Chapter 10 - GABRIEL
During my final special operations deployment, I was treated at a military fertility clinic after a blast injury.
The clinic stored biological samples.
Vale Foundation contractors later acquired them through an illegal transfer.
Samuel used one sample to create an embryo carried by a surrogate.
Gabriel became the program’s first Thorne child.
He was raised entirely inside Vale facilities.
The records said he died at nine.
Carla believed the death was false.
She remembered a quiet boy with a scar above his eyebrow who was moved from the estate three years earlier.
Federal agents traced him to a therapeutic boarding school in Montana.
The school denied access.
A judge’s order listed Lenora as Gabriel’s guardian.
The same Judge Vale had signed it.
Rebecca Sloan obtained a federal override.
Agents entered.
Gabriel was gone.
His room contained military books, maps, and photographs of me printed from public sources.
Someone had taught him that his father chose war over him.
A recorded therapy session played Samuel’s voice.
“Your father knew you existed.”
False.
But repeated long enough, it became Gabriel’s emotional truth.
A message appeared on the school computer.
DAD, IF YOU SAVED THE TWINS, COME FIND ME.
Attached was a location.
An abandoned training range once used by my former unit.
Samuel had prepared Gabriel as leverage against me.
Possibly as a weapon.
I informed Ortiz of every entrance, tunnel, and firing position at the range.
Federal teams approached carefully.
I entered wearing body armor but no visible weapon.
Gabriel stood in the center of an empty concrete structure.
He was tall for twelve.
Bruised.
Holding a pistol.
He aimed it at my chest.
“You left me.”
“No.”
“They showed me your signature.”
“Forged.”
“They showed me videos.”
“Edited.”
His hands shook.
“You don’t even know my birthday.”
“No.”
The answer hurt him.
I did not lie to reduce the pain.
“But I want to learn it.”
Samuel’s voice came through hidden speakers.
“Shoot him, Gabriel.”
The boy looked toward the ceiling.
Then back at me.
I removed my armor slowly and placed it on the ground.
“You don’t have to obey him.”
“He said I’m only safe if I’m useful.”
“That is a lie.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I believed the same lie about myself for years.”
Gabriel lowered the gun one inch.
Then a rifle shot struck the wall beside him.
May you like
Samuel had placed another shooter outside.
The boy was never meant to choose.
