Chapter 39 - THE FOURTH CHILD
Daniel discovered a narrow passage beneath the chapel.
At its end stood a glass chamber containing a teenage boy.
Noah.
Daniel smashed the emergency panel and dragged him into the corridor as vapor filled the room.
Noah collapsed, coughing.
“Why did you come back?” he demanded.
“Because you're my son.”
Noah laughed bitterly.
“That's what they told you.”
He showed Daniel a paternity report stating that his biological father was unknown.
Before Daniel could examine it, a monitor flickered on.
Margaret appeared.
“Your son isn't who you think he is.”
Daniel shouted, “Tell me the truth!”
Margaret smiled.
“Your entire family was built on a lie. You were simply the last person to discover it.”
A second door opened.
Claire rushed inside.
Noah recoiled.
“Don't come near me!”
Claire stopped, crying.
“I tried to find you.”
“You stopped when they gave you another daughter!”
Claire slapped him.
Then she immediately covered her mouth, horrified by what she had done.
Noah stared at her.
“You see? That's who you really are.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Enough!”
A red warning flashed.
CONTAINMENT FAILURE.
The chamber doors began locking automatically.
They ran toward the emergency corridor, but armed guards appeared.
Daniel fought the first attacker, punching him twice before being struck with a baton. Noah grabbed the weapon and hit another guard across the shoulder.
Claire seized Daniel's hand.
“Run!”
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel.
Outside, Noah finally explained why Richard had imprisoned him.
At nine years old, he had discovered a hidden laboratory. Inside, he saw Richard and Claire arguing over a little girl connected to medical equipment.
The girl had silver eyes.
She was alive.
“She was the original Emma,” Noah said. “They told everyone she died, but she survived.”
Claire covered her face.
“I thought she was gone.”
Noah looked at her with disgust.
“You didn't even check.”
Daniel demanded to know where the girl was.
Noah answered, “At Richard's estate.”
Then he revealed the second secret.
The necklace contained no birth records. It contained a key to the Hale Foundation vault.
The original files were stored beneath the hospital.
They returned to St. Agnes and entered room thirteen.
Inside, Margaret sat beside a window.
She smiled at Daniel.
“Welcome home.”
He seized her arm.
“You stole my children!”
“I preserved the family.”
“You tortured them!”
“I protected our legacy.”
Margaret pointed toward a cabinet filled with medical files.
Daniel found a folder marked SUBJECT FOUR.
Inside was Noah's original birth certificate.
The father's name had been erased.
A photograph showed Richard holding a newborn baby.
Noah stared at it.
“Why was he holding me?”
Margaret's smile widened.
“Because he knew what you would become.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret leaned closer.
“Ask Michael Vale.”
The lights went out.
A gunshot echoed.
When the emergency lights returned, Margaret had disappeared.
Only her bloodstained scarf remained.
Noah picked it up.
Beneath it lay a photograph of a fifth child.
On the back was a name.
LILY HALE.
Daniel stared at the image.
The girl had Claire's face.
May you like
But the date on the photograph was seventeen years earlier.
If Lily had existed before Emma was born, who was the child Richard had hidden—and why did her face resemble Claire's so perfectly?
