Chapter 8 - SUBJECT FIFTEEN
Security locked down the pediatric floor.
The tracker signal was disabled.
But Henry had already received the location.
Federal agents searched every entrance.
Dr. Reed moved Luke and Noah into a secure cardiac unit.
Rebecca Carter searched her father’s files for Subject 15.
The birth date was four years earlier.
Female.
Same age as Luke.
The genetic profile showed she was Luke’s fraternal twin.
I had carried two embryos.
Only one baby had been placed in my arms.
Madeline claimed she did not know about the second child until after delivery.
Henry hid the girl from her.
He raised the twins separately to compare development.
Luke grew inside our family.
The girl grew inside the program.
Her name was Grace.
I had another child.
The patio accusation became even crueler.
Madeline shouted that Luke was not Brandon’s son while hiding the fact that a daughter had been taken from me at birth.
Rebecca located Grace through a school medical record in Connecticut.
The listed guardian was Dr. Henry Cole.
Federal agents reached the address.
The house was empty.
A child’s bedroom remained warm.
On the desk sat drawings of a family she had never met.
A mother with brown hair.
A father wearing a red tie like Brandon wore in old photographs.
A blond boy labeled LUKE.
Grace knew about us.
Henry had taught her to watch.
A camera on her computer connected to the hospital network.
When investigators opened it, a live feed appeared.
Grace sat in a medical chair.
Henry stood behind her wearing surgical scrubs.
He was seventy-one, silver-haired, and alive.
“Emily,” he said, “you raised the control subject well.”
I felt sick.
He did not call Luke his son.
He did not call Grace his daughter.
Only subjects.
Henry demanded Noah’s treatment code and access to Luke.
In exchange, he would return Grace.
Rebecca Sloan whispered that we needed time to trace him.
I kept him talking.
“Why did you separate them?”
“To observe environmental influence.”
“You stole my child for research.”
“I improved her survival.”
“Does she know I’m her mother?”
Grace looked toward the camera.
Tears filled her eyes.
Henry placed a hand on her shoulder.
“She knows biology. Family is an emotional variable.”
The trace narrowed to a private medical train moving through Pennsylvania.
Henry had built a mobile laboratory.
Federal teams began tracking the rail line.
Then Grace spoke.
“Mom?”
One word.
Barely audible.
Henry’s expression hardened.
He reached toward the camera.
Before the feed ended, Grace knocked a metal tray from the table.
Three objects fell.
A red vial.
A silver key.
May you like
A train schedule.
She had given us everything we needed.
