CHAPTER 9 — THE MAN WHO FINALLY TOLD THE TRUTH
CHAPTER 9 — THE MAN WHO FINALLY TOLD THE TRUTH
The doors locked with a heavy metallic click.
I stared at my father.
Richard Hart.
The man I had buried twenty years ago.
The man who had just admitted that his death was a lie.
For sixteen years, I had carried a photograph of him inside an old box.
I had cried at his funeral.
I had watched my mother fall apart.
I had believed the two people who raised me were gone.
Now one of them stood ten feet away.
Alive.
Calm.
And looking at my children as though they were evidence.
I stepped backward.
"Unlock the doors."
Richard didn't move.
"Clara."
"Unlock them."
"You need to listen."
"I've listened to enough lies."
His expression hardened.
"You've been listening to lies your entire life."
"Then tell me the truth."
He looked at me.
"That's why you're here."
Julian stepped beside me.
"Don't trust him."
Richard's eyes moved toward him.
"You still think you're the hero."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"No."
"I know what I am."
Richard smiled.
"Do you?"
I looked between them.
"What happened between you?"
Neither answered.
I turned toward Julian.
"You knew my father was alive."
"No."
Richard laughed.
"He didn't."
"Then why does he look like he knows you?"
"Because I raised him."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
Richard walked toward Julian.
"His father gave him to me when he was twelve."
Julian looked away.
"My family believed Richard was dead."
"They believed he was weak."
"But he wasn't."
Richard looked at me.
"He was brilliant."
I shook my head.
"Stop."
Richard frowned.
"You want the truth."
"Yes."
"Then you must hear all of it."
He walked toward the table.
A stack of folders sat there.
He opened the first.
My name was written across the cover.
CLARA HART — GENETIC PROFILE
I felt sick.
"You've been studying me."
"Since you were born."
"Why?"
"Because you inherited something from your mother."
"What?"
"A genetic mutation."
I crossed my arms.
"Dr. Vance already told me."
Richard shook his head.
"He told you the clinical version."
"And what's the real version?"
Richard looked at me.
"Your mutation doesn't simply increase the risk of neurological disease."
"It creates resistance."
"Resistance to what?"
"Cellular degeneration."
I frowned.
He continued.
"Most people carrying the mutation eventually develop severe neurological damage."
"But your genetic combination is different."
"Your body can suppress the mechanism."
I stared at him.
"So?"
Richard's voice became quiet.
"So can your children."
I looked down at Daniel.
He was sleeping peacefully in my arms.
"No."
Richard continued.
"Maya inherited it."
"Daniel inherited it."
"Both children are genetically unusual."
"They can survive what others cannot."
I shook my head.
"They're children."
"Exactly."
His voice was cold.
"And that's why they are valuable."
I stepped forward.
"You don't get to call my children valuable."
Richard's eyes hardened.
"They could save thousands of lives."
"Not at the cost of theirs."
"That's the part you don't understand."
"What?"
"Nobody intended to hurt them."
I laughed bitterly.
"You stole my first child."
"You stole my medical records."
"You lied about my fertility."
"You transferred my embryo."
"You hid my daughter."
"And you expect me to believe you were protecting us?"
Richard looked at me.
"I didn't steal Maya."
"Then who did?"
"Your mother."
I froze.
"She took her."
"She ran."
"She changed Maya's identity."
"She disappeared."
"She made you believe she was dead."
"Why?"
"Because she knew what I had planned."
My stomach tightened.
"What did you plan?"
Richard's expression changed.
"To use Maya's genetic profile to develop a treatment."
I stared at him.
"You experimented on my daughter."
"No."
"You wanted to."
"Yes."
The honesty shocked me.
He continued.
"But I never got the chance."
"Your mother took her before the final stage."
I looked at Maya.
She stood frozen.
"My whole life..."
She whispered.
"My grandmother was hiding me from you."
Richard nodded.
"Yes."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because she knew you would come looking."
"And?"
"And that would have put you in danger."
I turned toward him.
"She protected me."
"Yes."
"You lied about her."
"Yes."
"You let me hate her."
Richard looked away.
"Yes."
My chest tightened.
"You destroyed my family."
"No."
He looked at me.
"I destroyed the version of your family that was built on lies."
I stared at him.
"That's the same thing."
Julian stepped forward.
"Enough."
Richard looked at him.
"You don't have the right."
"Neither do you."
Julian's voice was shaking.
"You lied to Clara."
"So did you."
"I was trying to protect her."
"So was I."
"No."
Julian's eyes filled with anger.
"You were protecting the research."
Richard smiled.
"Perhaps."
Julian turned toward me.
"I need to tell you something."
My heart sank.
"What now?"
He swallowed.
