Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT ELLIE WAS BORN
The memory returned all at once.
I was nineteen.
I was standing in a hospital corridor.
My mother was crying.
Gabriel was arguing with my father.
A nurse pushed me into Room 17.
Then the door locked.
I remembered the machines.
The lights.
The questions.
Someone drawing blood.
Someone taking photographs.
I remembered Ellie being born.
But I also remembered something else.
A second baby cry.
I looked at Gabriel.
“There was another baby.”
His face went pale.
“What?”
“I heard another baby.”
My mother entered the room.
She had been listening.
“Yes.”
My heart stopped.
“Whose?”
She looked at Noah.
I couldn't breathe.
“Gabriel?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Then whose baby?”
My mother whispered,
“Your father’s.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He was experimenting with inherited traits.”
Dominic, still recovering from the gunshot, stood near the doorway.
“Explain.”
My mother sighed.
“Your father believed certain families carried genetic markers associated with aggression, loyalty, and risk tolerance.”
Dominic looked disgusted.
“He was insane.”
“He was obsessed.”
She looked at me.
“He wanted to prove the Vale bloodline could be engineered.”
I felt sick.
“Ellie?”
“She was born naturally.”
“Then why test her?”
“Because Gabriel was the father.”
I looked at him.
He lowered his eyes.
“He was afraid she would be taken.”
“So you knew?”
“I knew your father had taken samples.”
“But you didn't know about the second baby.”
“No.”
Noah stepped forward.
“Is the baby my brother?”
My mother knelt.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You have a brother.”
I felt cold.
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Dead.”
The word shattered the room.
“Your father ordered the child killed.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“I didn't know.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
Dominic stared at my mother.
“How many children?”
“One.”
I looked at Ellie.
Then Noah.
Then the empty space beside them.
Something inside me ached for a child I had never known.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you were barely nineteen.”
“I deserved to know.”
“Yes.”
She looked down.
“I failed you.”
I couldn't forgive her.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
But I understood one thing.
Everyone had been protecting me from the truth.
No one had asked whether I wanted it.
That changed now.
I stood.
“Where is my father?”
“In custody.”
“Then we're going to see him.”
Dominic frowned.
“Clara—”
“No.”
I looked at Gabriel.
“I am done being protected.”
Gabriel nodded.
“You're right.”
We went to the federal detention center that afternoon.
My father sat behind glass.
He looked smaller.
Not harmless.
Just smaller.
He smiled when he saw me.
“You remembered.”
“Yes.”
“The laboratory.”
“Yes.”
“The child.”
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
He leaned closer.
“You still don't know the most important part.”
“What?”
He smiled.
“Ellie wasn't the experiment.”
I froze.
“Then who was?”
He looked toward Gabriel.
“He was.”
Gabriel stepped closer to the glass.
“What did you do?”
My father laughed.
“You were exposed to the serum.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“What serum?”
“A compound designed to suppress emotional attachment.”
I stared at Gabriel.
“That can't be real.”
“It was.”
My father smiled.
“That's why Gabriel survived the gunshot.”
Gabriel touched the scar on his shoulder.
“My body recovered unusually fast.”
“You were altered.”
“No.”
My father leaned closer.
“You were perfected.”
Gabriel's face turned white.
Dominic grabbed the phone.
“Tell me what you did to my brother.”
My father ignored him.
He looked at me.
“Gabriel wasn't supposed to love you.”
I felt tears.
“But he did.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the treatment failed.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Your greatest mistake.”
My father nodded.
“Perhaps.”
I looked at him.
“You experimented on your own son.”
“I was building a future.”
“You destroyed your family.”
“I saved it.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You destroyed yourself.”
He smiled.
“You think this ends with me?”
He tapped the glass.
“Victor has the final pages.”
Dominic froze.
“Where?”
My father smiled.
“In Chicago.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
“Chicago?”
“Yes.”
My father leaned back.
“Go there.”
“Why?”
“Because the final pages contain the names of the people who funded everything.”
I stared.
“And one of them is still alive.”
“Who?”
He smiled.
“Your daughter's doctor.”
I felt ice run through my veins.
Ellie had never had a serious illness.
But when she was born, one doctor had examined her for hours.
A man my father had introduced as Dr. Samuel Reed.
I remembered him.
The same man who had taken blood from Ellie.
The same man who had told me everything was normal.
My father whispered,
“He knows what she carries.”
I stood abruptly.
“Dominic.”
He nodded.
“We leave tonight.”
Outside, reporters crowded the building.
Cameras flashed.
Questions shouted.
The Vale name was collapsing in public.
