Chapter 6 - The Man Who Refused to Die
The study door opened.
Victor Harrow walked in.
Daniel had seen hundreds of photographs of his grandfather.
None had prepared him for seeing a dead man breathe.
Victor was thin, almost skeletal beneath an immaculate black suit. His white hair was neatly combed. A polished cane supported his left side, and a clear medical tube disappeared beneath his collar.
But his eyes were alive.
Sharp.
Cold.
Watching Claire’s newborn daughter.
Daniel immediately stepped between Victor and the wheelchair.
“Don’t look at her.”
Victor smiled.
“You have your mother’s temper.”
Michael moved forward.
“You shouldn’t be able to stand.”
Victor’s smile widened.
“And yet here I am.”
Margaret backed toward Rebecca.
“Victor, this was not our agreement.”
Rebecca turned.
“Agreement?”
Margaret’s face tightened.
“Rebecca—”
“What agreement?”
Victor closed the study door.
The lock clicked.
“Your mother has always been practical.”
Rebecca stared at Margaret.
“Mom?”
Margaret reached for her.
Rebecca stepped away.
“Don’t.”
“Please.”
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury a stranger and grieve you for eleven years.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“I did it to keep you alive.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Daniel glanced toward the hidden tunnel.
Footsteps were approaching.
Michael noticed too.
“We need another exit.”
Victor tapped his cane once.
The footsteps stopped.
“You won’t need one.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because the men downstairs answer to me.”
Claire tightened her arms around the baby.
Victor noticed.
“There she is.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You take another step toward my wife and I’ll forget how old you are.”
Victor studied him.
Then laughed softly.
“Michael, you raised a brave son.”
“I didn’t raise him.”
“No. Victoria did.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
Victor looked almost amused.
“Perhaps that explains why he survived.”
Claire’s voice cut through the room.
“What do you want with my daughter?”
Everyone went quiet.
Victor turned toward her.
Claire was pale from labor, her blonde hair damp against her face, but she met his gaze without flinching.
Victor approached slowly.
Daniel blocked him again.
Victor stopped.
“The child carries something my doctors have searched for nearly three decades to recover.”
“The marker,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“You’re not touching her.”
Victor smiled.
“I expected that response.”
“Then we understand each other.”
“No.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“You believe this is about taking something from your child.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“What else would it be?”
“Preserving what she represents.”
Michael laughed.
“You still call it preservation?”
Victor looked at him.
“You’re alive because of my research.”
“I’m alive despite it.”
“You would have died at twenty-four.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know exactly that.”
Samuel stepped into the study from the tunnel.
Evelyn followed.
Victor looked at Samuel.
“Dr. Vale.”
Samuel stopped.
“You remember me.”
“I remember everyone who betrayed me.”
Samuel’s face hardened.
“You experimented on your own family.”
Victor shrugged.
“History has never been advanced by timid people.”
Claire looked down at her baby.
The newborn stirred.
Claire kissed her forehead.
Victor watched.
“Beautiful.”
“Stop looking at her.”
Victor turned toward Daniel.
“You’re frightened because everyone has told you fragments.”
“Then give me the whole truth.”
Michael said sharply, “Daniel, don’t.”
Daniel looked at him.
“For twenty-eight years, everyone decided what I was allowed to know.”
He pointed toward Victor.
“Now he talks.”
Victor nodded approvingly.
“Finally.”
He walked behind the desk.
On the wall hung an enormous portrait of the Harrow family.
Daniel had seen it countless times.
Victor.
His wife Eleanor.
Victoria as a teenager.
And an empty landscape behind them.
Victor pressed the edge of the frame.
The portrait slid sideways.
A steel safe appeared.
Michael went pale.
“You kept it.”
Victor entered a code.
The safe opened.
Inside were files.
Dozens.
Each labeled with a name.
Victor removed three.
MICHAEL VALE.
ANNA HARROW.
DANIEL HARROW.
Rebecca stared at the second folder.
Victor placed it on the desk.
“Anna was the first success.”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“My name is Rebecca.”
“Your adopted name.”
“Rebecca is my name.”
Victor regarded her.
“As you wish.”
Margaret stepped closer to Rebecca.
Victor opened the folder.
Inside were infant photographs.
Medical records.
DNA reports.
Rebecca looked away.
Claire watched her sister’s face collapse.
“You knew?” Rebecca whispered to Margaret.
Margaret nodded.
“From the beginning.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“You stole me?”
“No.”
“Then how did I become your daughter?”
Margaret looked at Michael.
Michael lowered his head.
Rebecca saw it.
“You gave me to her?”
Michael whispered, “Yes.”
Rebecca recoiled.
“Why?”
Michael struggled for words.
Victor answered instead.
“Because Michael was afraid.”
Michael spun toward him.
“I was trying to save her.”
“From me.”
“Yes.”
Victor smiled.
“Yet here we are.”
Rebecca looked at Michael.
“You knew I was your daughter?”
Michael nodded.
Her face emptied.
“All this time?”
“No.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“And you didn’t come for me?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
Michael looked toward Victor.
