Chapter 4 - The Woman Beside My Daughter
For three seconds, neither Camille nor I moved.
Then she smiled.
It was barely visible.
But I saw it.
The fear on her face disappeared.
The tears stopped.
The guilty sister-in-law vanished.
And in her place stood someone I had never known.
“Adrian?” Sophie called.
I kept walking upstairs.
If Camille was still involved, reacting now would put Sophie in immediate danger.
My mother’s guard led me through a private corridor.
At the end was a suite overlooking the restaurant.
Eleanor stood beside the window.
Seven years dead.
Yet here she was.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably my mother.
“Hello, Adrian.”
I stared at her.
“You let me bury someone else.”
“That was necessary.”
“Whose body?”
“A woman who had already died.”
She said it as casually as discussing a canceled reservation.
I felt sick.
“You watched me mourn you.”
“You always were sentimental.”
“My daughter is dying downstairs.”
“She isn’t dying.”
“Elias says—”
Her eyes sharpened.
“Elias Mercer.”
“You know him.”
“I created him.”
“He says you stole his research.”
“I funded it.”
“To help people walk.”
“I improved its commercial applications.”
“By paralyzing children?”
Her expression barely changed.
“Sophie was never meant to suffer permanently.”
I stepped toward her.
“You sound exactly like Camille.”
At the mention of Camille, my mother smiled.
“She has always been useful.”
So Rebecca had been right.
I kept my expression neutral.
“You want the will.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Rebecca stole what belongs to this family.”
“Rebecca tried to expose you.”
“Rebecca was naive.”
My mother walked to the table.
A glass of wine sat beside the remote.
“She believed medicine should be guided by morality rather than power.”
“She was right.”
“That belief made her weak.”
My jaw tightened.
“Did you kill her?”
For the first time, Eleanor looked away.
Not long.
Half a second.
But enough.
“You did.”
“She forced my hand.”
Every sound in the room disappeared.
My wife’s car accident had always troubled me.
A wet road.
A failed brake line.
No other vehicle.
Police called it mechanical failure.
I had accepted it because grief made questions unbearable.
Now I knew.
“You murdered Rebecca.”
“She threatened everything.”
I lunged toward her.
The guard stepped between us.
His hand went under his jacket.
Eleanor lifted one finger.
“Don’t.”
Not to me.
To him.
She wanted me alive.
For now.
“The will,” she said.
I reached into my jacket.
I had nothing.
But she didn’t know that.
“It’s been copied.”
Her face hardened.
“If I don’t walk downstairs with that remote, every copy goes to the authorities.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Try me.”
She picked up the controller.
“Your daughter has approximately four minutes.”
My stomach tightened.
Downstairs, Elias was doing something to Sophie’s back.
Camille stood beside him.
Too close.
I needed to buy time.
“What did Rebecca find?”
Eleanor’s expression softened with something almost like pride.
“Everything.”
“Meaning?”
“Accounts. Trials. Subjects. Prototype tests.”
“Human tests?”
“Yes.”
I felt nauseated.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“She found evidence?”
“She copied it.”
“And put it with the will?”
Eleanor didn’t answer.
That was the answer.
I took another step.
“Rebecca-17.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You opened the drive.”
“Yes.”
“Then you understand why I need it.”
“What happens if I give it to you?”
“Sophie recovers.”
“And Elias?”
“He disappears.”
“Camille?”
“She is rewarded.”
There it was.
Confirmation.
Camille was still working for her.
I looked through the glass toward Sophie.
Camille leaned close to her.
Whispering something.
Sophie looked frightened.
Then she slowly slipped one hand under the side of her wheelchair.
What was she doing?
My daughter looked up.
Directly at me.
Then at Camille.
Then back at me.
And gave the smallest shake of her head.
She knew.
Somehow, Sophie knew Camille was dangerous.
Eleanor stepped closer.
“The will.”
I said quietly, “Rebecca knew you would come back.”
“She knew me.”
“She knew Camille too.”
A flicker of surprise.
Good.
I continued.
“She left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
I smiled.
“For me not to trust Camille.”
For the first time, my mother lost control.
She turned toward the glass.
Camille looked up.
Their eyes met.
And that was when Sophie moved.
She pulled something from beneath her wheelchair cushion.
Elias’s second scanner.
He had hidden it there.
She pressed the side button.
Camille grabbed her wrist.
“No!”
Elias lunged forward.
The restaurant erupted.
My mother raised the remote.
I threw myself toward her.
The guard tackled me.
The remote hit the floor.
It slid beneath the table.
Eleanor screamed.
“Get it!”
Downstairs, Sophie cried out.
Elias shouted something I couldn’t hear.
I drove my elbow backward.
The guard loosened his grip.
I twisted free.
My mother reached under the table.
Her fingers closed around the remote.
Then the lights went out.
Complete darkness.
And from downstairs came Sophie’s voice.
“Dad!”
May you like
Then nothing.
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