Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Came to Warn Me
My father had been dead for four years.
I attended his funeral.
I touched his coffin.
I watched it lowered into the ground.
Yet Robert Bennett stood twenty feet away.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
“Dad?”
His eyes filled.
“Claire.”
I couldn't move.
Daniel stepped in front of me.
My father almost smiled.
“You still do that.”
“Stay back,” Daniel said.
I pushed past him.
“You died.”
“No.”
“Mom buried you.”
“No. She buried an empty coffin.”
My world tilted again.
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That phrase should be carved on our family tombstone.”
Dad explained.
After Mom died, he discovered people were searching for Lily again.
He faked his death and went underground.
“Why didn't you take me?”
“You were safer appearing uninvolved.”
“I was your daughter!”
“You still are.”
“No. You don't get to say that.”
He accepted it.
That somehow made me angrier.
Then I remembered the voice over the speaker.
“You're continuing the project.”
“No.”
“Cole said—”
“Cole is wrong.”
Cole stepped forward.
“You used the old system.”
“To track the people using it.”
Dad had infiltrated the revived research network.
Hargrove was involved.
So was someone at the fertility clinic.
But Dad claimed the true organizer was still unknown.
Emily suddenly doubled over.
Daniel rushed to her.
“What's wrong?”
“Cramp.”
My fear shifted instantly.
Cole examined her.
“Stress. She needs a hospital.”
Dad refused the nearest one.
“They have access.”
“Who has access?” I shouted.
Then Dad gave me a name.
Dr. Evelyn Shaw.
My obstetrician's supervisor.
The woman who had reviewed my pregnancy twice.
The woman who smiled while measuring my daughter.
I felt sick.
“She knows?”
“She runs it.”
Dad believed Shaw had used Vale's archived research to rebuild Project Haven.
Hargrove supplied embryos.
Shaw tracked pregnancies.
My daughter and Emily's baby were the first genetically related pair available for comparison.
I wanted to destroy something.
Instead, I held Emily's hand.
“We're getting you somewhere safe.”
Dad knew a hospital outside the network.
On the way, Daniel sat beside me.
I didn't speak.
Neither did he.
At the hospital, Emily was examined.
Baby healthy.
No labor.
For one hour, the world almost stopped moving.
Then a nurse entered my room.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“There's a woman asking for you.”
“Who?”
“She says she's Dr. Shaw.”
Everyone froze.
Dad moved toward the door.
“No.”
I stood.
“I want to hear her.”
Shaw entered alone.
Mid-fifties.
Professional.
Calm.
She looked at my father.
“Robert.”
“Evelyn.”
“Still theatrical.”
“You forged Claire's consent.”
Shaw ignored him.
She looked at me.
“I came to warn you.”
“About yourself?”
“About your father.”
Dad stiffened.
Shaw handed me a folder.
Bank transfers.
Project payments.
All authorized by Robert Bennett.
My father.
“He didn't infiltrate Haven,” Shaw said.
“He financed it.”
I looked at Dad.
“Tell me she's lying.”
He didn't.
Shaw continued.
“Your father believed the marker could save lives. Richard wanted profit. Robert wanted proof.”
“Dad?”
He closed his eyes.
“I funded the early research.”
My stomach turned.
“But not this.”
Shaw smiled.
“Convenient.”
“Why would you warn me?” I asked.
“Because someone has begun killing everyone connected to the original project.”
Ruth.
Mom.
Possibly others.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Nobody believed her.
Then she handed me a list.
Six names.
Five crossed out.
Only one remained.
Adrian Cole.
We turned toward him.
He was gone.
His chair was empty.
On it sat a phone.
The screen lit.
LIVE VIDEO.
Cole appeared on-screen, tied to a chair.
Behind him stood a masked figure.
A countdown began.
Ten minutes.
Nine fifty-nine.
Nine fifty-eight.
Then text appeared beneath the video.
BRING SUBJECT 17.
Lily.
I grabbed my phone to call June.
Before I could, June called me.
She was screaming.
May you like
“Claire, Lily's gone.”
Then the line died...