“Because the moment I contacted you, he would know Anna survived.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“He already knew.”
“No.”
Victor interrupted.
“I suspected.”
Everyone turned.
“I did not confirm Anna’s identity until this morning.”
Rebecca froze.
“This morning?”
Victor nodded toward Daniel.
“Daniel confirmed it.”
Daniel stared.
“How?”
“The biometric authorization.”
“The one Victoria tricked me into signing?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s eyes moved to Rebecca.
“Daniel’s authorization unlocked the surviving genetic branch records. Anna’s identity appeared immediately.”
Rebecca looked sick.
“So Victoria exposed me.”
“No,” Michael said.
Victor smiled.
“Victoria tried to erase you again.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Victor opened Daniel’s file.
“The authorization your mother placed in front of you did not activate Project Continuity.”
Daniel stared.
“Rebecca found the record.”
“She found what Victoria wanted the system to show.”
Michael looked at Victor.
“What did she actually activate?”
Victor’s smile faded.
“A deletion protocol.”
Rebecca stopped breathing.
“She was destroying my records?”
“All of them.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
Victoria had lied.
Manipulated.
Locked Claire inside the bathroom.
But the pieces were changing.
“She was trying to protect Rebecca,” Claire whispered.
Victor nodded.
“And your daughter.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Then why did you say the authorization confirmed Anna?”
“Because Victoria failed.”
Victor pulled out another document.
“Someone reversed the deletion seven minutes after she initiated it.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Michael noticed.
“Margaret.”
Everyone looked at her.
Rebecca whispered, “Mom?”
Margaret said nothing.
Victor leaned back.
“Would you like to tell them?”
Rebecca stepped toward her mother.
“What did you do?”
Margaret looked at her.
“I couldn’t let Victoria erase everything.”
“Why?”
“Because those records are proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“What Victor did.”
Michael shook his head.
“You could have copied them.”
“I did.”
“Then why restore the originals?”
Margaret hesitated.
That hesitation changed the room.
Rebecca stared.
“Mom.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“I needed him to believe the project was still intact.”
“Why?”
“To get inside.”
“You were already inside.”
“Not here.”
Margaret looked toward Victor.
“His private facility.”
Victor’s expression sharpened.
Michael stepped forward.
“You found it?”
Margaret nodded.
“Where?”
She looked at Claire.
“County Regional.”
Claire went cold.
The warning message.
DON’T GO TO COUNTY REGIONAL.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Margaret continued.
“The hospital has a restricted underground wing.”
Samuel whispered, “No.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“What?”
Samuel stared at Victor.
“You rebuilt St. Matthew’s research unit.”
Victor didn’t answer.
Margaret did.
“Under County Regional.”
Claire pulled her baby closer.
“What’s there?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Children.”
Silence.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“What children?”
“Families who believed they were participating in rare-disease research.”
Claire covered her baby’s ear instinctively.
Margaret continued.
“Most never knew what samples were being collected.”
Michael looked at Victor.
“You said the program ended.”
Victor tapped his cane.
“The world changed. Medicine changed.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
Michael lunged.
Daniel caught him.
“Not yet.”
Michael struggled.
“He used children.”
Victor remained calm.
“I saved children.”
“You used them.”
“I developed therapies that hospitals now use without knowing where the research began.”
Claire stared at him.
“You think that makes it acceptable?”
Victor looked at her.
“I think morality is easiest for people who benefit from discoveries after someone else pays the price.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
“My daughter will never pay yours.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“That remains to be seen.”
Daniel moved.
Fast.
He grabbed Victor by the collar.
The cane hit the floor.
A medical alarm began beeping beneath Victor’s jacket.
Daniel didn’t care.
“You threaten my daughter again—”
“Daniel!”
Claire’s voice stopped him.
Not because she feared for Victor.
Because two armed men had appeared at the tunnel entrance.
Daniel released Victor.
The men raised their weapons.
Michael stepped in front of Rebecca.
Victor straightened his collar.
“You see? Emotion wastes time.”
Daniel stared at the guards.
“What now?”
Victor retrieved his cane.
“Now you listen.”
“To what?”
“The reason your daughter matters.”
“We already know.”
“No.”
Victor looked at Claire.
“You know she carries the marker.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know why it returned.”
Daniel frowned.
“Genetics.”
Victor shook his head.
“Not naturally.”
Claire felt cold.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn stepped toward Claire.
“Victor.”
He ignored her.
Claire looked at Evelyn.
“You know.”
Evelyn’s silence answered.
Daniel turned.
“What did you do?”
“I did nothing.”
“Then who did?”
Evelyn looked toward Samuel.
Samuel’s face went white.
“No.”
Daniel crossed the room.
“What?”
Samuel backed away.
“I didn’t know Claire was the patient.”
Claire stared.
“The patient?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“Three years ago, I was asked to consult on a fertility research protocol.”
Claire’s mouth went dry.
Daniel looked at her.
They had tried for a baby for almost two years.
Then Victoria recommended a fertility clinic.
