Chapter 13 - The Second Founder
Charles Blackwood built the financial side of the network.
Miriam built the science.
Together, they selected families, acquired genetic data, and created children they considered useful.
Their deaths were staged within months of each other.
They disappeared when federal scrutiny increased.
Elijah had inherited the legitimate businesses.
Charles kept the hidden ones.
Toby described the man who struck him.
White hair.
Gold watch.
Cane with a silver wolf.
Security footage from a private airfield showed Charles boarding a jet the night before the ER attack.
He had returned to stop Cassandra from losing control.
The deleted message on her phone had come from him.
MAKE SURE HE DOESN’T WAKE UP.
Charles wanted Toby silenced because the boy saw Noah being moved.
Unlike Miriam, Charles did not pretend his actions served medicine.
He served money.
The archive showed payments for unauthorized procedures.
Families paid up to $40 million for donor matches.
Children became inventory.
Charles’s current location was unknown.
Then Elijah received a package.
Inside was the silver-wolf cane.
And a note.
YOU FAILED THE FAMILY.
A second line read:
BRING NOAH AND AVA TO THE BLACKWOOD TOWER, OR TOBY FINISHES WHAT HE STARTED.
Toby was still in the hospital under guard.
We checked his room.
Empty.
A nurse lay unconscious in the supply closet.
Charles had taken him.
Again, someone breached security.
This time through a maintenance elevator connected to an adjacent parking structure.
The hospital locked down.
Morales traced a vehicle to Blackwood Tower downtown.
The skyscraper belonged to Elijah’s company.
Forty-eight floors.
Thousands of employees.
Charles chose it because Elijah controlled access.
Or thought he did.
Elijah handed federal agents every code.
“I will go inside.”
Morales refused.
“He wants you emotional.”
“He has my son.”
“He has Toby because you spent years ignoring your family.”
Elijah accepted the words.
No argument.
That was new.
We entered through the underground loading dock.
The tower had been evacuated under a fire alarm.
Charles waited on the top floor.
Toby sat beside him near the glass wall.
A harness connected the boy to a window-cleaning platform outside.
One button could lower him forty-eight stories.
Charles greeted Elijah with a smile.
“You finally brought the doctor.”
“You’re alive,” Elijah whispered.
“Disappointed?”
“You let me bury you.”
“I let you inherit a test.”
Elijah stared at him.
“What test?”
“Whether you could secure Noah without exposing the network.”
“You used me.”
“I raised you.”
Charles looked at me.
“Miriam made the same mistake with you. She confused intelligence with obedience.”
I stepped closer.
“Release Toby.”
“Bring me Noah and Ava.”
“They are protected.”
“Then the boy falls.”
Toby began crying.
Elijah moved toward his father.
Charles pressed the button.
May you like
The platform jerked downward.
👉 Charles suspended Toby outside the tower and demanded both children, forcing Elijah to decide whether he would finally defy the father who controlled his entire life.
