Chapter 12 - THE INSIDE WOMAN
Security footage showed a nurse wheeling Grace through a service exit.
Her badge identified her as Melissa Grant.
No employee with that name existed.
Marcus recognized her face.
She was Tyler’s older sister.
Victoria Vance.
The real director of Project Eve.
Tyler had never been the mastermind.
He was her field operative.
Victoria took Grace because Grace carried the genetic sequence they needed.
She left Lily behind.
That confirmed Tyler’s claim.
Grace was the target.
The hospital launched a lockdown.
Marcus traced Victoria’s vehicle to an abandoned church outside the city.
I refused to remain behind.
My mother came too.
We sat together in the back of an armored van.
For years, silence stood between us.
Now there was no room for it.
“Why didn’t you tell me Dad was alive?”
“He asked me not to.”
“You chose him over me.”
“I chose what I thought would keep you safe.”
“That is what Tyler always said.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
It was the first time she admitted the truth without defending herself.
At the church, agents found the nursery empty.
A heater still ran.
A bottle lay on the floor.
Grace’s blood was on a blanket.
Not much.
Enough to terrify me.
Marcus discovered a hidden door behind the altar.
Below it was a tunnel leading to a research bunker.
We entered slowly.
White lights flickered on.
Victoria stood behind glass holding Grace.
Tyler sat beside her.
He had escaped federal transport.
Director Shaw stood with them.
All three were connected.
Victoria spoke through an intercom.
“Emily, give us Lily.”
“No.”
“Then Grace becomes the final test.”
“She is already the child you wanted.”
“Grace carries the sequence. Lily carries the immunity.”
Both babies were necessary.
One to reproduce the treatment.
One to prevent its side effects.
Victoria wanted to combine their cells.
My mother stepped beside me.
“What happens to them?”
Victoria smiled.
“They don’t need to survive.”
Marcus fired at the glass.
Bulletproof.
Victoria reached for a syringe.
Grace began crying.
My entire body went still.
Then my father’s voice came through Marcus’s radio.
“Do not enter the chamber. The oxygen is rigged.”
May you like
He had left the hospital again.
And he knew another way inside.
