PART 4 — THE SECRET BENEATH NORTH RIDGE
“Hello, Laura.”
Dr. Daniel Hargrove smiled wider.
“You look exactly like your father.”
For one terrible second, I couldn’t hear anything except my own heartbeat.
Coach Bennett stood beside him with his gun raised.
Three more armed men blocked the tunnel behind them.
Rebecca moved closer to Megan.
Detective Grant slowly lowered her weapon, but I could see her finger still resting near the trigger.
I stared at Hargrove.
“My father is dead.”
His smile didn’t disappear.
“The man who raised you is dead.”
Something inside me went cold.
“My father raised me from the day I was born.”
“Of course he did.”
Hargrove sounded almost amused.
“He loved you.”
“Don’t talk about him.”
“He was a decent man.”
“Don’t.”
“But he wasn’t your biological father.”
I looked at the photograph in Rebecca’s hand.
My mother.
Hargrove.
And the unknown man whose eyes looked disturbingly like mine.
“Who is he?”
Hargrove tilted his head.
“You’ve spent your entire life surrounded by people who thought keeping secrets was kindness.”
He glanced at Rebecca.
“Rebecca lied to you.”
Then Grant.
“Olivia lied to you.”
Then Megan.
“Your husband lied to you.”
His eyes returned to mine.
“And your mother lied most of all.”
“Tell me his name.”
Hargrove smiled.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“If you want Sophie alive, you will.”
My stomach clenched.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“You said she was being prepared for surgery.”
Hargrove looked at her.
“You’ve caused enough trouble.”
Rebecca flinched, but she didn’t back away.
Megan grabbed my hand.
“Mom, don’t go with him.”
Hargrove’s eyes shifted toward her.
“So you’re Megan.”
Megan stared back.
“I know what you did.”
A strange smile crossed his face.
“You know pieces.”
“I know you switched us.”
“No.”
The word was immediate.
Megan frowned.
Hargrove stepped closer.
“I switched bassinets.”
“But you were never the target.”
My stomach twisted.
He pointed toward me.
“She was.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Grant interrupted.
“Daniel, stop playing games.”
For the first time, Hargrove’s calm expression cracked.
He looked at her.
“Don’t call me Daniel.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“You stopped being my father a long time ago.”
“I never stopped being your father.”
“You stole children.”
“I saved children.”
Rebecca let out a bitter laugh.
“You sold them.”
“Some.”
The casualness of the answer made my skin crawl.
Hargrove continued.
“Some children were placed with families who desperately wanted them.”
“Without consent.”
“Consent is a luxury bureaucracies invented.”
Megan whispered,
“You’re insane.”
His eyes narrowed.
“No.”
He looked at all of us.
“I was building something.”
“Families?” I asked.
“Data.”
The word landed strangely.
“What?”
“For decades, hospitals collected blood samples, newborn screenings, family histories, congenital disease records.”
Grant stared at him.
“You were tracking children.”
“Not children.”
“Bloodlines.”
Hargrove looked almost proud now.
“Certain inherited traits fascinated me.”
“Intelligence.”
“Resistance to disease.”
“Neurological development.”
“Rare metabolic markers.”
“Longevity.”
I felt sick.
“You experimented on babies?”
“Never in the crude way you’re imagining.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I observed.”
“Moved children into different environments.”
“Tracked outcomes.”
Rebecca whispered,
“You destroyed families for an experiment.”
Hargrove shrugged.
“History destroys families every day.”
My anger exploded.
“You stole my daughter!”
His gaze sharpened.
“No, Laura.”
“I stole you.”
The room went silent.
I stopped breathing.
Megan tightened her grip on my hand.
“What did you say?”
Hargrove took another step forward.
“Your mother’s greatest secret wasn’t Sophie’s birth.”
“It was yours.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You were never supposed to grow up in that family.”
My throat went dry.
“What family?”
“The Carters.”
“My father’s family?”
“The people who raised you.”
I stared at him.
“You switched me too?”
Hargrove smiled faintly.
“Not exactly.”
Grant stepped between us.
“Daniel.”
“Olivia.”
“Enough.”
Hargrove ignored her.
“Laura, do you know why your mother was adopted?”
I thought about what Grant had told me.
