Chapter 6 - My Father’s Secret Legacy and the Night Victor Finally Told Me the Truth
We escaped the laboratory through an underground tunnel.
By dawn, Sheriff Carter had contacted federal investigators.
But before they arrived, Victor found us.
He was standing beside the old ranch chapel.
Alone.
No weapon.
No guards.
I wanted to attack him.
Instead, I said, “Tell me everything.”
Victor nodded.
“I will.”
We entered the chapel.
He sat in the front pew.
For the first time in six months, he looked like the man I remembered.
“I worked for your father,” he said.
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
Victor looked at the stained glass.
“Your father wasn't the beginning.”
“What?”
“He inherited the project.”
“From whom?”
“Richard Vale.”
I remembered the payment records.
“Then why did Mercer mention my father?”
“Because your father helped shut the program down.”
I stared at him.
“Then why did you say he created it?”
“Because people lie when they're afraid.”
“Were you afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
“My family.”
Victor explained that Project Willow had started as a legitimate medical research program.
But wealthy investors became obsessed with the rare genetic marker discovered in Claire's family.
They wanted ownership.
Your father eventually discovered children were being targeted.
He tried to withdraw.
Richard Vale threatened him.
Your father fought back.
The project collapsed.
At least publicly.
But a few people continued it secretly.
Dr. Mercer.
Richard Vale.
And several executives.
Victor joined the ranch years later because your father asked him to monitor the remaining threat.
“Why didn't my father tell me?”
“Because he believed you were safer not knowing.”
“And Claire?”
“She found the files.”
“What happened?”
“She confronted Mercer.”
Victor looked down.
“Claire asked me to protect the babies.”
“Then why did you take her pendant?”
“It contains a microchip.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“The ruby setting is fake.”
He explained that Claire had hidden encrypted data inside the pendant.
Her final evidence.
But the pendant also contained a location tracker.
That was why Mercer wanted it.
“And the syringe?”
“I was testing Grace's blood because I feared the children had already been exposed.”
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
“I thought I could solve it alone.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You almost got my daughter killed.”
“I know.”
Emma stood beside me.
“Who attacked the ranch?”
Victor looked at her.
“Richard Vale.”
Emma's eyes widened.
“My father worked for him.”
Victor nodded.
“Richard used your father.”
“And my father?”
“Michael tried to expose him.”
Emma began crying.
Victor continued.
“Michael hid the final evidence.”
“Where?”
“In a place only his daughter could access.”
Emma froze.
“Me?”
Victor nodded.
“Your father left a message for you.”
He handed her a sealed envelope.
Emma opened it.
Her father's handwriting appeared.
Emma,
If you ever find this, don't trust Mercer.
Trust the waitress who saves the babies.
Trust Daniel.
And most of all, trust the blue rabbit.
Emma looked confused.
“The blue rabbit?”
We both looked at Lily.
She was sleeping in my arms, clutching a small blue rabbit toy.
The same toy she had possessed since birth.
I remembered Claire buying it.
She said it was silly.
Now nothing felt silly.
We examined the toy.
Inside the lining was a tiny flash drive.
Carter connected it to his laptop.
A recording appeared.
My father's voice.
“If Daniel is watching this, I failed to tell my son the truth.”
My chest tightened.
The recording explained everything.
The genetic research.
The threats.
Claire's discovery.
The money.
The conspiracy.
Then came the part that made me collapse into the pew.
My father had suspected that Claire's death would be staged as a medical complication.
He had attempted to protect her.
But someone reached her first.
The recording ended with one sentence.
Richard Vale is alive, and he has one goal left.
Take the children.
The chapel doors slammed open.
Gunfire erupted.
Victor shoved me down.
Carter returned fire.
Emma covered the babies.
A bullet shattered the stained-glass window.
Then silence.
We ran outside.
Across the field, a black SUV disappeared into the snow.
Victor looked at me.
“He knows we have the drive.”
Carter checked the evidence.
“There's a second location encoded here.”
“Where?”
He looked at the screen.
“Willow Creek Ranch.”
I stared.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
Carter pointed.
“The coordinates are beneath the house.”
Beneath my home.
The place where I had slept every night.
The place Claire and I had built our marriage.
The place I believed I knew.
May you like
There was something under it.
And Richard Vale knew we were about to find it.
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