Chapter 6 - Dr. Keller
Metal screamed.
Vanessa’s car spun across the road.
Ethan’s shoulder struck the door.
Then everything stopped.
He heard Vanessa swearing.
Glass dropping.
An engine revving behind them.
“Get down!” she shouted.
A black SUV blocked the road.
Two men stepped out.
Neither was Stallone.
Vanessa unlocked the doors.
“What are you doing?” Ethan cried.
“Saving your life.”
One of the men pulled open the rear door.
Ethan kicked him.
Hard.
The man cursed.
“Little bastard.”
“Don’t touch him!” Vanessa snapped.
The second man opened her door.
“You took too long.”
“Where’s Keller?”
“Waiting.”
They forced Ethan into the SUV.
Vanessa climbed in after him.
Ten minutes later, Stallone and Bell arrived at the wreck.
Empty.
Bell found Ethan’s watch beneath the front seat.
Stallone stared at it.
“I lost him.”
“No. They changed vehicles.”
“That means we lost him.”
Bell crouched beside the tire marks.
“Not necessarily.”
The second SUV had damaged its front end in the collision.
Fluid dripped onto the road.
A thin dark trail.
They followed it north.
Meanwhile, Ethan was taken through iron gates surrounding a private clinic abandoned years earlier.
The sign had been removed.
Half the windows were dark.
An old man waited inside.
White hair.
Thin shoulders.
Doctor’s hands that wouldn’t stop shaking.
Vanessa pushed Ethan into an examination room.
The old man stared at him.
“Oh my God.”
Ethan backed away.
“Who are you?”
The man didn’t answer.
He looked at Vanessa.
“You told me he wouldn’t be involved.”
“He found the picture.”
“You should’ve destroyed it.”
“I tried.”
“Twelve years too late.”
Ethan’s eyes moved between them.
“You’re Dr. Keller.”
The old man flinched.
“How do you know my name?”
“I heard you on the phone.”
Keller looked furious.
“You brought him here awake?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
Ethan stepped toward the door.
One of the men blocked him.
Keller rubbed both hands over his face.
“This was supposed to be over.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“It was over until Rachel hid that file.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You knew my mom?”
Vanessa went still.
Keller looked at her.
Then at Ethan.
“Your mother?”
Ethan’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
Keller’s eyes changed.
He looked almost sorry.
Vanessa said, “Don’t.”
But Keller had already understood.
The boy was missing something.
Something huge.
He slowly walked toward Ethan.
“What did they tell you about your mother?”
“That she died when I was little.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Keller whispered:
“Ethan… Rachel wasn’t just the mother of the twins.”
The room went silent.
Ethan felt cold all over.
“What?”
Keller looked at Vanessa.
“You never told him?”
“Shut up.”
The doctor turned back to Ethan.
“Rachel was your mother too.”
Ethan’s knees nearly gave out.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, my mom was—”
“The woman in the photographs they gave you wasn’t your biological mother.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You knew?”
She said nothing.
His eyes filled.
“You knew who my real mom was?”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“Your father was supposed to be protected from all of this.”
“Protected from me?”
Keller whispered, “From what we did.”
Then a distant crash shook the building.
Everyone froze.
One of the men reached for his gun.
Keller looked toward the hallway.
Another crash.
Then a shout.
Vanessa’s face drained.
Stallone’s voice echoed from somewhere inside the clinic.
“ETHAN!”
The boy turned toward the door.
“DAD!”
The gunman raised his weapon.
May you like
And Vanessa shouted:
“Kill Stallone first.”