“No.”
“Because she wasn’t supposed to exist either.”
A chill spread through me.
Hargrove pointed toward the archive.
“Your mother discovered our family’s work when she was nineteen.”
“Our family?”
“My father began it.”
“Your grandfather.”
I felt dizzy.
“What work?”
“The transfers.”
Rebecca whispered,
“The stolen babies.”
Hargrove nodded.
“At first.”
“Then the project became more sophisticated.”
Grant looked disgusted.
“You mean more profitable.”
“Money funded the research.”
“Research?”
“Generational inheritance.”
My stomach turned.
Hargrove looked directly at me.
“Your mother was one of the most important subjects we ever tracked.”
“Subject?”
“She had a rare genetic profile.”
“Stop talking about her like she was a lab rat.”
“She understood exactly what she was.”
“No.”
“She found the records.”
“She confronted our father.”
“And then she disappeared.”
I remembered my mother’s stories about leaving home at seventeen.
She always said she’d needed independence.
She never spoke about relatives.
Never showed childhood photographs.
Never took me to family reunions.
Because there had been no family she wanted me to know.
Hargrove continued.
“Years later, I found her.”
My chest tightened.
“She had you.”
He smiled.
“And that’s when everything changed.”
“Why?”
“Because your blood work showed something we’d never seen before.”
Megan stared at him.
“What?”
Hargrove looked toward her.
“That isn’t your concern.”
“She’s my mother.”
The words hit me unexpectedly.
Not biologically.
Not according to the secrets buried in medical records.
But Megan said them without hesitation.
My mother.
Hargrove noticed too.
For a moment, something like curiosity crossed his face.
“Interesting.”
“Don’t look at her like that,” I snapped.
“Like what?”
“Like she’s another experiment.”
He smiled.
“Everyone is an experiment, Laura.”
Grant raised her weapon.
“This ends now.”
Immediately, Bennett raised his gun toward Megan.
“Put it down.”
Grant froze.
Bennett pressed the barrel toward Megan’s chest.
“Now.”
Grant slowly placed her weapon on the floor.
Hargrove nodded approvingly.
“Good.”
Then he looked at me.
“You want Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“You want to know who your father is?”
“Yes.”
“You want to know why Megan was switched with Sophie?”
My voice shook.
“Yes.”
“Then come with me.”
I looked at Megan.
She shook her head.
“Mom.”
I squeezed her hand.
“I have to.”
“No.”
“If I don’t, he hurts Sophie.”
“We’ll find another way.”
Hargrove smiled.
“You have thirty seconds.”
I turned to him.
“I’ll go.”
“Mom!”
“I’ll go.”
Rebecca grabbed my arm.
“Laura, don’t.”
I looked into her eyes.
“You raised Sophie.”
Tears filled hers.
“Yes.”
“Would you leave her on that table?”
Rebecca couldn’t answer.
“Neither can I.”
I turned to Megan.
“Stay with Rebecca.”
“No.”
“Megan.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Please.”
Her face crumpled.
“I’m not losing another mother.”
My heart broke.
I pulled her into my arms.
“You are not losing me.”
I whispered into her hair,
“Trust me.”
Then I released her.
Hargrove gestured toward the tunnel.
“Let’s go.”
Coach Bennett took my arm.
I ripped it away.
“Touch me again and I’ll bite your hand off.”
Bennett almost smiled.
Hargrove actually laughed.
“Definitely your father’s daughter.”
I followed them deeper underground.
The tunnel changed from old stone to concrete.
Security lights glowed every twenty feet.
Metal doors appeared along both sides.
Some had numbers.
Others had names.
ROOM 12 — PEDIATRIC OBSERVATION.
ROOM 14 — ARCHIVE PROCESSING.
ROOM 17 — GENETICS.
My stomach turned.
“How long has this been here?”
“Longer than you’ve been alive.”
“How many children came through here?”
Hargrove kept walking.
“Thousands.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Bennett shoved me forward.
“Move.”
“Thousands?”
Hargrove looked back.
“Most were never harmed.”
“You stole them.”
“Some were surrendered.”
“Some.”
“Some parents were incapable.”
“You decided that?”
“Sometimes society requires people willing to make difficult decisions.”
