Chapter 19 - THE CHILD THEY ERASED
Lucas Arden officially did not exist.
His school records had been deleted.
Medical files erased.
Passport canceled.
It was the same method used on Thomas fifteen years earlier.
Clara saw the irony immediately.
Mercer had turned Nathan’s trick against them.
Roman traced the satellite phone.
Virginia.
An abandoned pediatric research facility.
Victor prepared twenty men.
Clara said nothing.
He looked at her suspiciously.
“No objection?”
“They took a child.”
Victor nodded.
“Twenty-five.”
“Fine.”
They reached the facility before sunrise.
Empty rooms.
Dust.
Abandoned equipment.
Then Clara heard coughing.
A hidden basement.
Seven children.
Lucas among them.
Rebecca collapsed when she saw him.
Clara examined every child.
Malnutrition.
Sedatives.
Repeated blood draws.
But alive.
Lucas looked at his mother.
“Did you do what they said?”
Rebecca cried.
“Yes.”
“Then can we go home?”
Clara turned away.
Victor stood beside her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good enough?”
She shook her head.
“Not this time.”
Victor wrapped an arm around her.
She leaned against him.
The children were transferred to safety.
Then Clara found a file.
PROJECT NATHAN.
Her father’s name.
Inside were genetic profiles.
One belonged to Clara.
Victor saw her face.
“What?”
“They have my DNA.”
“Why?”
Clara kept reading.
Nathan had possessed an unusual genetic marker associated with resistance to one experimental drug’s lethal side effects.
Mercer had spent years trying to replicate it.
But Nathan was not Clara’s biological father.
Which meant—
Clara did not carry the marker.
Samuel Grayson’s DNA was useless.
Mercer’s researchers had been chasing the wrong bloodline.
Unless Nathan had another biological child.
Clara looked at Victor.
“My father had another child.”
Roman found the record.
Female.
Born eighteen months before Nathan’s death.
Mother confidential.
Current identity unknown.
Clara stared.
A sister.
Somewhere.
May you like
Alive.
And Mercer was searching for her.
