Chương 13
"To ask Richard."
"At midnight?"
"He lies better when he's prepared."
Daniel reached for his crutch.
Claire stopped.
"You are not coming."
His face hardened instantly.
"This is about me."
"Exactly."
"Mom."
"No."
"You spent four years not telling me things because you thought you were protecting me."
The sentence landed with Evan's precision and none of his cruelty.
Claire looked away first.
Megan said quietly, "He's got you there."
"I hate this family."
"Also hereditary."
Claire almost smiled.
Then she called Richard.
He answered on the fourth ring.
"Claire?"
"I know about the six children."
Nothing.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Nothing.
She watched the diner's second hand move once around the clock.
"Where are you?"
he asked.
"Why?"
"Where is Daniel?"
That was enough.
Claire ended the call.
"Now we don't go to Richard."
Megan was already standing.
"Good."
"We go somewhere he can't control."
Samir said, "The hospital."
"No."
Claire looked through the diner window at the wet parking lot.
"Police."
Richard arrived before they made it out of the parking lot.
His Mercedes came in too fast, stopped crooked across two spaces, and remained running.
Megan said, "Of course he knows where you are."
Claire looked at her phone.
Family location sharing.
Richard had insisted on it after Evan died.
For emergencies.
She switched it off.
Richard stepped from the car without a coat.
For once, he did not look like the man who had spent his adult life entering rooms already certain they belonged to him.
He looked seventy.
"Claire."
"Stay there."
He stopped.
Daniel stood beside Megan, leaning on his crutch.
Richard's eyes found him immediately.
"You need to come with me."
Daniel said, "No."
Something in Richard's face collapsed.
Not anger.
Relief.
Claire had never been more afraid of him.
"Who is the boy in the photograph?"
Richard looked at the canvas bag.
"You opened Evan's things."
"Who is he?"
"Claire, this isn't a parking-lot conversation."
"You've had four years to pick a better one."
A truck rolled past on the highway, throwing water against the curb.
Richard wiped rain from his forehead.
"His name is Lucas Hale."
L.H.
Claire felt the initials arrange themselves.
"Who is R.M.?"
"Rebecca Mercer."
"The girl beside him?"
Richard nodded.
"Six children?"
"Yes."
"Were they in a Vale trial?"
"Not exactly."
Megan laughed without humor.
"Fantastic phrase."
Richard ignored her.
"Their mothers were."
Claire stared at him.
"The children weren't treated?"
"No."
"The mothers were?"
"During pregnancy."
Samir swore softly through the phone.
Richard heard him.
"Is that Malik?"
"Answer her," Samir said.
Richard's mouth tightened.
"The original therapy targeted an inherited immune deficiency."
"Did it work?"
Claire asked.
"The trial was terminated."
"That isn't what I asked."
"For the mothers, no."
"And the children?"
Richard looked at Daniel.
"That was the problem."
Daniel shifted his weight.
"What happened to them?"
"They were born without the deficiency."
Claire waited.
Richard continued reluctantly.
"And with an immune adaptation no one predicted."
"One that could be inherited?"
Samir asked.
Richard looked toward the phone.
"We didn't know."
"Evan did," Claire said.
Richard's silence confirmed it.
"Where does Daniel fit?"
"He doesn't."
Claire almost believed him.
Then Richard looked at Daniel again.
"He wasn't one of the six."
"Then why did Evan say he was one of the children?"
Richard's shoulders lowered.
"Because Evan discovered there weren't six."
Megan stopped moving.
"How many?"
"Seventeen that we could identify."
Claire's stomach turned.
"Seventeen children were experimented on?"
"No."
Richard snapped the word, then seemed ashamed of its force.
"The pregnancies occurred before anyone understood what the treatment had done."
"And after?"
Claire asked.
Richard did not answer.
That was the answer.
Megan stepped toward him.
"You kept going."
"I didn't."
"Vale did."
"I stopped the program."
"After how many?"
"Seventeen."
"Because you grew a conscience at seventeen?"
"Because one child died."
Silence spread between the cars.
Daniel stared at his grandfather.
Richard's voice became smaller.
"Lucas."
Claire looked down at the photograph.
The boy without Daniel's scar.
"What happened?"
"An autoimmune cascade."
"How old?"
"Nine."
Daniel's hand tightened around the crutch.
Richard looked at him and failed to hold his gaze.
"Evan found the death certificate."
Claire asked, "Was Daniel exposed?"
"No."
"Don't lie."
"I'm not."
"Then why was Evan afraid for him?"
Richard swallowed.
"Because you were."
Claire frowned.
"My pregnancy?"
"You participated in a Vale study."
"I gave blood."
"Yes."
"That's all."
"It was supposed to be."
The parking lot seemed to tilt beneath her.
Megan said, "Richard."
"There was a protocol contamination."
Claire laughed once.
She could not help it.
"Contamination."
"The study used stored viral vectors from the original program."
"On pregnant women?"
"They weren't supposed to."
"But they did."
Richard closed his eyes briefly.
"You were exposed."
Claire's hand went instinctively to Daniel's shoulder.
"Did Evan know?"
"Not until Daniel was eight."
"Then he tested him."
"Yes."
"And?"
Richard looked at his grandson.
"Daniel carries the adaptation."
Daniel's face emptied.
Claire pulled him against her.
He resisted for half a second and then let her.
"You knew," she said.
Richard nodded.
"Since when?"
"The night Evan died."
Megan stepped backward as if he had struck her.
"What happened in that garage?"
Richard looked at the diner windows.
People inside were beginning to watch.
"Not here."
Claire took out her phone.
"I'm calling the police."
"I think you should."
That stopped her.
Richard reached slowly into his pocket.
Megan moved in front of Daniel.
Richard produced a small black flash drive.
"Evan gave me this in the garage."
Claire did not take it.
"You said he accused you of taking something."
"He needed whoever was watching to believe I had."
"Who was watching?"
"Rebecca Mercer."
Claire looked at the photograph.
"The girl?"
"Her mother."
Richard shook his head.
"Rebecca was the girl."
"Then she was what, thirteen?"
"Fourteen in that photograph."
The false date.
The children had been older than Daniel when the image was taken.
"Rebecca grew up."
Richard looked exhausted.
May you like
"She became a molecular biologist."
Samir spoke.
