Chapter 12 - Chaos exploded.Daniel grabbed Emily.
Harris dragged Claire behind a steel container.
Bullets struck the walls.
The woman lay motionless.
Emily tried to run toward her.
Daniel held her back.
“No!”
“That's my mother!”
“It's a shooting gallery!”
Harris fired toward the muzzle flash.
A body fell.
Silence.
The gunman was dead.
Claire crawled toward the woman.
She checked her pulse.
“She’s alive.”
Emily broke free.
She dropped beside her mother.
“Mom!”
The woman opened her eyes.
“Emily.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I was supposed to be.”
“Who shot you?”
The woman looked toward Martin's empty screen.
“He did.”
Emily cried.
“Why?”
Her mother reached into her coat.
She pulled out a folded letter.
“This was for you.”
Emily opened it.
Her mother's handwriting trembled across the page.
I DID NOT ABANDON YOU.
I WAS TRYING TO KEEP YOU ALIVE.
Emily read further.
The letter revealed everything.
Her biological mother was a doctor named Elise Hart.
Elise had worked with Martin.
She discovered the illegal experiments.
When she tried to stop him, he threatened her daughter.
Emily had been adopted under a false identity.
Martin had made Elise disappear.
But Elise survived.
For twelve years she had gathered evidence.
The same evidence Emily had been searching for.
Daniel read over Emily's shoulder.
At the bottom of the letter was an address.
A church.
St. Agnes.
Claire looked up.
“Why a church?”
Elise whispered:
“Because the oldest evidence is hidden there.”
“What evidence?” Harris asked.
“The original patient ledger.”
“The names?”
“No.”
Elise shook her head.
“The signatures.”
Everyone went silent.
“Whose?”
Elise looked at Daniel.
“Your father's.”
“And?”
“Yours.”
Daniel stared.
“I was a child.”
“You signed nothing.”
“Then why would my name be there?”
Elise looked toward Emily.
“Because Martin forged your consent years before you could speak.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“He made it look like I authorized the experiments.”
Claire whispered:
“So if the truth came out…”
“You would be blamed,” Elise said.
Daniel understood.
Martin hadn't just wanted money.
He had built an escape route.
A way to make the evidence point toward his own son.
Harris stood.
“Then St. Agnes is our next move.”
They reached the church before sunrise.
The doors were unlocked.
Candles burned inside.
No priest.
No congregation.
Only silence.
Elise pointed toward the altar.
“Underneath.”
Daniel lifted the wooden panel.
A metal box was hidden beneath it.
The brass key opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
Seventeen names.
Three survivors.
And dozens of signatures.
Martin Whitmore.
Thomas Bell.
Dr. Adrian Shaw.
And Daniel Whitmore.
Daniel stared.
His own name.
Below it, a date.
He was two years old.
Claire whispered:
“He forged it.”
“No.”
Elise shook her head.
“Not him.”
Everyone turned.
“Who?”
Elise stared at Daniel.
“Your mother.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“My mother?”
“She signed for you.”
“Why?”
“Because Martin told her you would die if she refused.”
Daniel dropped the ledger.
His mother covered her face.
“I was trying to save you.”
Daniel stared at her.
“So everything…”
“Yes.”
A bell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then the church doors locked.
Martin's voice echoed through hidden speakers.
“You've done very well.”
Daniel looked around.
“Where are you?”
A projector flickered on.
A live image appeared.
The hospital.
Emily's room.
A man stood beside the bed.
Dr. Adrian Shaw.
He was holding a syringe.
Daniel stared.
“That's not live.”
Martin smiled through the screen.
“It is.”
Emily looked at Claire.
“Who is on that bed?”
Claire's face went cold.
“The girl.”
Lena.
Martin continued:
“One final patient.”
He looked at Daniel.
“And this one has something none of the others had.”
“What?”
“Your blood.”
The screen shifted.
Lena lay unconscious.
A machine was drawing blood from her arm.
Martin smiled.
“She is the key to the inheritance.”
Daniel shouted:
“Stop!”
Martin leaned closer to the camera.
“Bring me the ledger.”
“No.”
“Then she dies.”
The screen went black.
Emily turned toward Daniel.
“There's one problem.”
“What?”
“We don't have the real ledger.”
Daniel looked at the metal box.
Empty.
The ledger was gone.
Then someone behind them whispered:
“Looking for this?”
They turned.
Detective Harris stood at the back of the church.
May you like
Holding the ledger.
And pointing a gun at Daniel.
