Chapter 8 - Lucas and Grace Were the Missing Pieces of Elena's Research—and Someone Planned to Take Them Both Before We Could LeaveWe moved the children to a safe estate.
Doctors examined every one.
Grace's health was fragile but stable.
Lucas was healthy.
But genetic testing revealed something extraordinary.
The two children carried complementary markers.
Grace had one mutation.
Lucas had another.
Together, they could potentially create a treatment.
Richard had known.
That's why he had needed both.
He hadn't killed Elena because she knew too much.
He had killed her because she had tried to protect the children.
Then he targeted Hannah because she was the only adult whose genetics could stabilize the research.
The entire poisoning plot made sense.
I had been both target and test subject.
Adrian was furious.
He blamed himself.
I told him:
“Don't.”
“I should have seen it.”
“You were manipulated.”
“I should have protected you.”
“You didn't know.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
I touched his face.
“We know now.”
That night, Grace woke screaming.
I ran to her room.
She kept saying:
“Black room.”
“What black room?”
“The room where Mommy was taken.”
I sat beside her.
“What happened?”
“Mommy told me to hide.”
“Where?”
“Behind the blue cabinet.”
She drew a picture.
A room.
A cabinet.
A symbol.
The black star.
Adrian recognized it.
“That's under the old Mercer warehouse.”
We went there immediately.
Inside was a hidden chamber.
A recording.
Elena.
She had hidden one final piece of evidence.
The identities of every person involved.
Richard.
Senator Graves.
Hospital administrators.
Police.
Doctors.
Everyone.
The list ended with one name.
Adrian Mercer.
He stared.
“I wasn't involved.”
I looked at the document.
The signature was forged.
Someone had used Adrian's identity to authorize the research.
That meant Richard had been building the entire case to frame Adrian if the truth came out.
Before we could celebrate, a bomb exploded outside.
The warehouse shook.
Grace screamed.
I grabbed Lucas.
Adrian pulled us toward the emergency exit.
The building started burning.
We escaped seconds before it collapsed.
But the evidence was gone.
Or so we thought.
Grace was carrying one small piece of paper.
May you like
She had hidden it in her pocket.
It contained one address.
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