PART 4
The lights went out.
Not flickered.
Not dimmed.
They simply disappeared.
For one terrifying second, the hotel room became completely black.
Nicole couldn’t see David.
Couldn’t see Leo.
Couldn’t see the door.
Then Leo screamed.
“Mommy!”
Nicole moved instinctively.
She reached through the darkness and grabbed him.
“I’ve got you.”
He buried his face against her.
David’s voice came from somewhere near the desk.
“Don’t move.”
Nicole froze.
“Why?”
“I heard something.”
A soft metallic sound came from the hallway.
Then another.
A click.
A pause.
Another click.
David whispered,
“Someone is trying the doors.”
Nicole’s heart hammered.
The emergency lights in the hallway should have illuminated the room through the gap beneath the door.
Nothing.
David pulled out his phone.
Its screen cast a faint glow across his face.
He walked toward the door.
Nicole whispered,
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Then the emergency power suddenly returned.
The room filled with light.
The door was still closed.
But the photograph was gone.
Nicole looked at the desk.
Her phone was there.
The photograph wasn’t.
David’s expression changed.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You had it.”
“I know.”
He walked toward the door.
Nicole grabbed his arm.
“David.”
He looked at her.
“Someone was inside this room.”
He didn’t deny it.
Instead, he looked toward the ventilation grate above the bathroom.
Then toward the window.
Then the closet.
“Stay with Leo.”
He opened the closet.
Empty.
He checked the bathroom.
Empty.
Finally, he returned.
“The photograph wasn’t taken.”
Nicole stared at him.
“What?”
“It was printed recently.”
“How do you know?”
“Look at the edges.”
Nicole picked up the empty envelope.
The paper inside had left a faint chemical smell.
David continued.
“Someone wanted you to see it.”
Nicole swallowed.
“And then they took it back.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you weren’t supposed to keep evidence.”
A cold silence settled over the room.
Nicole looked at Leo.
Her son had stopped crying, but his small hands were still wrapped around her sweater.
She kissed his forehead.
“We’re leaving.”
David nodded.
“Agreed.”
They packed quickly.
Nicole put Leo’s coat on him.
David carried the folder.
They took the service elevator instead of the main one.
Nobody spoke until they reached the underground parking garage.
The fluorescent lights above them buzzed.
Nicole kept looking over her shoulder.
“Do you think we’re being followed?”
David didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said,
“Yes.”
She stopped.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
David pointed toward the far end of the garage.
A black sedan sat there.
Engine running.
Lights off.
Nicole stared.
“That’s been there since we arrived.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw it through the lobby window.”
David’s face tightened.
“Did you see the driver?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
They moved toward David’s vehicle.
The black sedan remained motionless.
David unlocked his SUV.
“Get inside.”
Nicole put Leo into the back seat.
She climbed in beside him.
David started the engine.
The black sedan’s headlights came on.
Nicole’s stomach dropped.
“David.”
“I see it.”
He pulled away.
The sedan followed.
They drove for twenty minutes.
The sedan stayed behind them.
Sometimes it disappeared around a corner.
Then it appeared again.
Nicole held Leo’s hand.
“Where are we going?”
“My office.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the one place I can secure.”
Nicole looked at him.
“You said my grandmother created the trust.”
“Yes.”
“And you said she knew everything.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
David glanced at her through the mirror.
“I will.”
“Now.”
He hesitated.
“Your grandmother came to me six months before she died.”
Nicole waited.
“She told me someone had been asking questions about you.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Why me?”
“She said they were interested in your childhood.”
Nicole frowned.
“My childhood?”
“She said there were records missing.”
“What records?”
“Hospital records.”
Nicole’s breathing changed.
“Hospital records?”
“Yes.”
“From when I was born?”
David nodded.
“Your birth records.”
Nicole stared through the windshield.
“I have a birth certificate.”
“I’m not talking about the certificate.”
“Then what?”
“The original hospital file.”
Nicole looked at him.
“What was in it?”
“That’s what your grandmother was trying to find out.”
“And?”
“She found a copy.”
Nicole’s voice became barely audible.
“What did it say?”
David tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“It said you were born at a different hospital than the one listed on your birth certificate.”
Nicole stared at him.
“That isn’t possible.”
“Your grandmother thought the same thing.”
“Where was I born?”
David didn’t answer.
“David.”
He looked at her through the mirror.
“St. Catherine’s Medical Center.”
Nicole shook her head.
“My parents always said I was born at Westchester General.”
“They did.”
“I remember pictures.”
“Pictures can be moved.”
“I remember my mother telling me about the delivery.”
“She may have been telling you what she wanted you to believe.”
Nicole felt sick.
“Why would my parents lie about where I was born?”
David looked forward.
“That’s the question your grandmother spent her final year trying to answer.”
They reached David’s office shortly before midnight.
The building was dark.
He unlocked a private entrance.
Inside, the security system activated automatically.
The doors locked behind them.
Nicole carried Leo upstairs.
He was exhausted.