But I didn't care.
My daughter was still in danger.
And now we knew where to look.
Chicago.
The place where the final pages were hidden.
The place where the man who had examined my newborn daughter was waiting.
As we drove away, my phone rang.
Dr. Reed.
I answered.
His voice was calm.
“You remembered Room 17.”
I froze.
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there.”
My hands shook.
“What do you want?”
“I want to finish what your father started.”
“You will never touch my daughter.”
He laughed.
“You misunderstand.”
A pause.
“I'm not coming for Ellie.”
I waited.
“I'm coming for you.”
The call ended.
Dominic looked at me.
“What did he say?”
I stared through the windshield.
“He wants me.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“This time, we don't run.”
Dominic nodded.
“We go to Chicago.”
And for the first time, I realized something terrifying.
The final enemy wasn't chasing us.
He was waiting for us.
We left Maine before midnight.
Ellie and Noah slept in the back seat.
Gabriel sat beside them.
Dominic drove.
My mother stayed at the safe house under federal protection.
Before we left, she hugged me.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“You shouldn't.”
She nodded.
“But I want you to know one thing.”
“What?”
“Your father didn't make you strong.”
She touched my cheek.
“You survived him.”
I carried those words with me.
The highway stretched south.
For hours, nobody spoke.
Then Gabriel finally said,
“I owe you the truth about the night Ellie was born.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“I was there.”
“You told me you left before the hospital.”
“I lied.”
My heart tightened.
“Why?”
“Because your father threatened to kill you if I stayed.”
“Did he hurt you?”
Gabriel looked at his hands.
“He injected me.”
I remembered the scar.
“The serum.”
“Yes.”
“What did it do?”
“It made me forget.”
“Forget what?”
“Everything.”
I stared at him.
“For how long?”
“Three days.”
“Then how did you remember me?”
He smiled sadly.
“Your voice.”
“What?”
“The treatment damaged my memory, but not my emotions.”
He looked at Ellie.
“I couldn't remember her name.”
My eyes filled.
“But every time I heard you, I knew I loved you.”
I reached for his hand.
He took it.
For a few miles, neither of us spoke.
Then Dominic said,
“There's a car behind us.”
Gabriel looked back.
Black sedan.
No headlights.
“It's been following us for twenty minutes.”
Dominic accelerated.
The sedan followed.
A second vehicle appeared.
Then a third.
I looked at Ellie.
“She's asleep.”
“Good,” Gabriel said.
Dominic took an exit.
The cars followed.
He took another.
Still following.
Then he smiled.
“Now.”
Two SUVs emerged from a side road.
They blocked the pursuing cars.
The highway erupted into chaos.
Dominic kept driving.
Gabriel looked at him.
“You planned that.”
“Of course.”
“You're becoming predictable.”
Dominic laughed.
“Coming from you, that's funny.”
It was the first time I heard the brothers laugh together.
For one brief moment, they sounded like family.
Then my phone rang.
Dr. Reed.
I answered.
“You're almost here.”
“How do you know?”
“I've always known.”
“Where are you?”
“In the place where your story began.”
“What does that mean?”
“Room 17.”
My blood went cold.
“That room was in Maine.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“You were born in Chicago.”
I stared.
“No.”
“You were told you were born in Providence.”
I couldn't breathe.
Gabriel looked at me.
“What happened?”
I whispered,
“He says I was born in Chicago.”
Dominic's hands tightened on the wheel.
“That's impossible.”
Dr. Reed laughed.
“Ask your mother.”
The call ended.
My mind raced.
My entire identity had been constructed from lies.
Even my birthplace.
Even my childhood.
Maybe Clara Bennett wasn't the name I was born with.
Maybe the truth was waiting in Chicago.
We arrived at dawn.
The city rose around us, enormous and cold.
Dominic took us to a penthouse safe house.
Before we entered, a federal agent approached.
“Mr. Vale.”
Dominic stopped.
“What?”
“We found Victor.”
“Where?”
The agent handed him a photograph.
Victor was standing outside a hospital.
The hospital where Dr. Reed worked.
Dominic looked at me.
“He's there.”
Gabriel took the photograph.
“He's not hiding.”
“No,” I said.
“He wants us to find him.”
Then I saw the hospital sign.
Saint Catherine Medical Center.
My stomach twisted.
I had seen that name before.
On my birth certificate.
The one my mother kept locked away.
The one I had never questioned.
I whispered,
“That is where I was born.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Then we're going inside.”
I tightened my grip on Ellie.
May you like
The truth had followed us from Maine to Chicago.
Now there was nowhere left to run.
