Chapter 4 - The Man in the Darkness
My mother had been dead for eleven years.
That fact should have made Claire's statement impossible.
Instead, after everything that had happened, it made it terrifying.
"Evelyn Mercer worked at Westbridge?" I asked.
Detective Cole checked her notes.
"We're looking into it."
Claire nodded.
"According to Thomas, she helped create the program."
I couldn't reconcile that with the woman who had raised me.
My mother had taught elementary school.
She baked terrible cookies.
She cried during old movies.
She had never mentioned fertility medicine.
Never mentioned Daniel.
Never mentioned Thomas.
Apparently, she had never mentioned most of her life.
Thomas was released from questioning later that afternoon.
Police had verified enough of his story to determine he wasn't Emma's kidnapper.
At least not in the traditional sense.
He had removed her from somewhere without legal authorization.
But where he'd taken her from changed everything.
A private facility outside Richmond.
Not a home.
A laboratory.
Thomas agreed to speak with us in the presence of Detective Cole.
We met in a small conference room at the hospital.
He looked twenty years older beneath fluorescent lights.
"Start at the beginning," I said.
Thomas folded his hands.
"My brother Daniel met your mother in 1989."
I stared at the photograph between us.
"They married?"
"Quietly. Your grandmother disapproved."
"Why?"
"Daniel had a criminal record."
I stiffened.
"For what?"
"Breaking into medical research facilities."
That wasn't the answer I expected.
Thomas continued.
"He wasn't stealing drugs. Daniel believed a private research network was conducting illegal human genetic experiments."
"Westbridge?"
"It didn't have that name yet."
Claire sat beside me.
Thomas looked at her, then back at me.
"Your mother was involved in the research."
I felt anger rising.
"You expect me to believe my mother experimented on people?"
"No. Evelyn initially believed the work could prevent inherited diseases. When she discovered how far Voss intended to take it, she tried to expose him."
"Then why hide everything from me?"
"Because Daniel disappeared."
The room went silent.
"When?"
"1992."
I had been a baby.
"Police said he abandoned Evelyn. She knew better."
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
Thomas looked genuinely haunted.
"Neither did she."
My mother later married Michael Mercer, the man I had always believed was my biological father.
Michael raised me until he died when I was nineteen.
Thomas had stayed away because Evelyn demanded it.
She wanted the entire history buried.
But before her death, she contacted Thomas.
She gave him documents.
Patient lists.
Storage numbers.
Names.
Including mine.
"Why was my genetic material valuable?"
Thomas hesitated.
"Daniel's family carries a rare cluster of genetic traits. Voss became obsessed with studying inheritance patterns."
I touched the birthmark on my neck.
"This?"
"A visible marker. Nothing magical. Nothing supernatural. But it helped identify members of the line."
That answer somehow made everything worse because it sounded plausible.
"Where does Emma fit?"
Thomas took a breath.
"Years after your mother died, Westbridge's operation continued under different names. They still possessed biological material collected from former patients."
"Mine."
"Yes."
"Who carried her?"
"We don't know."
I looked at Claire.
She was crying silently.
Thomas continued.
"Emma was born approximately six years ago. She wasn't raised as someone's daughter. She was kept in a private residence connected to the program."
My stomach turned.
"Why?"
"Observation."
The word made me furious.
"She's a child."
"I know."
"Then why didn't you rescue her sooner?"
"I didn't know she existed until eight months ago."
Thomas had received information from a former Westbridge employee.
There were children.
Not dozens.
Possibly four.
Children born from genetic material used without consent.
Emma was one of them.
Thomas spent months trying to locate her.
When he finally did, the facility was being emptied.
Someone had discovered the surviving records were attracting attention.
Thomas took Emma and ran.
"Why bring her to our house?"
"I didn't."
I frowned.
"Then how did she get inside my wall?"
"Claire brought me here."
I turned toward my wife.
She went pale.
"What?"
Claire whispered, "I showed him the house."
"Why?"
"Because Thomas said someone was following him."
Thomas interrupted.
"Emma couldn't stay in hotels. I couldn't take her to my apartment. They knew where I lived."
"And your solution was my wall?"
"No."
Thomas shook his head.
"Your wife showed me the concealed passage."
I stared at Claire.
"You knew about it."
"Not when we bought the house."
"When?"
"After Thomas contacted me."
She explained.
Our house had once belonged to a doctor associated with Westbridge.
That was why Claire had agreed to buy it.
I stood so fast my chair scraped backward.
"You chose this house because of Westbridge?"
"No. We had already seen it. But after Thomas contacted me, I checked the ownership history. When I realized who had lived there, I thought there might be records."
"So you moved our daughter into a house connected to these people?"
"We were already under contract."
"You could have told me."
"I know."
"You keep saying that."
Claire began sobbing.
"I was trying to protect you."
"Stop calling lies protection."
Nobody spoke.
Thomas finally said, "Claire found the passage after you moved in."
"How?"
"Blueprints."
"And Emma?"
"When I rescued her, I contacted Claire. We planned to keep her hidden for one night."
"Six weeks."
"I know."
"Why six weeks?"
"Because every time I tried to arrange a safe transfer, someone found us."
Detective Cole leaned forward.
"Who?"
Thomas looked at her.
"I don't know his real name."
"Describe him."
Thomas's face tightened.
"Mid-fifties. Tall. Gray hair. Scar beneath his right ear."
Cole wrote it down.
"Anything else?"
Thomas reached inside his jacket.
He placed a small brass key on the table.
"Emma had this sewn into the hem of her dress."
I picked it up.
A number was engraved on it.
314.
"What does it open?"
Thomas looked at me.
"Something inside your house."
That night, against Detective Cole's advice, I returned home with police officers.
The hidden passage was searched.
It extended much farther than anyone expected.
Between the walls.
Behind closets.
Along the upstairs hallway.
Then down.
Toward the basement.
An officer called my name.
"Mr. Mercer?"
I followed his flashlight.
At the end of a narrow corridor was a metal door.
Stamped into its center was a number.
314.
I put Emma's brass key into the lock.
It turned.
The door opened.
And inside was a room containing dozens of photographs.
Most were of me.
Some were of Claire.
Some were of Lily.
And several showed Emma.
One photograph made my blood run cold.
It had been taken through Lily's bedroom window.
Both girls were visible.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
SUBJECTS HAVE MADE CONTACT. PHASE TWO CAN BEGIN.
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