"The divorce."
I closed my eyes.
"I know."
"No."
He shook his head.
"You don't know everything."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"The divorce papers weren't merely unfinished."
"What do you mean?"
"Marianne forged them."
I frowned.
"Why?"
"To separate us."
"Why?"
"Because she knew if you and I stayed together, we'd eventually discover the truth."
I stared at him.
"What truth?"
"That the Blackwoods weren't controlling the research anymore."
"Your grandfather was."
Julian nodded.
"But someone else was controlling him."
I looked at Richard.
He didn't react.
Julian continued.
"Your father."
My blood froze.
I turned toward Richard.
He remained silent.
"Is that true?"
Richard finally answered.
"Partly."
"Partly?"
"I controlled the foundation."
"But Elias believed he controlled me."
I felt sick.
"So you were all working together."
"At first."
"What happened?"
Richard sighed.
"Elias became obsessed."
"With what?"
"With creating genetically enhanced children."
"And you?"
"I wanted a treatment."
"For disease."
"Yes."
"And then?"
"I realized the only way to create the treatment was to study a living subject."
I looked at him.
"My daughter."
He nodded.
"Yes."
Maya stepped backward.
Her face had gone white.
"You wanted to experiment on me."
Richard looked at her.
"I wanted to save you."
"You don't get to call it saving."
Her voice shook.
"You never even asked me."
Richard's face changed.
For the first time, I saw something like regret.
"I know."
Maya looked at me.
"Mom."
I walked toward her.
She threw her arms around me.
I held her.
Richard watched silently.
Then he said:
"I'm sorry."
I turned.
"Sorry isn't enough."
"No."
He nodded.
"I know."
Sienna suddenly spoke.
"There's something else."
I looked at her.
She was standing near the locked doors.
"What?"
She looked at Richard.
"Tell her."
Richard's expression darkened.
"Not now."
"Now."
"Sienna."
"She deserves to know."
"What?"
Sienna looked at me.
"The baby wasn't transferred to me because of the genetic research."
I frowned.
"Then why?"
"Because Marianne wanted Julian to believe you were infertile."
"But why?"
Sienna swallowed.
"Because she wanted Julian to marry me."
I stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because of my bloodline."
I didn't understand.
Sienna continued.
"My family carries a different mutation."
"One that can stabilize the disease."
Richard's eyes narrowed.
"Enough."
Sienna ignored him.
"Marianne believed that if Julian married me, we could produce a child with both genetic markers."
I looked at Daniel.
"But instead..."
"Instead, you became pregnant."
"With Clara's embryo."
"Yes."
Sienna's eyes filled with tears.
"That's why they kept me."
"They weren't protecting me."
"They were protecting the experiment."
I felt sick.
"So my marriage was..."
"A laboratory arrangement."
The words came from Richard.
I looked at him.
"Was Julian part of it?"
"No."
Julian shook his head.
"I didn't know."
Richard looked at him.
"You knew enough."
Julian's voice broke.
"I knew they wanted a child."
"I didn't know they wanted Clara's."
Richard smiled.
"You never asked."
Julian closed his eyes.
I watched him.
For the first time, I saw how deeply broken he was.
But I couldn't forgive him.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
The locked doors suddenly opened.
Everyone turned.
A hospital security officer stood outside.
"Mr. Hart."
Richard nodded.
"What happened?"
"Police are here."
"How many?"
"Enough."
Richard looked at me.
"They're coming for you."
"Good."
He smiled sadly.
"They're coming for me too."
I frowned.
"What?"
He reached into his coat.
Pulled out a small flash drive.
Then placed it in my hand.
"This contains everything."
I stared at it.
"Everything?"
"Financial records."
"Research files."
"Medical records."
"Names."
"Dates."
"Payments."
"Every person involved."
My fingers tightened around the drive.
"Why?"
"Because I'm done lying."
I looked at him.
"Why now?"
He looked at Maya.
Then Daniel.
"Because I saw what I had done to you."
His voice cracked.
"And I realized I had become the very man I spent my life trying not to become."
Silence.
Then Richard looked at Julian.
"Take care of them."
Julian stared at him.
"What are you going to do?"
Richard smiled.
"What I should have done sixteen years ago."
He turned toward the hallway.
"Tell the truth."
Police flooded the hospital.
Detectives.
Federal agents.
Medical investigators.
The corridor became chaos.
Richard didn't run.
He surrendered.
Elias was arrested later that night.
Marianne was found in a private room at St. Jude, weak but alive.
Sienna was taken into custody for questioning.
And for the first time—
nobody could hide behind money.
Nobody could hide behind family names.
Nobody could erase records.
Because the flash drive contained everything.
The entire operation.
Every payment.
Every forged document.
