Chapter 3 - Adrian grabbed the edge of the desk.Adrian grabbed the edge of the desk.
“Who is Gabriel?”
Lenora’s eyes remained on Maren.
“Not here.”
Maren laughed.
It was a cold sound.
“We’re standing inside a secret medical facility where your family experimented on me. I think ‘here’ is exactly where we talk.”
Detective Mercer stepped between them.
“Nobody leaves.”
Lenora looked toward the officers.
“You have no idea what you’ve uncovered.”
“Then explain it.”
Lenora sat slowly.
For the first time since Maren had known her, the woman looked old.
Not elegant.
Not powerful.
Old.
“Gabriel Shaw worked for Everett.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“My father?”
“He handled acquisitions. Problems. Sensitive matters.”
“I worked in Dad’s company for twelve years. I never heard that name.”
“That was intentional.”
Maren held up the photograph.
“Why is his arm around me?”
Lenora’s mouth trembled.
“Because you loved him.”
Adrian went perfectly still.
Maren stared.
“No.”
“You did.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It happened before you married Adrian.”
Maren looked at Adrian.
His face was blank.
She turned back.
“I met Adrian when I was twenty-three.”
“No,” Lenora said softly. “You met Adrian when you were twenty-three for the second time.”
Silence filled the room.
Maren couldn’t process the sentence.
Mercer said,
“Start at the beginning.”
Lenora took a breath.
“Everett funded experimental neuropsychiatric research through shell foundations. Memory reconsolidation. Trauma suppression. Behavioral conditioning.”
Maren looked toward the medical chair.
“He used people.”
“He believed he could help people.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Lenora lowered her eyes.
“Yes. He used people.”
“Why me?”
“Because Gabriel tried to leave.”
Maren’s stomach dropped.
“With me?”
Lenora nodded.
“Everett trusted Gabriel more than his own sons. Then Gabriel met you.”
Adrian looked sick.
“How?”
“You were working at an art restoration studio in Boston. One of Everett’s properties had a damaged mural. Gabriel supervised the insurance claim.”
Maren remembered the studio.
That part was real.
She had worked there after college.
But Gabriel?
Nothing.
A blank wall.
Lenora continued.
“You dated for almost two years.”
Maren shook her head.
“No.”
“You became engaged.”
“No.”
“You married privately.”
Maren’s voice broke.
“No.”
Lenora looked at her with unbearable pity.
“You were pregnant.”
Maren stopped moving.
Adrian whispered,
“Mother.”
Lenora closed her eyes.
“The pregnancy ended.”
Maren’s hand went instinctively to her stomach.
“What happened?”
“Car accident.”
“Was it an accident?”
Lenora didn’t answer.
That was an answer.
Maren backed away.
Mercer steadied her.
“What happened after?”
“Gabriel blamed Everett. He threatened to expose everything.”
“So Everett erased him from her life?” Mercer asked.
Lenora nodded.
“They had already begun trials involving memory destabilization. Everett convinced himself that removing Gabriel from Maren’s memory would protect everyone.”
Maren laughed in disbelief.
“You can’t delete a person.”
“No.”
Lenora looked toward the monitor.
“But under the right circumstances, you can weaken memories. Confuse timelines. Reinforce alternative narratives.”
Maren turned toward Adrian.
“And you?”
His face was devastated.
“I swear I didn’t know.”
Lenora spoke before he could continue.
“Adrian knew you after.”
He turned to his mother.
“What does that mean?”
“You had met Maren once at a charity event before the treatment. You liked her.”
“No.”
“You asked Gabriel about her.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I don’t remember.”
“Everett arranged for you to meet again months later.”
Maren felt nauseated.
“So Adrian was replacement material?”
Lenora flinched.
“It wasn’t that simple.”
“It sounds incredibly simple.”
Adrian looked at Maren.
“I loved you.”
She stared at him.
“Maybe you did.”
“I still—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Maren pressed her fists against her temples.
Fragments flashed.
A train station.
Rain.
A man holding two coffees.
A laugh she couldn’t place.
A ring.
Not Adrian’s ring.
Then pain tore through her skull.
She gasped.
Mercer caught her.
“Maren?”
“I saw him.”
“Who?”
“Gabriel.”
Lenora stood abruptly.
“Do not force the memories.”
Maren glared at her.
“You don’t get to give me medical advice.”
“It can cause seizures.”
The room went silent.
Mercer said,
“You seem to know a lot.”
Lenora looked away.
Maren’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number again.
This time a text.
DON’T BELIEVE LENORA’S VERSION.
Then another.
GABRIEL IS ALIVE.
Maren stared.
“What?”
Adrian stepped closer.
She showed Mercer first.
Mercer immediately took a photograph of the screen.
Another message arrived.
IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH, FIND LOCKER 314 AT PORT CEDAR STATION.
Lenora saw the message.
Her face drained.
“No.”
Maren looked at her.
“You know what that is?”
Lenora stood.
“Maren, do not go there.”
“Why?”
“Because if Gabriel is alive, then everything is worse than I thought.”
Adrian stared at his mother.
“You said he caused all this.”
“I said he is the reason Elodie was taken.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Lenora’s voice shook.