I stared at the back of his head.
“You really believe you’re a good person.”
“No.”
He glanced at me.
“I believe good and evil are words people use when they don’t understand necessity.”
We reached an elevator.
Hargrove pressed his thumb to a scanner.
The doors opened.
Inside were only two buttons.
UP.
DOWN.
He pressed DOWN.
The elevator descended.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
We were far beneath the children’s center.
When the doors opened, cold white light flooded the elevator.
A medical corridor stretched ahead.
Through glass windows, I saw empty examination rooms.
Operating equipment.
Storage lockers.
Then I saw a girl strapped to a hospital bed.
“Sophie!”
I ran.
Bennett grabbed me.
I fought him.
“LET ME GO!”
Sophie turned her head.
Even from twenty feet away, I knew.
My daughter.
My biological daughter.
She had my mother’s face.
My eyes.
My hands.
Her wrists were restrained.
An IV ran into her arm.
“Mom?”
The word destroyed me.
Not Rebecca.
Me.
She was looking at me.
“Mom?”
I stopped fighting.
For fifteen years, I had imagined nothing about this moment because I had never known it could exist.
Now she was here.
Terrified.
Calling me Mom.
“Sophie.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“I’m here.”
Her face crumpled.
“I knew you’d come.”
Hargrove unlocked the glass door.
I ran to her.
I touched her face.
She was real.
Warm.
Shaking.
“I’m sorry.”
She began crying.
“I tried to call you.”
“I know.”
“Dad told me not to.”
“I know.”
“I thought you didn’t want me.”
“No.”
I pressed my forehead against hers.
“No, baby. Never.”
Behind me, Hargrove said,
“Beautiful.”
I turned.
“If you ever call this beautiful again, I’ll kill you.”
He smiled.
“I believe you.”
I looked at the restraints.
“Release her.”
“No.”
“You said if I came—”
“I said you’d see her.”
My blood boiled.
“What do you want?”
“The key.”
I froze.
“My mother’s key?”
Hargrove nodded.
“Where is it?”
I had slipped it into my shoe before leaving the archive.
“You already found the room beneath the church.”
His eyes narrowed.
“So you know the key opened compartment 317.”
“That wasn’t its real purpose.”
My heart started pounding.
“What does it open?”
“A second lock.”
“Where?”
Hargrove walked to a metal cabinet.
He opened it and removed an old black box.
There was a small keyhole on the front.
317.
My mother’s key.
“What is inside?”
Hargrove placed the box on a table.
“Your mother’s insurance policy.”
“What does that mean?”
“Everything she stole from us.”
“Records?”
“More.”
“Names?”
“More.”
“What?”
Hargrove studied me.
“Proof of who financed the program.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
“Politicians.”
“Executives.”
“Judges.”
“Doctors.”
“Families whose names you would recognize.”
I thought about Megan’s flash drive.
“You mean the forty names?”
He smiled.
“Forty?”
My stomach dropped.
“Rebecca found forty.”
“My dear Laura…”
He tapped the black box.
“There are more than four hundred.”
The scale of it made my skin crawl.
“So that’s why you want the key.”
“Partly.”
“What else?”
Hargrove looked toward Sophie.
“Your mother’s files also contain the identity of the one person who can destroy everything I’ve built.”
“My father.”
He smiled.
“Exactly.”
I stared at him.
“You don’t know where he is.”
“No.”
“But my mother did.”
“Yes.”
“And you think the box will tell you.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you afraid of him?”
That wiped the smile from Hargrove’s face.
For the first time, I saw fear.
Real fear.
“Because he knows where the original records are.”
“These aren’t original?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“That’s what I need him to tell me.”
Sophie whispered,
“Don’t give him the key.”
Hargrove looked at her.
“Quiet.”
She stared back.
“I know what you did.”
“You know almost nothing.”
“I know your real name.”
Hargrove froze.
So did Bennett.
I looked at Sophie.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“Daniel Hargrove isn’t his real name.”
Hargrove stepped toward her.
“Enough.”
Sophie shouted,
“His name is Daniel Mercer!”
My heart stopped.
Mercer.
I knew that name.
My mother’s maiden name before she married.
But that wasn’t why it hit me.
