Chapter 10 - THE CHILD VANESSA WANTED
The federal medical center had six security checkpoints.
The woman wearing Patricia’s badge passed through all of them.
She wore a nurse’s uniform.
She pushed Emma in a wheelchair.
Lily walked beside her.
Security footage showed the girls leaving through a service entrance twelve minutes before the storage unit exploded.
A white medical van waited outside.
The license plates had been stolen.
No one had seen where it went.
I watched the footage in silence.
Emma looked tired.
Lily looked terrified.
The woman kept one hand on Lily’s shoulder.
“Zoom in.”
I said.
The technician enlarged the image.
The woman wore a mask and glasses.
Only her eyes were visible.
“That is not Patricia.”
Harris said.
“No.”
I knew those eyes.
“Vanessa.”
Grant looked at me.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
The technician enhanced the image.
A gold earring appeared beneath the wig.
The same gold earrings Vanessa wore at breakfast.
Harris turned toward the agents.
“Send the image to every unit.”
Grant called the airport.
I kept staring at the van.
“She is not taking Emma out of the country.”
“How do you know?”
Grant asked.
“Because she wants something from me.”
Patricia’s words returned.
Only one of them is yours.
Ask Daniel who Emma’s mother really is.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
Grant reached for it.
I stepped away.
“He called me.”
“He may be tracing you.”
“I do not care.”
I answered.
“Where is Emma?”
Daniel breathed into the phone.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
“You need to leave the agents.”
“Tell me where she is.”
“Sarah, listen to me.”
“No.”
I shouted.
“You listen.”
Everyone in the command room turned toward me.
“Vanessa took both girls.”
“I know.”
“You knew she would.”
“No.”
“You were at the house with her.”
“I was trying to stop Gerald.”
“You stood beside her.”
“They made me record that message.”
“She put her hand on your shoulder.”
“I needed them to believe I had switched sides.”
“You built the Northbridge system.”
Silence.
“You listed Emma as Subject E-17.”
“I can explain.”
“You studied our daughter.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“By measuring how she responds to isolation?”
“I did not approve those tests.”
“You gave them her records.”
“They already had access.”
“Because of you.”
His voice broke.
“I was afraid.”
“For yourself.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised me.
“I helped Gerald build the first version.”
He continued.
“I thought it was medical research.”
“You believed children should be frightened for data?”
“No.”
“I believed the system would identify abuse.”
“And then?”
“Gerald changed the purpose.”
“You stayed.”
“I tried to leave.”
“You stayed long enough to make Emma a subject.”
“I added her file so I could track what they were doing.”
“You put the recorder in her sock.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vanessa had hurt her.”
“I suspected.”
“You used Emma as evidence.”
“I needed proof Gerald could not erase.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me where she is.”
“I do not know.”
“You are lying.”
“I know where Vanessa might take her.”
“Where?”
“The original clinic.”
Grant stepped closer.
“Which clinic?”
Daniel heard him.
“I said leave the agents.”
“Not happening.”
“Sarah, Grant is not protecting you.”
Grant’s face changed.
“What does that mean?”
I asked.
“The federal agreement was not created to protect me.”
Daniel said.
“It was created to control the evidence.”
Grant reached for the phone.
I pulled away.
“Keep talking.”
“Northbridge had contracts.”
“With whom?”
“Government agencies.”
Grant’s voice hardened.
“That is classified.”
Daniel laughed.
“Exactly.”
I looked at Grant.
“You knew.”
“We knew Northbridge had federal research contracts.”
“Research on children?”
“Not this program.”
Daniel spoke quickly.
“Grant’s division knew Gerald had test sites.”
Grant stepped closer.
“That is false.”
“Then ask him why the first investigation disappeared.”
I looked at Grant.
He did not answer.
“Where is the clinic?”
I demanded.
Daniel gave me an address outside the city.
An abandoned children’s rehabilitation center near Lake Mercer.
“I am going there.”
“Do not.”
“You just told me they might be there.”
“Because Vanessa wants you to come.”
“Then she chose correctly.”
“Sarah, wait for me.”
“You have had six weeks.”
I ended the call.
Grant blocked the door.
“You cannot go.”
