Chapter 6 - Victor Wanted Me More Than Belle—Because I Had Something He Needed and I Didn't Even Know I Carried ItWe discovered why Victor wanted me.
My mother had worked for a laboratory connected to the Voss family.
Before she died, she had signed me into a genetic research database without telling me.
I carried a rare marker.
It could help with treatments for Belle's condition.
Victor wanted the marker.
He needed my blood.
He had known for years.
That was why someone had followed me.
Why my manager had delayed me.
Why I had been sent into the garage.
Why Belle had been abandoned there.
They wanted to create a story where I naturally became her savior.
Then they wanted to take both of us.
The plan was elegant.
Horrible.
But elegant.
Harlan stared at the documents.
"I didn't know."
"Neither did I."
He looked at me.
"Your mother worked for my father."
"Apparently."
"She may have known."
"She died when I was nineteen."
Harlan's voice softened.
"I'm sorry."
I nodded.
The next clue came from Belle.
She remembered a secret room in the Voss mansion.
She called it the "blue room."
We searched.
Behind a bookshelf was a hidden stairway.
At the bottom was a medical lab.
Inside were blood samples.
Names.
Children.
Belle's sample.
My sample.
Harlan's.
Lydia's.
Everyone.
Victor had been studying the family for decades.
Then we found a video.
Victor speaking to the camera.
"Harlan, you always wanted freedom."
He smiled.
"Freedom is an illusion."
He explained his plan.
He wanted to develop a treatment for Belle.
But the treatment required my genetic marker.
He believed the medicine could then be used on other children.
The research could make him billions.
And give him leverage over governments.
He wanted to own the cure.
That was the empire.
Not drugs.
Not weapons.
Medicine.
And power over who lived.
Harlan watched silently.
Then the video said:
"And Rue is already part of the family."
He froze.
I did too.
"What does that mean?"
Victor smiled.
"She just doesn't know it."
The video ended.
Harlan turned toward me.
"What does he mean?"
I shook my head.
May you like
Then Belle whispered:
"Mommy knew."
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