Within minutes, he fell asleep on a leather couch in David’s private conference room.
Nicole stood by the window.
“Tell me everything.”
David placed the folder on the table.
“Your grandmother believed your parents had been given money to keep certain information hidden.”
Nicole turned.
“My parents?”
“Not necessarily willingly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father had debts. Serious ones. Your mother knew.”
Nicole nodded.
“That part I already knew.”
“Your grandmother believed those debts were being used against them.”
Nicole frowned.
“By whom?”
“She never found out.”
“Then how do you know?”
David pulled out another document.
“Because I found this after she died.”
Nicole took it.
It was a bank transfer.
A large one.
The sender was a company she didn’t recognize.
The recipient was an account in Richard’s name.
Nicole stared.
“When?”
“Twenty-eight years ago.”
Nicole’s fingers trembled.
“That was the year before I was born.”
“Yes.”
She looked up.
“How much?”
David told her.
Nicole nearly dropped the paper.
It was more money than her father had ever earned in several years.
“What was it for?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why did you keep it?”
“Your grandmother asked me to.”
Nicole looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because she said one day you might need it.”
Nicole walked toward the window.
The city stretched beneath them.
She felt as though every memory of her childhood was becoming unreliable.
The family photographs.
The stories.
Her birth.
Her parents.
Her grandmother.
Even her own name.
“Subject Nine,” she whispered.
David’s face hardened.
“Yes.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know more than you’re telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me.”
David remained silent.
Nicole turned around.
“David.”
He finally spoke.
“Your grandmother found the phrase in a medical document.”
“What kind of document?”
“A research file.”
“Research?”
“Yes.”
Nicole felt a chill.
“Research on what?”
David shook his head.
“Genetics.”
Nicole laughed nervously.
“That sounds insane.”
“I thought so too.”
“Then why are you taking it seriously?”
“Because the company that funded the research still exists.”
Nicole stopped laughing.
“What company?”
David opened his laptop.
He turned the screen toward her.
A corporate logo appeared.
Nicole recognized it immediately.
She had seen the name before.
On one of Terrence’s business cards.
On a report in her father’s office.
And once, years ago, on a letter her grandmother had burned in the fireplace.
Nicole whispered the name.
“Meridian Biotech.”
David nodded.
“Exactly.”
Nicole stared at the screen.
“Why would a biotechnology company send my father money before I was born?”
“We don’t know.”
“Why would my grandmother investigate my birth?”
“We don’t know.”
“Why was I labeled Subject Nine?”
“We don’t know.”
Nicole’s voice broke.
“But you know where the records are.”
David didn’t answer.
She stepped closer.
“You know where the original medical records are.”
His silence confirmed it.
“Where?”
David closed the laptop.
“There’s an archive.”
“Where?”
“Under St. Catherine’s.”
Nicole stared at him.
“An underground archive?”
“It was used by the hospital’s research department.”
“Is it still there?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’re going.”
“No.”
Nicole’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“You have a four-year-old son asleep in the next room.”
“And that’s exactly why I’m going.”
David shook his head.
“Nicole, whoever sent that photograph knows where you are.”
“Then waiting makes me safer?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
David looked at her for a long moment.
Finally, he nodded.
“But we go in the morning.”
Nicole glanced at Leo.
“Why?”
“Because I have one contact there.”
“Who?”
“Someone who worked with your grandmother.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“What’s her name?”
David hesitated.
“Dr. Miriam Vale.”
Nicole frowned.
“Why does that name sound familiar?”
David’s eyes narrowed.
“Because you met her.”
“When?”
“When you were six.”
Nicole froze.
“I’ve never met her.”
David quietly replied,
“You don’t remember her.”
At 2:17 a.m., Leo woke up.
“Mommy?”
Nicole rushed to him.
“I’m here.”
He sat up.
“Are we going home?”
Nicole brushed his hair back.
“Not yet.”
He looked around the unfamiliar room.
“Where’s Grandma?”
Nicole hesitated.
“She’s not here.”
Leo looked toward the hallway.
“Yes she is.”
Nicole froze.
“What?”
“She was standing there.”
He pointed.
Nobody was there.
David walked over.
“When?”
“Before I woke up.”
“What did she look like?”
Leo frowned.
“Grandma.”
“Which Grandma?”
“Your Grandma.”
Nicole’s heart began racing.
“My mother?”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
“My grandmother?”
He nodded.
“She was old.”
Nicole stared at David.
“My grandmother has been dead for years.”
Leo shrugged.
“She told me to tell Mommy something.”
“What?”
Leo whispered,
“She said…”
He looked toward Nicole.
“Don’t let them take you back to the house.”
Nicole felt the room go cold.
David crouched beside him.
“Leo, did she tell you who they were?”
Leo nodded.
He pointed toward the window.
“The men.”
Nicole walked to the window.
Below, three black vehicles were parked across the street.
Her stomach dropped.
David pulled the blinds shut.
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Do they have lights?”
“No.”
“Then they’re waiting.”
Nicole looked at him.
“What do we do?”