“My daughter is there.”
“We do not know that.”
“You do not know anything until it is too late.”
Harris stepped beside me.
“I am going with her.”
Grant turned toward him.
“This is a federal operation.”
“It became personal when two children were taken from a protected facility.”
Grant looked at the agents.
No one moved.
Harris handed me a bulletproof vest.
“Put this on.”
The drive to Lake Mercer took forty minutes.
Rain began halfway there.
The abandoned clinic stood beyond a rusted gate.
Its windows were dark.
A white medical van sat behind the building.
We found Lily first.
She was locked inside an examination room.
Harris broke the door.
Lily ran into my arms.
“Where is Emma?”
I asked.
She pointed toward the basement.
“Aunt Vanessa took her downstairs.”
“Who else is here?”
“Grandpa.”
Gerald.
“And Daddy.”
My heart stopped.
“Daniel is here?”
Lily nodded.
“He was yelling.”
A deep metallic sound came from below us.
The basement elevator.
Harris called for backup.
Grant ordered the agents to secure every exit.
I moved toward the stairwell.
Grant grabbed my arm.
“You wait here.”
I pulled free.
“No one tells me to wait anymore.”
The basement smelled like wet concrete and antiseptic.
We followed a corridor lined with observation windows.
Most rooms were empty.
The last room was brightly lit.
Emma sat in the center.
Her sling had been removed.
Vanessa stood behind her.
Gerald stood near a control panel.
Daniel faced them with blood on his shirt.
He looked toward me through the glass.
“Sarah, do not come in.”
Vanessa smiled.
“She came.”
Gerald pressed a button.
The door unlocked.
I entered before anyone could stop me.
Emma looked up.
“Mommy.”
I moved toward her.
Vanessa raised a syringe.
“Stop.”
I froze.
“What is in that?”
“A sedative.”
“Put it down.”
“She is not your daughter.”
The words hit me harder than the skillet had hit the floor.
Daniel closed his eyes.
I looked at him.
“What is she talking about?”
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“Tell her.”
Daniel said nothing.
Gerald answered.
“Emma was born during the first Northbridge trial.”
“No.”
I whispered.
“She was never supposed to leave the program.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Tell me he is lying.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
“Sarah.”
“No.”
My voice shook.
“Tell me.”
He looked at Emma.
Then back at me.
“You gave birth to a daughter.”
“I know.”
“The baby you delivered did not survive the first night.”
The room disappeared around me.
I heard only Emma breathing.
Daniel continued.
“Gerald replaced her.”
I stared at him.
“With Emma?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa gripped the syringe tighter.
“She was my child.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Her eyes filled with cold, furious tears.
“I gave birth to her.”
Emma looked between us.
Confused.
Afraid.
Vanessa stepped closer to her.
“They stole her from me.”
Gerald’s voice hardened.
“You surrendered the child.”
“I was drugged.”
“You signed the papers.”
“You told me she died.”
The same lie.
Two mothers.
Two dead babies.
One living child.
I looked at Daniel.
“You knew all these years?”
He shook his head.
“I found out eighteen months ago.”
“When Emma’s file was created.”
“Yes.”
“You did not tell me.”
“I was afraid you would lose her.”
“She was already mine.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“No.”
She pressed the syringe against Emma’s neck.
“She was never yours.”
Emma began to cry.
“Mommy.”
She looked at me.
Not Vanessa.
Me.
Vanessa’s face twisted.
Gerald reached toward the control panel.
Daniel moved suddenly.
He grabbed Vanessa’s wrist.
The syringe fell.
Harris burst through the door.
Gerald pressed a red switch.
Steel doors slammed over every exit.
An alarm began counting down.
Ten.
Nine.
Grant looked toward the control panel.
“What did you activate?”
Gerald smiled.
“The same thing that destroyed the storage unit.”
Eight.
Seven.
Daniel pulled Emma from the chair and handed her to me.
Six.
Harris fired at the control panel.
Sparks exploded.
Five.
The countdown continued.
Four.
Grant shouted toward the agents.
“Find another exit.”
Three.
Vanessa lunged for Emma.
I turned away and shielded her.
Two.
May you like
Gerald closed his eyes.
One.
