted to protect you.”
“You killed my family.”
She shook her head.
“I didn't.”
Flynn looked at me.
“Then let me fix one thing.”
He turned to Marcus.
“You want me?”
“Yes.”
“Then release the children.”
Marcus hesitated.
Flynn continued.
“You can have my blood. My company. My name.”
I realized what he was doing.
He was buying time.
I looked at Jonathan.
He understood too.
Jonathan slipped behind the main console.
Mason moved toward the security panel.
Selina noticed.
She raised her gun.
I stepped in front of Flynn.
Selina hesitated.
“You'd die for him?”
“No.”
I stared at her.
“I'd die for my children.”
Something changed in her expression.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Jonathan pressed a button.
The entire facility lost power.
Marcus screamed.
The incubators stopped.
Emergency systems activated.
Mason fired at the control panel.
Glass shattered.
The children began crying.
Flynn ran to them.
Selina fired.
The bullet struck Flynn's shoulder.
He fell.
I screamed.
Jonathan tackled Selina.
They hit the floor.
Marcus ran.
I chased him.
We reached the final corridor.
He turned.
“You think you've won?”
I stopped.
“You lost.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Because your husband will never survive knowing what his children are.”
I stared at him.
“They're my children.”
Marcus laughed.
“You carried them.”
He paused.
“But genetically, they belong to the Cole bloodline.”
I shook my head.
“They belong to whoever loves them.”
He raised the gun.
Before he could fire, Detective Mason shot him.
Marcus fell.
The gun hit the floor.
Silence.
I returned to the laboratory.
Flynn was alive.
The twins were alive.
Selina was gone.
Jonathan was bleeding.
Mason was on the radio calling for backup.
For one moment, I thought it was over.
Then Flynn looked at me.
“Mabel.”
“What?”
“There is one more file.”
Jonathan nodded weakly.
He held up the flash drive.
“The master file.”
“What does it say?”
He looked at me.
“It says Marcus wasn't the mastermind.”
My blood went cold.
“Who was?”
Jonathan turned the drive over.
There was a name engraved on it.
A name I knew.
May you like
My own.
MABEL VANCE.