It was the name engraved beneath the old photograph Rebecca had shown me.
I grabbed the picture from my pocket.
Three people stood together.
My mother.
Hargrove.
The mysterious man.
On the back, beneath my mother’s warning, were faded initials I hadn’t noticed.
E.M.
I looked up.
“If you’re Daniel Mercer…”
Hargrove’s face went still.
“…then the man beside you is another Mercer.”
Silence.
“Who is he?”
Hargrove said nothing.
“WHO IS HE?”
Sophie answered.
“His brother.”
My knees weakened.
Hargrove turned sharply toward her.
“How do you know that?”
Sophie smiled through her fear.
“Because Rebecca wasn’t the only person sending me files.”
For the first time, Hargrove looked unsettled.
“Who?”
Sophie said nothing.
He grabbed her face.
“WHO?”
I lunged at him.
Bennett restrained me.
“Don’t touch her!”
Sophie looked straight at Hargrove.
“Your brother.”
The room went silent.
Hargrove slowly released her.
“Impossible.”
“He contacted me six months ago.”
“No.”
“He told me where to find the archive.”
Hargrove’s face drained of color.
“He told me about Laura.”
“No.”
“He told me about Olivia.”
“Stop.”
“And he told me exactly what you’d do when you discovered I had copied your files.”
Hargrove backed away.
For the first time, I didn’t see a powerful doctor.
I saw a frightened old man.
“What’s his name?” I whispered.
Sophie looked at me.
“Mom…”
“Tell me.”
“His name is Elias Mercer.”
The photograph almost slipped from my fingers.
Hargrove closed his eyes.
I asked,
“Is Elias my father?”
Nobody answered.
I stepped toward Hargrove.
“Is he?”
Finally, he whispered,
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
Alive.
My biological father was alive.
“Where is he?”
Hargrove laughed bitterly.
“If I knew, Sophie wouldn’t be tied to that bed.”
Suddenly, an alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed across the corridor.
Bennett grabbed his radio.
“What happened?”
Static.
Then a voice:
“Security breach in Sector Four.”
Hargrove turned toward the door.
“Who?”
More static.
Then:
“Grant.”
I almost smiled.
Olivia.
Hargrove’s face twisted with anger.
“I told you to kill her.”
Bennett raised his radio.
“Seal the tunnels.”
A second voice shouted through the speaker.
“Too late!”
Gunshots echoed above us.
Then the lights went out.
Darkness.
Sophie screamed.
I moved toward her voice.
“Laura!” Bennett shouted.
Someone slammed into me.
I fell.
A gun fired.
Glass shattered.
Another shot.
Then emergency lighting flickered on.
Bennett was on the floor.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Hargrove had disappeared.
And standing in the doorway was Megan.
She held Grant’s gun with both hands.
Her arms were shaking.
“Mom!”
I ran to her.
Behind Megan came Rebecca and Grant.
Grant immediately moved toward Sophie.
“Get her restraints off.”
Rebecca found the release.
Sophie sat up.
Then Rebecca stopped.
Her face went white.
“What?”
She pointed toward Sophie’s IV.
“The bag.”
Grant looked.
A label had been taped over the original.
She tore it away.
Her expression changed.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Sedative.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
Grant examined the tubing.
“This isn’t just a sedative.”
“What?”
She looked at me.
“We have to get her to a hospital.”
My heart dropped.
“What did they give her?”
Before Grant could answer, every speaker in the facility crackled.
Hargrove’s voice filled the corridor.
“Laura.”
We all froze.
“You wanted the truth.”
His voice echoed around us.
“So let’s finish what your mother started.”
A metal door slammed shut behind us.
Then another.
Locking bolts engaged.
Grant ran toward the exit.
“Daniel!”
Hargrove continued.
“I have activated the containment system.”
Rebecca looked terrified.
“What containment system?”
Grant’s eyes widened.
“Fire suppression.”
A hissing sound started in the ceiling.
White vapor poured through vents.
Megan began coughing.
“What is that?”
Grant covered her mouth.
“Not fire suppressant.”
I smelled something sweet.
Chemical.
Sophie whispered,
“Gas.”
Rebecca grabbed Megan.
“Move!”
Grant kicked at the door.
Locked.
