Chapter 8 - Jonathan read the letter three times.Marcus is not dead.
The words refused to make sense.
His little brother had died thirty-seven years ago.
Jonathan had identified the body.
He had attended the funeral.
He remembered the coffin.
He remembered their mother screaming.
He remembered his father refusing to speak for weeks.
But now there was a letter.
And inside it, a truth that could destroy his entire family history.
Daniel entered.
"Sir."
Jonathan handed him the paper.
"Find Marcus."
Daniel stared.
"Marcus Vale?"
"Yes."
"He's dead."
"Apparently not."
Daniel read the letter.
His expression changed.
"Where do we start?"
Jonathan pointed at the hidden compartment.
"With my family."
The letter explained that Jonathan's father had secretly funded a laboratory beneath the original Vale estate.
It was the birthplace of Project Echo.
The purpose was not immortality.
It was emergency regeneration.
Soldiers.
Burn victims.
Paralyzed patients.
People whom conventional medicine couldn't save.
Evelyn had joined the project because she believed it could change medicine forever.
But then the researchers discovered something.
The regenerative cells worked best in children.
Specifically, children with a rare genetic mutation.
Six children were born.
Six subjects.
And one family had unknowingly produced two.
Jonathan's daughter, Lily.
And his brother's son.
Jonathan stopped reading.
"Marcus had a child?"
Daniel nodded.
"Apparently."
Jonathan whispered:
"Who?"
No answer was written.
The letter ended with a warning.
Never let Kane combine their blood.
Jonathan looked up.
"Why?"
The next page was missing.
They searched the mansion.
Nothing.
Then security footage showed something.
Someone had entered the house three nights earlier.
A figure in a hood.
The face was hidden.
The person had gone directly to Jonathan's study.
Daniel paused the recording.
"Enhance it."
The image became grainy.
But Jonathan recognized the walk.
The person limped slightly.
His heart stopped.
"Marcus."
Daniel looked at him.
"Sir..."
Jonathan stared at the screen.
"He's alive."
At that moment, the mansion alarm sounded.
Every guard rushed downstairs.
A vehicle had breached the gate.
Jonathan grabbed a weapon.
The front doors exploded inward.
Men in tactical gear entered.
Gunfire erupted.
Jonathan pushed Michael behind a wall.
"Take the children!"
Daniel fired back.
Emma and Noah ran.
Michael grabbed Lily.
The attackers moved with military precision.
One shouted:
"Secure Subject Six!"
Jonathan shot him.
Another attacker came through the kitchen.
Then a voice shouted:
"Jonathan!"
Jonathan turned.
A man stood at the top of the staircase.
Older.
Gray hair.
Scar across his face.
Alive.
Marcus.
Jonathan lowered his weapon.
"You're alive."
Marcus looked at him.
"I told you they would come."
Jonathan couldn't speak.
Marcus ran down the stairs.
The brothers stared at each other.
Thirty-seven years of grief collapsed in a second.
Jonathan hit him.
Hard.
Marcus didn't fight back.
Then Jonathan grabbed him and pulled him into an embrace.
"You were dead."
"I know."
"Why?"
"I was protecting you."
"From who?"
Marcus looked toward Lily.
"From our father."
Jonathan froze.
"Father is dead."
Marcus shook his head.
"Our father died twenty-two years ago."
Jonathan stared.
"Then how could he be involved?"
Marcus's eyes filled with anger.
"Because he wasn't the one running Project Echo."
"Who was?"
Marcus looked at Jonathan.
"Our mother."
Silence.
Jonathan whispered:
"Mother?"
Marcus nodded.
"Elena didn't die."
He pointed toward the hidden room.
"She's alive."
Jonathan's world collapsed.
Their mother.
Evelyn.
Marcus.
Kane.
Everyone had been lying.
For decades.
Then footsteps sounded upstairs.
Lily began crying.
Marcus's face changed.
"They've found us."
Jonathan asked:
"Who?"
Marcus whispered:
"The original team."
A helicopter appeared above the mansion.
Its spotlight flooded the windows.
A voice came through loudspeakers.
"Jonathan Vale."
Jonathan looked upward.
"Hand over the children."
Marcus grabbed his arm.
"Don't."
The helicopter door opened.
A woman stepped into view.
Jonathan saw her face.
He stopped breathing.
She was older.
Her hair was gray.
But he knew those eyes.
His mother.
Elena Vale.
May you like
She looked down through the glass window.
Then she smiled.
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