Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT GABRIEL FORGOTGabriel couldn't breathe.
“I wasn't there.”
Eli stared at him.
“You were.”
“I would never hurt your mother.”
“You didn't hurt her.”
Gabriel looked relieved.
Then Eli added:
“You told her to run.”
A silence.
“What happened next?”
Eli's eyes closed.
“I remember lights.”
“Red?”
“No.”
“Blue?”
Eli shook his head.
“White.”
His hands trembled.
“Then Mom pushed me under the table.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Why?”
“Because she knew it would explode.”
Hannah looked shocked.
“How much time?”
Eli whispered:
“Eight seconds.”
Gabriel stepped backward.
That detail had never appeared in any report.
Only one witness had survived the explosion.
Eli.
Then Eli opened his eyes.
“Mom said something.”
“What?”
“She said…”
His voice broke.
“Your father isn't your father anymore.”
Gabriel stared.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
Then memories flooded Eli's mind.
A corridor.
A man in a white coat.
Claire arguing.
Gabriel shouting.
A needle.
Eli suddenly screamed.
“STOP!”
Gabriel grabbed him.
“Eli!”
“He put something in your arm!”
Gabriel looked down.
A faint scar crossed his forearm.
He had never remembered how it happened.
Hannah examined it.
“That's an injection scar.”
Gabriel's face went pale.
Then the door opened.
A woman entered.
Older.
Elegant.
Cold.
Gabriel recognized her.
His mother.
She had supposedly died when he was sixteen.
But she was standing there.
Alive.
Hannah stepped back.
“Mrs. Marlowe.”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, Gabriel.”
Gabriel couldn't move.
“You're dead.”
“I had to be.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was watching.”
Gabriel stared.
“You've been alive this whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“You let me believe everyone was dead.”
“Because you were safer believing that.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Where is Julian?”
His mother's expression changed.
“Still fighting.”
“For what?”
“For Eli.”
She looked at the boy.
“Your son carries the only successful genetic sequence.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What sequence?”
“The one that kept him alive.”
“You mean the injury?”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“Eli wasn't supposed to recover.”
Gabriel stared.
“His body did something impossible.”
His mother whispered:
“It repaired damaged neural pathways.”
Hannah stiffened.
“That's why they want him.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“My son isn't a laboratory.”
His mother smiled sadly.
“Neither was Julian.”
Gabriel's blood froze.
She continued.
“Your brother was the first.”
Gabriel looked at Hannah.
Then his mother.
“First what?”
“First successful subject.”
Gabriel felt the room tilt.
His mother lowered her voice.
“And you…”
She looked directly at him.
“…were the control.”
Gabriel couldn't speak.
The implication was monstrous.
Julian had been enhanced.
Gabriel had not.
Their lives had been an experiment.
Then his mother said something that destroyed the last piece of certainty Gabriel had.
“Claire discovered the truth.”
Gabriel's voice cracked.
“What did she know?”
“She discovered that Eli inherited something from Julian.”
Gabriel stared.
“Julian is not Eli's uncle.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at Eli.
His mother whispered:
“Julian is his biological father.”
Gabriel stepped backward.
“No.”
Hannah looked horrified.
Eli didn't understand.
Gabriel turned toward his mother.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Then a gunshot exploded somewhere upstairs.
Everyone froze.
His mother looked toward the door.
“Julian has found us.”
Another gunshot.
Closer.
His mother grabbed Eli's hand.
“We have three minutes.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“Three minutes until what?”
May you like
She looked at the ceiling.
“Until the mansion explodes.”
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