Emergency lights flickered on.
Vale moved toward the stairs.
I stopped him.
“Who is coming?”
“People who want the archive destroyed.”
“From Mercer?”
“Some.”
“Who else?”
He didn't answer.
Colette stepped between us.
“You're still protecting them.”
Vale looked at her.
“I'm protecting the children.”
“You always say that.”
“And you always assume the worst.”
“I've earned the right.”
The argument ended when footsteps sounded above us.
More than one person.
Brielle pulled Taryn behind a cabinet.
I moved closer to the door.
Vale whispered, “There is another exit.”
He led us through a narrow passage.
The tunnel smelled of earth.
We followed him through darkness.
After several minutes, we emerged behind the rehabilitation center.
A vehicle waited there.
Vale opened the door.
“Get in.”
I didn't move.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn't.”
He looked at me.
“But right now, you need the same thing I do.”
“What?”
“The children protected.”
We got in.
Vale drove.
Nobody spoke.
The road disappeared behind us.
After half an hour, he pulled into an old farmhouse.
A woman opened the door.
She was perhaps thirty-five.
She looked at Brielle and Taryn.
Then at Colette.
Her expression changed.
“You found them.”
Colette stared.
“Anna?”
The woman nodded.
“You remember me.”
“I thought you were dead.”
Anna smiled sadly.
“That was the point.”
We entered.
The farmhouse was modest.
No photographs.
No decorations.
Nothing that suggested who lived there.
Anna locked the door behind us.
“Martin told me you found the archive.”
“We found part of it,” I said.
She looked at him.
“Then it's already too late.”
“For what?”
“For the people who were supposed to stay hidden.”
Anna explained that several former patients had been moved after the research program collapsed.
Some were placed with relatives.
Others were given new identities.
A few entered government protection.
Daniel had helped identify children who might be targeted if the files became public.
I looked at Vale.
“You knew where they were.”
“Yes.”
“And you protected them.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because revealing the network could expose them.”
Brielle spoke.
“But we deserved the truth.”
Vale looked at her.
“Yes.”
That answer was almost painful.
No defense.
No excuse.
Just agreement.
Anna brought out another file.
“This is why Daniel kept investigating.”
Inside were records showing that the company wasn't the only group interested in the treatment.
Another organization had attempted to obtain the research.
They wanted access to the treatment formula.
The children were valuable because their bodies had responded differently.
Taryn looked sick.
“So we were test subjects to one group and targets for another.”
Anna nodded.
“That is what happened.”
Colette sat down.
“I should have taken them and disappeared.”
Anna looked at her.
“You did.”
Colette's face crumpled.
“You did the best you could with what you knew,” Anna said.
I wasn't ready to absolve her that easily.
But I was beginning to understand why she had made the choices she did.
Then Anna said something that changed the room.
“Daniel wasn't killed.”
I stood.
“What?”
Vale looked at her sharply.
Anna continued.
“He disappeared voluntarily.”
Colette stared.
“No.”
“He was injured.”
“Where is he?”
Anna hesitated.
“He refused to come out of hiding.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed the program was still active.”
I looked at Vale.
“Is it?”
Vale didn't answer.
That was enough.
“Where is Daniel?”
Anna gave me an address.
A remote medical facility.
“He's alive.”
Colette began crying.
After twelve years, one of the men who had helped protect us was still alive.
And he might hold the final answers.
We left before dawn.
Vale stayed behind.
I expected him to come with us.
He didn't.
“Why?” I asked.
He looked at the girls.
“Because if I'm seen with you, they'll know where you went.”
I studied him.
For the first time, I couldn't decide whether he was an enemy or an unwilling ally.
Maybe he was both.
As we drove north, Taryn asked the question none of us wanted to answer.
“If Daniel is alive, why didn't he contact us?”
Colette said quietly, “Because he was afraid.”
Brielle looked at her.
“Afraid of what?”
“Of making the same mistake twice.”
The facility appeared just after sunrise.
A nurse met us at the entrance.
She looked at Colette.
Then at the twins.
Then she said:
“Daniel has been waiting for you.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 12: Daniel’s Return Gave Us the Missing Piece of the Story but Forced Me to Face the Cost of What Had Been Kept From My Family
Twelve Years After Their Mother Disappeared, My Daughters Asked Me to Sit Down Before They Told Me Why
Part 11 of 20
