Chapter 44 - THE BODY IN THE BASEMENT
Daniel returned to St. Agnes Hospital carrying Claire's wedding ring.
He refused to leave without answers.
In room thirteen, he found Margaret sitting beside a hospital bed.
“You're late,” she said.
Daniel seized her arm.
“Where is Emma?”
Margaret slapped him.
“You don't speak to me like that!”
He struck the table beside her, shattering a glass.
“Tell me where my daughter is!”
Margaret smiled.
“Which daughter?”
Daniel released her.
She pointed toward a curtain.
Behind it stood a glass cabinet containing dozens of medical files.
Daniel found one marked EMMA HALE — ORIGINAL SUBJECT.
The final page read:
PATIENT STATUS: ALIVE. LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
Daniel stared.
“Where is she?”
Margaret leaned closer.
“Ask your son.”
A voice answered from the doorway.
“I know where she is.”
Noah stood there, pale and exhausted.
Daniel rushed toward him.
“Where have you been?”
“Looking for the truth.”
Noah showed him a photograph of Richard standing beside a young woman in a wedding dress.
The woman had silver eyes.
On the back was a message:
EMMA HALE — MARRIED UNDER A FALSE IDENTITY.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“She married Richard?”
Noah nodded.
“He forced her to live under another name.”
Margaret rose.
“You should never have come here.”
Noah turned toward her.
“You stole my life.”
“I gave you one.”
“You gave me a cage!”
He shoved her away.
Margaret struck him across the face.
Noah stumbled, then grabbed her wrist.
“Never touch me again.”
Security guards rushed into the room.
Daniel fought the first attacker, landing a punch before another struck him in the ribs.
Noah knocked a guard into the cabinet.
Glass shattered across the floor.
They escaped through a service corridor.
At the exit, Margaret's voice echoed over the speakers.
“Daniel, you still don't understand. Your family wasn't created to preserve the Hale bloodline.”
He stopped.
“What was it created for?”
Margaret laughed.
“To preserve one child.”
A screen illuminated.
A baby lay inside an incubator.
The name beneath the image read:
SUBJECT FIVE.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
The baby had a crescent-shaped scar beneath its chin.
The same scar he had seen on Lily.
A final message appeared.
SUBJECT FIVE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP THE TERMINATION PROTOCOL.
Noah looked at Daniel.
“We have to find the baby.”
Daniel nodded.
But before they could leave, a nurse stepped into the corridor.
She removed her mask.
It was Claire.
Daniel froze.
“No.”
The woman smiled sadly.
“I'm sorry.”
He backed away.
“I watched you die.”
“You watched Lily die.”
Daniel's breath caught.
“Then who are you?”
The woman held out her hand.
“My name is Sarah Hale.”
She showed him a photograph of a newborn baby.
“This child belongs to you.”
Daniel stared.
“Impossible.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Richard stole the baby seventeen years ago. Now he's trying to erase the last evidence of what he did.”
A siren sounded.
The hospital doors locked.
Sarah grabbed Daniel's hand.
May you like
“We have five minutes.”
If Sarah claimed the baby belonged to Daniel, how could a child born seventeen years earlier still be alive—and why had Richard hidden it from everyone?