“It isn’t.”
Mercer ordered two officers to secure the hidden clinic.
The wedding had fully collapsed upstairs.
Guests were being interviewed.
The paramedics transported Elodie to the hospital for blood tests.
Maren insisted on going.
Adrian went too.
Celestine disappeared.
By the time Mercer searched the estate, she was gone.
Her wedding dress was found in a downstairs bathroom.
Her phone remained on the sink.
No wallet.
No shoes.
No passport.
Just one handwritten note.
I’M SORRY, ELODIE.
At the hospital, doctors drew Elodie’s blood.
Maren sat beside the bed.
The child had stopped crying.
That frightened Maren more.
Adrian stood by the window.
For twenty minutes they said nothing.
Then Elodie asked,
“Are you mad at Daddy?”
Maren looked at her.
“No, sweetheart.”
Adrian turned.
Elodie studied them.
“Daddy gets sad when Nana says your name.”
Maren’s heart tightened.
Adrian lowered his head.
Elodie continued,
“Nana says you make Daddy confused.”
Maren stroked the child’s hair.
“What else does Nana say?”
Adrian looked up sharply.
Elodie whispered,
“She says I have to remember the right mommy.”
The room became cold.
“What does that mean?” Maren asked.
Elodie pointed toward herself.
“I’m supposed to remember Celestine.”
Adrian walked toward the bed.
“Did someone tell you to forget Maren?”
Elodie looked worried.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re not in trouble.”
“Mr. Tom has picture games.”
Maren felt ill.
“What picture games?”
“He shows me pictures. Then I say names.”
“Whose pictures?”
Elodie pointed at Maren.
“Yours.”
Adrian sat down hard.
Maren’s eyes filled.
“What did he tell you my name was?”
Elodie whispered,
“The sick lady.”
Adrian covered his face.
Maren wanted to scream.
Instead she kissed Elodie’s forehead.
“My name is Maren.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
Elodie nodded.
“Celestine told me.”
Maren froze.
“What?”
“She said the doctor was lying.”
Adrian looked stunned.
“Celestine told you that?”
“She said not to tell Nana.”
Maren remembered Celestine’s words.
I thought if I stayed close, I could protect her.
Maybe she had been telling the truth.
A doctor entered.
His expression was serious.
“Mr. and Ms. Vale?”
Maren stood.
“What did you find?”
“We ran an expedited toxicology screen.”
Adrian moved closer.
“And?”
“There is a benzodiazepine-class sedative in Elodie’s system.”
Maren stopped breathing.
“How much?”
“Low level. But it should not be there at all.”
Adrian gripped the bed rail.
“Could it have come through the bracelet?”
“We’re waiting on analysis, but given the punctures, yes.”
Maren closed her eyes.
Three years.
Same method.
Same family.
Same lie.
The doctor continued.
“There’s something else.”
Maren opened her eyes.
“What?”
“We found evidence suggesting repeated exposure.”
Adrian’s face turned gray.
“For how long?”
“We can’t say from blood alone.”
Maren looked at Elodie.
Her daughter had been living in that house for weeks while wedding preparations happened.
“How dangerous?”
“It can cause drowsiness, memory impairment, emotional flattening.”
Maren nearly collapsed.
Memory impairment.
Again.
They weren’t only controlling Elodie.
They were trying to change what she remembered.
Mercer arrived forty minutes later.
She had obtained emergency authority to seize records and devices from Blackthorn.
She also brought the envelope found inside Port Cedar Station locker 314.
Maren stared at it.
“You went without me?”
“I wasn’t taking you to an unknown drop location after somebody infiltrated your daughter’s bedroom.”
Mercer placed the envelope on the table.
“It was addressed to you.”
Maren opened it.
Inside was a key.
A photograph.
And a handwritten letter.
Her hands shook as she unfolded it.
Maren,
If you are reading this, they finally made a mistake.
I have wanted to come back for you every day for seven years.
I stayed away because Everett convinced me you and Elodie would die if I didn’t.
Yes, Elodie.
I know about her.
And before you believe anything Lenora tells you, there is one truth you need first.
Adrian is Elodie’s legal father.
But he may not be her biological father.
Maren dropped the page.
Adrian saw the sentence.
Neither of them spoke.
Elodie was coloring at the far side of the bed and didn’t notice.
Mercer quietly picked up the letter.
“There’s more.”
Maren couldn’t breathe.
“Read it.”
Mercer continued.
The accident that ended our child’s life did not end the pregnancy.
Everett lied to both of us.
You gave birth months later while under another identity.
I was told the baby died.
You were told you miscarried.
I have spent years trying to find what happened to that child.
Maren’s knees weakened.
“No.”
Mercer looked at the photograph included in the envelope.
Then handed it to Maren.
It showed a newborn.
A hospital band was visible.
BABY GIRL SHAW.
Date of birth:
Four years and eight months before Elodie was born.
Maren stared at it.
“That would make her almost nine.”
Adrian whispered,
“Where is she?”
Maren turned the letter over.
One final sentence was written on the back.
May you like
Her name is Iris.
And she has been living less than twenty miles from you.
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