Every medical file.
Every transfer.
Every signature.
Including mine.
And Julian's.
Three days later, I sat in a small interview room.
Across from me was a federal investigator.
He placed a folder on the table.
"Mrs. Blackwood."
I looked up.
"Don't call me that."
He nodded.
"Sorry."
He opened the folder.
"We found the original divorce decree."
I stared at him.
"It was filed."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"Three years ago."
I frowned.
"But everyone said it wasn't."
"The first filing wasn't completed."
"The second was."
"When?"
"Two days before you were told the divorce was finalized."
I looked down.
My hands went cold.
"So..."
"You are legally divorced."
I closed my eyes.
Julian had been wrong.
My mother had been wrong.
The letter had been wrong.
Someone had deliberately created another lie.
The investigator turned another page.
"But that's not the interesting part."
I looked up.
"What?"
"The signature."
"Whose?"
"Yours."
I froze.
"I never signed that."
He nodded.
"We know."
He placed the document in front of me.
The signature looked exactly like mine.
But I knew it wasn't.
I had never seen it.
The investigator leaned forward.
"Someone forged your signature."
"Who?"
He hesitated.
"We don't know yet."
"Then find out."
"We're trying."
He opened another file.
"This person had access to your medical records."
"Who?"
He slid a photograph across the table.
I looked down.
A woman.
Dark hair.
White coat.
Standing beside Dr. Vance.
I recognized her immediately.
The woman from the hospital.
The one who had carried my missing medical folder.
The one who had disappeared before the shooting.
I whispered:
"Who is she?"
The investigator answered:
"Dr. Audrey Vance's former research partner."
My blood ran cold.
"What is her name?"
He looked at me.
"Dr. Elena Cross."
I froze.
Cross.
Vivian Cross.
I remembered her saying she had worked for Aster.
I remembered the woman in the black coat.
I remembered how easily she had guided us.
And suddenly I understood.
Vivian hadn't merely known about the research.
She had been inside it.
The investigator continued.
"We've been trying to locate her."
"She's missing."
My heart sank.
"She has your children?"
"No."
I looked at him.
"Then what does she have?"
He placed another photograph on the table.
A laboratory.
A frozen storage room.
Rows of numbered containers.
One label had been circled.
EMBRYO 02 — CLARA HART
My breath caught.
"The second embryo."
He nodded.
"Your second embryo was never transferred."
I stared at him.
"Then where is it?"
The investigator looked at me.
"That's the problem."
He pushed another document across the table.
The transfer log.
A signature at the bottom.
I recognized it immediately.
Not Julian's.
Not Marianne's.
Not Richard's.
Not Sienna's.
Mine.
Again.
Forged.
And beside the signature was a handwritten note.
TRANSFER COMPLETED — PRIVATE FACILITY.
My heart pounded.
"What private facility?"
The investigator shook his head.
"We don't know."
I looked at the date.
It was three months after my divorce.
Three months after I thought my life had finally ended.
Someone had taken my second embryo after I lost everything.
And whoever had it—
had been waiting.
That evening, I returned to the safe house.
Maya was asleep on the couch.
Daniel was sleeping in the crib beside her.
Julian stood by the window.
I walked inside.
He turned.
"How did it go?"
I didn't answer.
I placed the document on the table.
He read it.
His face changed.
"Clara..."
"The second embryo."
He looked at me.
"It's still alive."
He nodded slowly.
"Who has it?"
"I don't know."
"Vivian?"
"Maybe."
He stared at the paper.
Then whispered:
"There's something you need to know."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"The private facility."
"What about it?"
"I know where it is."
My heart stopped.
"How?"
"Because I visited it."
"When?"
"Before the divorce."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
He looked toward the sleeping children.
"Because someone sent me a photograph."
"Of what?"
He reached into his pocket.
Pulled out an old photograph.
Placed it on the table.
I picked it up.
My blood turned to ice.
It showed a laboratory.
A woman standing beside an incubator.
Inside the incubator was a newborn baby.
The woman was Vivian.
And the baby—
looked exactly like Daniel.
But beneath the photograph was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT 02 — FEMALE.
I stared at Julian.
"No."
He nodded.
"Your second embryo didn't become another boy."
"It became a girl."
My breath caught.
"Where is she?"
Julian looked at me.
"I don't know."
Then he whispered:
"But I know who raised her."
I felt the world stop.
"Who?"
Julian's eyes filled with fear.
"Sienna."
I stared at him.
"No."
"She didn't just raise your son."
He paused.
"She raised your daughter too."
And suddenly, the woman I had spent a year believing was my enemy became something far more dangerous.
Because Sienna hadn't stolen one child from me.
May you like
She had been given another.
And she had known the truth all along.
