Chapter 15 - CASSANDRA KNEW MY FATHER FIRST
I asked Julian to photograph both sides of the picture.
He did.
My phone described the image.
Nathan Hart.
Margaret Hart.
Teenage female identified as Cassandra Vale.
Laboratory background.
Gold Research Partnership logo.
Date stamp:
Nineteen years earlier.
I was fifteen then.
Cassandra had always told me we met freshman year of college.
That was the story I remembered.
Two eighteen-year-old women fighting over the last stool in an overcrowded chemistry lab.
Best friends by Thanksgiving.
Co-founders years later.
Apparently she knew my family before I knew her.
I called.
She did not answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a message.
Stop digging into things your father wanted buried.
I typed:
You knew him.
Her reply came immediately.
Yes.
My entire body went still.
How long?
Since I was fourteen.
Why?
No answer.
I called again.
This time she picked up.
“You should have left Project Gold alone.”
“I didn’t know it existed.”
“I know.”
That sentence frightened me.
“You knew I didn’t know.”
“Yes.”
“You became my friend anyway.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“I was supposed to watch you.”
My stomach dropped.
“For who?”
Silence.
“Cassandra.”
“For Helena.”
The dead research partner.
Maybe alive.
“What did Helena want?”
“To know whether you remembered anything.”
“Remembered what?”
“Your father’s work.”
“I was a child.”
“You spent time in his laboratory.”
“I visited him.”
“You watched more than you understood.”
Maybe.
Children absorb words without context.
Images.
Processes.
The golden culture under imaging.
Had Aurum been reinvention?
Or memory?
“You were sent to watch me.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Cassandra’s voice softened.
“We became friends for real.”
I almost laughed.
“You stole my company.”
“I know.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“I know.”
“You planned to use my injury to strip my rights.”
“I know.”
“And you still want me to believe the friendship was real?”
Silence.
Then:
“That’s why I needed you dead.”
The bluntness stopped me.
Not because it surprised me.
Because she finally said it without disguise.
“You did cause the explosion.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I said I wanted you dead.”
Cold moved through me.
“I did not say I caused the explosion.”
“Your credential opened the reactor.”
“Because I was part of the rejection plan.”
“Which trapped me in the lab.”
“Not intentionally.”
“You told me tonight I should have died.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because after the explosion, everything got worse.”
“For you.”
“For everyone.”
I stood in darkness.
“Who closed the ventilation?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who increased hydrogen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was the woman inside Lab Three?”
Long silence.
“Elena…”
“You know.”
“Yes.”
“Helena?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Silence.
I thought I misunderstood.
“What?”
“My mother was in Lab Three.”
I knew almost nothing about Cassandra’s family.
She told me her mother died when she was twelve.
A car accident.
Another dead woman.
“What is her name?”
Cassandra did not answer.
“Your mother is Helena Ward?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
A pause.
“Rebecca Vale.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What was her connection to Project Gold?”
“She was the first human subject.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“Margaret was not Patient Zero.”
“No.”
“Your mother was.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
My father’s original program.
Human testing Cassandra claimed never happened.
“What happened to her?”
“She survived.”
“Persistence?”
“Yes.”
“Complications?”
“Yes.”
“Did my father treat her?”
“Helena did.”
“Without approval?”
“Yes.”
“What did my father do?”
“He shut Project Gold down.”
“Because of Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“He tried to destroy the sequence.”
“And Helena?”
“She refused.”
The old conflict became clear.
My father discovered an unsafe persistent regenerative sequence.
His partner wanted to continue.
Rebecca Vale became the first human subject.
Cassandra grew up inside the aftermath.
“What happened to your mother?”
Cassandra’s voice shook.
“She changed.”
“What does that mean?”
“Neurological symptoms. Immune problems. Episodes.”
“Did she die?”
“No.”
Another false death.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cassandra.”
“I swear.”
Evidence first.
I forced myself to consider she might be telling the truth.
“When did you last see her?”
“The night of your explosion.”
My skin went cold.
“The woman in Lab Three.”
“Yes.”
“But you said that was your mother.”
“It was.”
“You just said you don’t know where she is.”
“She disappeared after.”
I gripped the phone harder.
“Why was she there?”
“To destroy Aurum.”
“What?”
“She believes Project Gold should never exist again.”
“Then why did she sabotage containment?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did she trap me?”
“She may not have intended to.”
My anger sharpened.
