Chapter 14 - Claire's Voice
The new file was audio only.
Daniel pressed play.
A woman's voice filled the room.
"Daniel."
He stopped breathing.
She sounded nothing like he remembered.
Of course she didn't.
Claire had been four.
"You're hearing this because Noah found the drive."
Margaret sat down.
Claire continued.
"If Mom is with you, don't believe everything she says."
Margaret whispered, "Claire."
"I know she thinks she's protecting the family. She has thought that for twenty-seven years. That's how all of this started."
Daniel clenched his jaw.
Claire's voice remained steady.
"Thomas took me from the mansion. Evelyn bought him. Richard tried to negotiate. Margaret lied to police. David moved me. All of that is true."
David looked away.
"But none of them created Helix."
Daniel leaned closer.
"Who did?"
Claire continued.
"Helix existed before Carter Biotechnics. Dad inherited it."
Margaret whispered, "No."
"He didn't create the program. Grandfather did."
Daniel's grandfather, William Carter.
Dead thirty-four years.
A respected physician.
A philanthropist.
A name carved into hospitals.
Claire continued.
"The family fortune wasn't built only on diagnostics. It was built on research performed on people who never consented."
Emily closed her eyes.
"Richard discovered what his father had done and tried to turn the research legitimate. He failed."
Daniel whispered, "Dad."
"Then Evelyn learned Claire had the marker William spent his life searching for."
Claire referred to herself in the third person.
Distance.
A survival mechanism.
"She believed I was the proof the research worked."
Daniel stared at the speaker.
"You weren't."
Claire's recording continued.
"The marker is natural. Helix never created it."
Emily squeezed Noah's hand.
"But powerful people spent decades believing they could control it."
Claire paused.
Then:
"Noah carries it too."
Margaret began crying.
"I have been watching Noah for six months."
Emily's anger rose.
Claire continued.
"I never wanted to frighten him. I came to the mansion because somebody else had already entered."
Daniel turned toward Margaret.
"Who?"
The recording answered.
"David Sloan."
David stood.
"That's a lie."
Claire continued as if anticipating him.
"David will tell you he saved me. He did, once. Then he sold information about Grace."
David lunged toward the laptop.
Security restrained him.
Daniel stared at him.
"You sold my niece?"
"No."
Claire:
"He needed money after his company failed. He contacted people connected to Helix."
David shouted, "I didn't know what they wanted!"
Claire continued.
"That is why I came back."
Emily looked at David with disgust.
"Did you?"
David looked broken.
"I gave them a location."
"Whose?"
"Claire's."
Daniel stepped forward.
David whispered, "I didn't know Grace was there."
Daniel struck him.
Security pulled them apart.
The recording continued.
"The night Noah found the USB, David realized I had placed it in the mansion. He came looking for it."
David shouted, "I was trying to destroy it!"
Claire:
"He will say he wanted to protect you."
David went silent.
"He did not put Noah in the washing machine."
Everyone froze.
Claire continued.
"Neither did Margaret."
Emily looked at Noah.
"Then who?"
Claire's voice became quieter.
"The person who did knows more about this family than any of us."
Margaret whispered, "Who?"
Claire answered:
"Mrs. Lewis."
The room went dead silent.
Daniel turned toward the housekeeper.
Mrs. Lewis stood near the doorway.
Her expression had changed completely.
No fear.
No confusion.
Nothing.
Emily pulled Noah behind her.
Mrs. Lewis smiled.
"Claire always was clever."
Daniel whispered, "What did you do?"
Mrs. Lewis closed the door behind her.
"I did what your father should have done decades ago."
Margaret stared at the woman who had worked in her home for thirty-one years.
"Who are you?"
Mrs. Lewis laughed softly.
"You still don't know?"
She removed a thin chain from beneath her blouse.
A small silver medical emblem hung from it.
Margaret saw it and went pale.
"No."
Daniel looked between them.
"What is that?"
May you like
Margaret whispered:
"Project Helix."
