Chapter 7 - I Was the Final Piece of Adrian’s Experiment—and He Had Designed the Entire Hospital Encounter to Force Me to Save His SonThe evidence showed that Adrian had planned everything.
Luca's injury.
The contaminated water.
The hidden device.
The attack in the ER.
Even my shift schedule.
He wanted me to become emotionally involved.
Then he wanted me to access Luca's medical data.
Why?
Because my response could reveal whether I carried the mutation he needed.
The entire hospital encounter was a test.
I wasn't supposed to save Luca.
I was supposed to expose my own genetic profile.
But something hadn't gone according to plan.
I had removed the device.
I had discovered the children.
I had found his servers.
And now Adrian's experiment was exposed.
The only problem was that he was still free.
We shut down the underground facility.
Federal investigators arrived.
The surviving children were transported to secure hospitals.
But Adrian vanished.
Vincent blamed himself.
I told him:
“This isn't your fault.”
He shook his head.
“He used my son.”
“He used all of us.”
Then Luca woke.
He looked at Vincent.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Grandpa said you would bring Dr. Sarah.”
Vincent went still.
“Why?”
“Because she knows how to fix me.”
I stared at the boy.
“I don't.”
Luca shook his head.
“You do.”
“Who told you?”
“Grandpa.”
I felt cold.
Adrian believed I could treat Luca's condition.
But I didn't know how.
Unless—
my mother had left clues.
We searched the old files.
She had been developing a treatment.
A safe one.
It required Luca's genetic marker.
And mine.
She had been trying to finish it when she was killed.
The formula was incomplete.
But the research notes were enough.
We could potentially save Luca.
And the other children.
We needed one thing.
My mother's original laboratory notebook.
Adrian had hidden it.
We found it in a storage facility outside Philadelphia.
Inside was the treatment.
And a warning.
The compound becomes dangerous only when activated by a second agent.
The same agent used in the poison.
Someone hadn't merely tried to kill me.
They had tried to trigger the genetic response.
My mother had spent years preventing it.
Now I understood the real goal.
Adrian wanted to recreate the reaction in a controlled environment.
If he could, he could develop a weapon.
Or a cure.
Depending on who controlled it.
Then a message arrived.
Bring Sarah to the old Mercer estate if you want Luca to survive.
Vincent looked at me.
“I won't let you go.”
May you like
I replied:
“You're not going alone either.”
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