David picked up his phone.
“We leave through the basement.”
They reached the underground garage five minutes later.
David had arranged for a second vehicle.
Nicole carried Leo.
They reached the exit.
Then the garage lights went out.
Again.
Nicole’s breath caught.
David stopped.
“Stay behind me.”
A door slammed somewhere in the darkness.
Then footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming toward them.
Nicole held Leo tightly.
David whispered,
“Don’t speak.”
The footsteps stopped.
A man’s voice echoed through the garage.
“Nicole.”
She recognized it.
Her father’s voice.
She almost stepped forward.
Then David grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“But that’s my father.”
David shook his head.
“Your father is upstairs.”
Nicole stared at him.
The voice came again.
“Nicole, it’s me.”
David whispered,
“That’s not Richard.”
The lights returned.
A man stood thirty feet away.
White hair.
Dark coat.
His face was partly hidden by shadow.
Nicole stopped breathing.
Leo buried his face against her shoulder.
The man slowly stepped into the light.
Nicole stared.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
He looked like Richard.
But older.
Much older.
David whispered one sentence.
“That’s your grandfather.”
Nicole’s mouth opened.
“No.”
The man smiled.
“I wondered how long it would take.”
Nicole couldn’t move.
Her grandfather had supposedly died thirty-three years ago.
Yet he was standing in front of her.
Alive.
And looking directly at her.
Then he said the words that destroyed everything Nicole thought she knew about her birth.
“You were never supposed to be Subject Nine.”
Nicole held Leo tighter.
“What does that mean?”
The old man smiled.
“Your grandmother changed the records.”
“Why?”
“To save you.”
“From who?”
He looked at Leo.
Then back at Nicole.
“From your father.”
Nicole shook her head.
“My father didn’t know.”
The old man’s smile disappeared.
“He knew.”
A car engine roared somewhere behind them.
David grabbed Nicole’s shoulder.
“We have to go.”
The old man stepped aside.
“Go to St. Catherine’s.”
Nicole stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because the original records are still there.”
He reached inside his coat.
Nicole tensed.
But he pulled out a small envelope.
He threw it onto the hood of David’s vehicle.
“Your grandmother wanted you to have this on your thirty-third birthday.”
Nicole stared at the envelope.
Her birthday was six weeks away.
“Why now?”
The old man looked at Leo.
“Because they know about the boy.”
Nicole’s blood ran cold.
“What do they want with my son?”
The man didn’t answer.
Instead, he whispered,
“Ask your father what happened to Subject Ten.”
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
They drove through the city without speaking.
Leo slept against Nicole’s side.
David drove.
The envelope sat unopened on Nicole’s lap.
Finally, she tore it open.
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Her grandmother.
Nicole read the first line.
My dearest Nicole,
Her eyes filled with tears.
She continued.
If you are reading this before your thirty-third birthday, then something has gone terribly wrong.
Nicole stopped.
She read the next paragraph.
I need you to understand one thing before you learn the rest. Your mother did not give birth to you in the way you were told.
Nicole covered her mouth.
David kept driving.
She continued.
You were born from an experiment that was never meant to become a child.
Nicole’s hands shook.
There were twelve children.
She stopped reading.
Twelve.
Her eyes moved lower.
They were numbered according to the order in which they were created.
Nicole whispered,
“Subject Nine.”
She kept reading.
Eight died.
Her heart pounded.
Two disappeared.
She swallowed.
One was taken by the company.
Her eyes moved to the final line.
And one escaped.
Nicole stared at the page.
Twelve children.
Eight dead.
Two missing.
One taken.
One escaped.
She slowly looked at Leo.
Then she read the final sentence.
The child who escaped was you.
Nicole stopped breathing.
David looked at her.
“What does it say?”
Nicole couldn’t answer.
She folded the letter.
Then opened it again.
As though reading it twice might change the words.
It didn’t.
She whispered,
“I wasn’t supposed to survive.”
David’s face was grim.
“No.”
Nicole looked at him.
“I wasn’t supposed to be raised by my parents.”
“No.”
“Then why did they take me?”
David didn’t answer.
Nicole stared at the letter.
There was one final line written at the bottom.
A line she hadn’t noticed before.
And Nicole, if you ever have a child of your own, do not let them take his blood.
Nicole’s entire body went cold.
Leo stirred.
“Mommy?”
She immediately pulled him closer.
“I’m here.”
He looked at her sleepily.
“Are we safe?”
Nicole looked through the windshield.
Ahead, the road toward St. Catherine’s disappeared into the darkness.
Behind them, two black vehicles had begun following.
She kissed Leo’s forehead.
“No,” she whispered.
“We’re not.”
Then she looked at David.
“Drive faster.”
Because somewhere beneath an abandoned hospital, a file labeled SUBJECT NINE was waiting.
And inside that file was the answer to the question Nicole had been too afraid to ask:
Who was her real mother?
But when they finally reached the hospital, they discovered something even worse.
The archive door was already open.
And on the floor in front of it was a fresh trail of blood…
