Chapter 4 - My Name Was Inside the Dead Woman’s Journal
I spent the next morning searching my own memory.
I had never met Isabella.
Never worked for Adrian.
Never seen Marcus Vale.
Never heard of the neurological research program.
Yet my name was inside her journal.
Adrian sat across from me.
“Why would Isabella know you?”
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
“I am.”
“Did your brother ever know you worked at the bakery?”
“My brother?”
“Your deaf brother.”
I froze.
Adrian had somehow discovered my family history.
“My brother died when I was nineteen.”
“What was his name?”
“Evan.”
Adrian looked at the journal.
There was a photograph tucked inside.
A teenage boy.
Evan.
With Isabella.
I couldn't breathe.
“Where did she get this?”
“Your brother.”
“What?”
Adrian pointed.
“Evan worked for Isabella.”
My hands trembled.
Before his death, Evan had been an intern at St. Vincent Medical Research.
I remembered those years.
He had become obsessed with neurological research.
He told me someone was hurting children.
I had thought it was depression.
I had been wrong.
“He tried to tell me.”
Adrian watched me.
“What did he say?”
“He said there was a doctor who wanted to silence him.”
“Marcus Vale.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Isabella's journal again.
One sentence was underlined.
Evan found the missing file.
Then another.
He gave it to Emma.
I froze.
“I never received anything.”
“Maybe you did.”
“No.”
“Think.”
I remembered my brother's final week.
He had given me a small wooden box.
I had kept it for years.
Inside were childhood things.
Photographs.
A necklace.
A broken keychain.
A USB drive.
My heartbeat changed.
“Wait.”
I ran upstairs.
I opened an old storage box.
There it was.
The USB drive.
I had never checked it.
I plugged it into my laptop.
A video appeared.
Evan.
Young.
Scared.
He was speaking directly into the camera.
“Emma, if you're watching this, I'm probably gone.”
I covered my mouth.
“I found records showing children were used in an illegal drug trial.”
“I tried to report it.”
“They stopped me.”
“There is one child they care about most.”
“Sophie Moretti.”
The video paused.
Evan continued.
“The drug caused permanent damage.”
“Her mother found out.”
“She tried to expose them.”
“The person behind the program is not Marcus Vale.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“Who?”
Evan's voice continued.
“He reports to someone much higher.”
The screen went black.
One final frame appeared.
A man's name.
NICHOLAS MORETTI.
Adrian stared.
I looked at him.
“Your brother.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
The door opened.
Nicholas entered.
He saw the screen.
His face collapsed.
“I can explain.”
Adrian stood.
“You're done.”
Nicholas looked at me.
“I didn't know.”
“You knew enough.”
“I swear.”
“Then tell us everything.”
Nicholas broke.
He admitted he had learned about the program years earlier.
He was told it was experimental medicine.
He later discovered children were being harmed.
He attempted to stop it.
Vale threatened him.
But Nicholas still failed to expose him.
“I was a coward.”
Adrian stared.
“Yes.”
Nicholas nodded.
“You have every right to hate me.”
Adrian looked at Sophie.
“I already hate what I became because of this.”
That sentence stunned me.
Adrian had spent his entire life believing control meant protection.
Now he was learning control could also be fear.
Nicholas handed us a location.
“The original laboratory.”
“Where?”
“Under an old research facility in Brooklyn.”
That night, we went there.
The lab had been abandoned.
Or so it appeared.
Security doors.
Old equipment.
Frozen servers.
Files.
Sophie’s name appeared everywhere.
I found one folder.
SUBJECT S-17.
I opened it.
Her treatment.
Her hearing loss.
Her reactions.
The date.
The names of researchers.
Then another file.
FAMILY CONTACT: ADRIAN MORETTI.
STATUS: HIGH VALUE.
I felt sick.
They hadn't simply studied Sophie.
They had studied Adrian.
They wanted to know how far they could manipulate him.
Dr. Vale entered the room.
We turned.
He smiled.
“You finally found it.”
Adrian's gun was in his hand.
“You poisoned my wife.”
Vale shrugged.
“I did what was necessary.”
“You hurt my daughter.”
“She survived.”
“She shouldn't have had to.”
Vale looked at me.
“And you.”
I raised my weapon.
“You killed my brother.”
“No.”
“Then why did he die?”
“He was careless.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Vale smiled.
“Careful.”
He pressed a button.
The entire lab locked down.
Sirens began screaming.
A red light flashed.
“You can't kill me yet.”
“Why?”
“Because your daughter still has the evidence inside her.”
Adrian froze.
“What evidence?”
Vale laughed.
“The treatment altered more than her hearing.”
Sophie appeared at the doorway.
She had followed us.
Adrian spun.
“Sophie!”
Vale reached for a device.
I moved.
A gunshot rang out.
The bullet hit the wall.
Security agents stormed the lab.
Vale fled.
Adrian grabbed Sophie.
I followed.
Then Sophie touched my arm.
She signed one sentence.
Emma.
I found something.
She opened her hand.
Inside was a tiny metal key.
One she had found inside the old laboratory.
The key had initials engraved on it.
E.R.
My initials.
And I suddenly understood.
My brother hadn't left the evidence with me by accident.
He had hidden it inside something I carried every day.
May you like
The necklace around my neck.
The one he'd given me before he died.
Related Stories
