Chapter 5 - THE CHILD WHO WAS NEVER MEANT TO SURVIVE
Thomas was terrified of Lily.
Not because she had done anything.
Because she represented everything he had been denied.
When they met, he stood several feet away.
Lily looked at him.
“Are you Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“You have sad eyes.”
He looked confused.
“So do you.”
She smiled.
“My dad says mine are beautiful.”
Thomas stared at Adrian.
“Dad?”
Adrian nodded.
Lily hugged his leg.
Thomas looked at them.
“You adopted her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She needed a family.”
Thomas lowered his head.
“I never had one.”
Lily walked toward him.
“You do now.”
He stared at her.
Then he smiled.
The tension in the room disappeared.
For the first time, the two surviving children stood together.
The doctors tested them separately.
The results were extraordinary.
Their blood chemistry was complementary.
But the treatment wasn't simple.
It required a compound hidden in the original research.
The research was believed to be lost.
Then Thomas remembered something.
“Victor kept a room.”
“Where?”
“Under his house.”
Adrian immediately moved.
The room was hidden beneath the foundation.
Inside were laboratory records.
Photographs.
Patient files.
And a video.
Dr. Vale appeared on screen.
“The final compound requires both subjects.”
Lily's image appeared.
Then Thomas's.
But another face appeared afterward.
Adrian's.
He froze.
“Why am I there?”
Thomas looked at the recording.
“Your father volunteered you.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
“The treatment was originally designed for you.”
Silence.
His father had known Adrian carried the same genetic markers.
He had been one of the first children tested.
The research was supposed to create a cure.
Instead, criminals weaponized it.
Adrian had survived because his father secretly stopped the trial.
Everything he was told about his father's death was false.
He wasn't killed for business.
He was killed because he refused to continue the research.
Adrian sat on the floor.
He had spent fifteen years becoming the kind of man who never trusted anyone.
Now he understood why.
His father had lied to protect him.
His enemies had lied to control him.
And every person in between had used silence as currency.
Emma touched his shoulder.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She sat beside him.
“You don't have to be.”
The words felt familiar.
Exactly what he had told her.
He smiled.
Maybe family was simply people who returned your own kindness.
They recovered the missing formula.
But Vale wasn't finished.
He had kidnapped Nathan.
The doctor was being held in a warehouse.
Adrian received the message.
Bring Lily.
Adrian refused.
Instead, he went alone.
Vale expected him.
He stood in the warehouse beside Nathan.
“You can't kill me.”
Adrian stared.
“Why?”
“Because you need me.”
“You're wrong.”
Vale laughed.
“You need the treatment.”
“We have the formula.”
“You don't have the final catalyst.”
“What is it?”
Vale smiled.
“Me.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“You're not special.”
“I created it.”
“You stole it.”
“I improved it.”
“No.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You tortured children.”
Vale shrugged.
“Necessary sacrifices.”
Adrian's eyes darkened.
Nathan spoke.
“Adrian, don't.”
Vale's hand moved toward a switch.
The room exploded with gas.
Adrian collapsed.
Nathan dropped.
Vale escaped.
But Marcus arrived wearing a mask.
He pulled them outside.
Adrian gasped.
“What happened?”
“Vale released the compound.”
“Will it kill us?”
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“It doesn't work on your blood.”
Adrian realized.
His father had been right.
The treatment wasn't just about Lily.
It was about him too.
He was the bridge between the two children.
Vale needed Adrian alive.
Which meant the three of them together might be the only combination capable of creating the antidote.
And suddenly Adrian understood what Vale truly wanted.
Not money.
May you like
Not power.
Immortality.