“You’re defending her?”
“No.”
“Then tell me why she was carrying Margaret’s silver key.”
Silence.
“You saw the image?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Julian sent it.”
Of course he did.
Still moving information between sides.
“What does the key open?”
Cassandra whispered:
“Project Gold’s biological archive.”
“Where?”
“North Shore Recovery.”
Margaret’s safe-deposit file.
The place Helena—or someone—first approached her.
“What is inside?”
“Original subject samples.”
Rebecca Vale.
Maybe others.
“And Margaret’s blood?”
“Belongs there too.”
“Who took it?”
“I did.”
Finally.
“Where is it?”
“With the rest.”
“Why?”
“Because Helena asked for comparison.”
“You said you don’t know where your mother is.”
“I said Helena.”
I stopped.
Cassandra’s mother Rebecca was not Helena.
Helena Ward was still another person.
“Helena is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“North Shore.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Is Margaret’s sample there?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does Helena want?”
“To prove Aurum isn’t yours.”
My pulse changed.
“She believes Project Gold owns it.”
“She believes she owns Project Gold.”
“But the assignment transferred my father’s interest to my trust.”
“Your father’s interest.”
Not Helena’s.
Half the old program may still belong to Helena Ward.
That was the larger ownership war.
Then Cassandra said:
“Elena, there’s something you need to understand before you go anywhere near North Shore.”
“What?”
“Helena did not send me into your life just to watch you.”
“Why else?”
“She wanted me to make sure you eventually built Aurum.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“You think you independently reinvented Project Gold.”
“I did.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“I helped you.”
My mind raced through years of experiments.
Suggestions.
Failed assays.
A paper Cassandra recommended.
A reagent she insisted we test.
A pathway she claimed came from unrelated fibrosis research.
Tiny nudges.
Not theft from me.
Planting old knowledge into my work until I believed the direction was ours.
“You seeded Project Gold into HartVale.”
“Yes.”
“You used me to rebuild it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your founder integrity system required you to believe the invention was yours.”
My stomach turned.
They needed me not merely as a scientist.
As a clean inventor.
A legitimate new patent path that could launder old forbidden research into modern intellectual property.
My father had buried Project Gold.
Helena used his daughter to resurrect it.
“And the explosion?”
Cassandra began crying.
“I think my mother came to stop Helena.”
Then my phone announced another incoming call.
Unknown number.
Cassandra stopped speaking.
“Don’t answer.”
I did.
An older woman spoke.
“Elena Hart?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Helena Ward.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“You’ve been looking for me.”
“Where is Margaret’s sample?”
A soft laugh.
“Still thinking like Nathan.”
“What do you want?”
“To finish what your father interrupted.”
“Aurum?”
“No.”
Pause.
“Aurum is only the second generation.”
My skin prickled.
“What comes after?”
“Something your father was too frightened to name.”
Then a second voice appeared faintly behind Helena.
A woman crying.
Cassandra heard it through our merged call.
Her breath stopped.
“Mom?”
The crying stopped.
Helena laughed softly.
“So Rebecca finally has an audience.”
Cassandra screamed:
“Where is she?”
Helena ignored her.
“Elena, if you want to know why your father destroyed Project Gold, come to North Shore.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll tell you one thing now.”
Silence.
“Rebecca Vale was not the first human subject.”
My heart stopped.
“Who was?”
Helena answered:
“You.”
I could not breathe.
“That’s impossible.”
“You were five years old.”
Cassandra went completely silent.
Helena continued.
“Your father did not create Project Gold to regenerate injured adults.”
Pause.
“He created it because something happened to his daughter.”
Me.
A childhood event I did not remember.
“And Elena…”
Helena’s voice softened.
“The reason you survived the laboratory explosion has nothing to do with luck.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
“Because Aurum was already inside you before Cassandra ever met you.”
The call ended.
I stood in total darkness beneath my surgical bandages.
For three weeks, I had believed the explosion took my sight.
For seven years, I had believed Aurum was my invention.
For nineteen years, I had believed Cassandra entered my life by accident.
Now Helena Ward was claiming my own body was the oldest surviving evidence in the entire conspiracy.
May you like
And if she was telling the truth, the doctors waiting to remove my eye bandages were about to discover something none of us understood.
📖 Discover what Project Gold did to me as a child—and why Helena believes removing my surgical bandages will expose the secret when PART 2 continues with CHAPTER 16. 👇