Claire remembered the appointments.
The injections.
The embryo transfer.
“No.”
Daniel saw it too.
“Claire.”
She looked at Samuel.
“You worked at Bellweather Fertility?”
“Not directly.”
“You consulted.”
“Yes.”
Claire’s voice cracked.
“My embryo.”
Samuel looked devastated.
“I didn’t know your name.”
“What did you do to my baby?”
“Nothing to the baby.”
“What did you do?”
Samuel whispered, “The embryo was screened.”
Claire stared.
“For the marker?”
“Yes.”
Daniel lunged.
Michael stopped him this time.
Samuel raised both hands.
“I thought it was hereditary disease prevention.”
“Was the embryo altered?” Claire demanded.
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
Victor spoke behind them.
“Not altered.”
Claire looked at him.
Victor smiled.
“Selected.”
The word hit harder.
Daniel stared.
“You chose which embryo they implanted.”
Victor nodded.
“Of seven viable embryos, one carried the marker.”
Claire began crying silently.
Daniel looked at her.
All those months.
The clinic.
The waiting.
The phone call telling them they were pregnant.
It had never been random.
Victoria had known.
“Did my mother know?” Daniel asked.
Victor’s expression changed.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
“Victoria believed the clinic had destroyed the Continuity screening protocol years earlier.”
Claire stared.
“Then who selected our daughter?”
Victor looked toward Margaret.
Margaret stepped backward.
Rebecca saw it.
“Mom?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“Tell her.”
Rebecca’s voice trembled.
“Tell me what?”
Margaret looked at Claire.
“I was trying to save the embryos from Victor.”
Claire stared.
“That isn’t an answer.”
Margaret swallowed.
“I replaced the selection order.”
“With what?”
“The embryo the clinic originally ranked healthiest.”
Claire’s hand covered her mouth.
“The one carrying the marker.”
Margaret nodded.
“I didn’t know.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Everyone is innocent when the consequences arrive.”
Rebecca turned on him.
“Shut up.”
Victor looked amused.
Rebecca moved toward Margaret.
“You changed Claire’s medical treatment?”
“I was trying to stop Victor from choosing.”
“And instead you chose.”
Margaret began crying.
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Daniel knelt beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at him.
“For what?”
“My family.”
“This isn’t you.”
“It keeps becoming me.”
“No.”
Claire touched his face.
“This is happening to you too.”
Their daughter made a tiny sound.
Daniel looked down.
The anger in his face softened.
Claire whispered, “She is not a project.”
“No.”
“She is not a marker.”
“No.”
“She is ours.”
Daniel kissed her forehead.
“She’s ours.”
A phone rang.
Not Rebecca’s.
Not Daniel’s.
Victor’s.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
For the first time, the old man looked afraid.
Michael noticed.
“What?”
Victor ignored him.
The phone rang again.
Daniel stood.
“Who is it?”
Victor answered.
No one spoke.
Then a voice came through the speaker.
Female.
Calm.
“Father.”
Daniel froze.
He knew that voice.
Victor’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Victoria.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
Victor said, “Where are you?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“You really still think you’re asking the questions?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“What have you done?”
“I finished what I should have finished twenty-eight years ago.”
The lights flickered.
Every computer in the study turned on.
Files began disappearing from the screens.
Victor rushed toward the terminal.
“No.”
PROJECT CONTINUITY.
DELETING.
Victor slammed his hand against the keyboard.
“Stop!”
Michael stared.
Victoria’s voice continued through the phone.
“You wanted immortality.”
The progress bar climbed.
32%.
48%.
63%.
Victor looked genuinely terrified.
Margaret whispered, “She got into the master archive.”
Victor shouted into the phone.
“You don’t understand what you’re destroying!”
“I understand perfectly.”
82%.
Samuel watched.
“Once that reaches one hundred, every research identity link is gone.”
Rebecca stared.
“All the evidence?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. I copied it.”
Victor looked at her.
That was when everyone understood.
Victoria wasn’t destroying the evidence.
She was destroying Victor’s ability to find the children.
96%.
Victor turned toward the guards.
“Get the child.”
Daniel moved in front of Claire.
Michael stepped beside him.
Rebecca grabbed a heavy brass lamp.
Evelyn pulled Claire’s wheelchair backward.
The guards advanced.
99%.
The study doors suddenly slammed open.
Lauren stood there in her white wedding dress.
Blood stained one sleeve.
She was holding Victoria’s silver phone.
Daniel stared at his sister.
“Lauren?”
She looked directly at him.
Her face was terrified.
“Daniel, Mom told me to give you this.”
The screen showed a live video.
Victoria was tied to a chair.
Someone stood behind her.
Lauren pressed play.
Victoria looked into the camera.
“Daniel, if you’re seeing this, Victor was never the person in charge.”
The video shook.
A hand entered the frame.
Victoria looked upward.
Pure terror crossed her face.
Then she whispered a name.
Michael dropped to his knees.
May you like
Rebecca screamed.
And behind Lauren, someone Daniel had trusted his entire life stepped through the open door.