I searched the room.
No windows.
No second exit.
The gas thickened.
Sophie began coughing violently.
Then she collapsed.
“SOPHIE!”
I caught her.
Her pulse was racing.
Grant shouted,
“We have maybe two minutes!”
I looked at the black box.
Hargrove had left it on the table.
The key.
My mother’s key.
I pulled it from my shoe.
“Laura, what are you doing?”
“The box.”
I inserted the key.
Turned.
Click.
The lid opened.
Inside wasn’t paperwork.
It was a small tape recorder.
A photograph.
And another key.
Larger.
Industrial.
Stamped with one word:
MORGUE.
Grant stared.
“The old morgue has an exterior ventilation shaft.”
“Can we reach it?”
“Maybe.”
Under the key was a cassette labeled:
FOR LAURA — PLAY ONLY IF DANIEL FINDS YOU.
My hands shook.
“My mother recorded this.”
“Bring it,” Grant said.
We ran.
Grant supported Sophie.
Rebecca held Megan.
I carried the box.
We entered a side corridor as gas poured behind us.
The morgue door stood at the end.
I shoved the key into the lock.
It opened.
We rushed inside.
Metal drawers lined the walls.
Grant found the ventilation controls.
“Come on.”
Nothing.
She hit the panel.
Dead.
Megan pointed upward.
“Vent!”
A grate near the ceiling.
Grant climbed onto a table and pulled it loose.
Cold air rushed in.
“Outside!”
One by one, we climbed into the narrow shaft.
Rebecca first.
Then Megan.
Then Sophie, barely conscious.
Then me.
Grant entered last.
Behind us, the morgue filled with gas.
We crawled.
My knees scraped metal.
My lungs burned.
Finally, Rebecca kicked through another grate.
We fell into wet grass behind the old children’s center.
Fresh air.
Night.
Freedom.
For approximately three seconds.
Then floodlights exploded around us.
Vehicles surrounded the field.
Men stepped from behind them.
Dozens.
Some wore police uniforms.
Some didn’t.
Grant lifted her gun.
Then stopped.
There were too many.
A voice spoke through a loudspeaker.
“Put the weapon down.”
Grant stared across the field.
“No.”
I followed her gaze.
A police commander stood beside one of the vehicles.
Grant whispered,
“Chief Reynolds.”
“You know him?”
“He’s my boss.”
The chief raised the loudspeaker.
“Detective Grant, drop your weapon.”
Megan whispered,
“Is he on the list?”
Grant looked at her.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
We had escaped Hargrove’s underground facility…
only to run directly into another part of his network.
Grant slowly lowered her weapon.
Then Sophie stirred against Rebecca.
She opened her eyes.
“Mom…”
I knelt beside her.
“I’m here.”
She pressed something into my palm.
A tiny plastic capsule.
“What is this?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“The thing Hargrove thought I swallowed.”
My heart stopped.
“You had it?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
“In my hair.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
She whispered,
“Don’t let them take it.”
Chief Reynolds walked toward us.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Then every phone in the field began ringing.
All at once.
Police phones.
Private phones.
Even Reynolds’s phone.
Dozens of devices.
One identical notification appeared across their screens.
FILE RELEASED.
Reynolds stared at his phone.
His face went white.
Megan looked at Sophie.
“What did you do?”
Sophie managed a weak smile.
“I set a dead-man timer.”
“What does that mean?”
“If I didn’t cancel it every twelve hours…”
She closed her eyes.
“…the archive went public.”
Reynolds shouted,
“TURN OFF YOUR PHONES!”
Too late.
Messages began arriving.
News alerts.
Emails.
Files.
Photographs.
Birth records.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Thousands of pages of evidence were spreading beyond North Ridge.
Grant looked at Sophie.
“You released everything?”
“Not everything.”
My heart sank.
“What didn’t you release?”
“The identity of Laura’s father.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because he told me never to.”
My chest tightened.
“You’ve spoken to him?”
Sophie nodded weakly.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where is he?”
She looked toward the tree line.
Before she could answer, a rifle shot cracked through the night.
Chief Reynolds dropped.
Chaos exploded.
Officers scattered.
Grant pulled us behind a vehicle.
More shots.
Not aimed at us.
A man moved through the darkness beyond the floodlights.
Fast.
Precise.
He fired again.
One of Reynolds’s armed men fell.
Hargrove’s voice suddenly shouted from somewhere near the building.
“ELIAS!”
Everything stopped inside me.
Elias.
My father.
A tall man stepped from the tree line.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
A rifle lowered at his side.
I saw his face.
The same eyes as mine.
The same jaw.
The same expression I had seen in the photograph.
He looked directly at me.
For sixty years of my life, I had never known this man existed.
Now he stood less than fifty feet away.
“Laura.”
My knees nearly gave out.
He took one step toward me.
Then Hargrove appeared on the roof of the children’s center.
He held a gun.
Aimed directly at Elias.
“You should have stayed dead, brother.”
Elias looked up.
“You should have left my daughter alone.”
Hargrove fired.
I screamed.
Elias dropped.
“NO!”
I ran from behind the vehicle.
Grant shouted my name.
Another shot rang out.
Then another.
Hargrove disappeared from the roof.
I reached Elias.
Blood covered his coat.
“Dad?”
The word escaped before I could stop it.
His eyes opened.
He looked at me.
A faint smile crossed his face.
“I’ve waited a long time to hear that.”
Tears blurred everything.
“Don’t move.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shot.”
“Shoulder.”
He grimaced.
“Missed anything important.”
Then his expression changed.
He grabbed my wrist.
“Listen to me.”
“What?”
“Daniel will run.”
“We’ll stop him.”
“No.”
“Laura, you don’t understand.”
“He didn’t build this network.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“He inherited part of it.”
“From who?”
Elias looked toward the children’s center.
“From the woman who started everything.”
My heart pounded.
“Who?”
Before he could answer, an engine roared.
A black SUV tore away from the far side of the facility.
Hargrove.
Grant ran toward a police vehicle.
“He’s escaping!”
Elias grabbed my arm harder.
“Let him go.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because he’ll lead you to her.”
“Who?”
Elias’s face went pale.
“The person your mother spent her entire life hiding you from.”
I shook my head.
“Hargrove?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Elias looked at me with something far worse than fear.
“Your grandmother.”
I stopped breathing.
“My grandmother died before I was born.”
“That’s what Daniel told everyone.”
Elias struggled to sit up.
“She’s alive.”
The night seemed to freeze around me.
“Where?”
He pointed toward the tiny capsule Sophie had placed in my hand.
“Everything you need is inside that.”
I stared at it.
“What is it?”
“A map.”
“To what?”
Elias’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The first facility.”
“The place where all of this began.”
Megan moved closer.
Rebecca went pale.
Grant stopped beside us.
Elias looked at me.
“And Laura…”
“What?”
“If Daniel reaches her before we do…”
He swallowed.
“…the names Sophie released tonight won’t matter.”
“Why?”
“Because she has records no one else knows exist.”
“What records?”
His eyes locked onto mine.
“Children who were never switched.”
“Children who were never adopted.”
“Children whose mothers were told they died.”
My blood turned cold.
“How many?”
Elias closed his eyes.
“Hundreds.”
A silence fell over us.
Then he said the words that made even Grant step backward.
“And one of those children…”
He looked at me.
“…is Adrian.”
My heart stopped.
“My husband?”
Elias nodded.
“Adrian wasn’t helping you by accident.”
“He was searching for his own identity.”
I couldn’t speak.
Then Elias delivered the final blow.
“And Daniel knew.”
“That’s why he let Adrian survive the crash.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why?”
Elias stared toward the road where Hargrove had vanished.
“Because Adrian is the only person alive who knows how to enter the first facility.”
I looked at Megan.
At Sophie.
At Rebecca.
At Grant.
At the father I’d just discovered.
And suddenly I understood something terrifying.
This had never begun with my daughters.
It had begun decades before any of us were born.
And if Hargrove reached that facility first, every answer we had fought for could disappear forever.
Then Megan’s phone buzzed.
One new message.
From Adrian.
DONT FOLLOW HARGROVE.
I KNOW WHERE HE’S GOING.
I stared at the screen.
Another message arrived.
AND LAURA…
PLEASE DON’T TRUST ELIAS……………….
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
