Chapter 10 - THE SECOND NAME
Hadrian read the handwritten label three times.
SORREL-2.
He did not understand it.
Sorrel was alive.
She was upstairs drawing a castle.
How could a cryogenic sample created before her birth carry a second version of her name?
Dr. Sethi examined the archive report remotely.
She looked equally confused.
“It may be internal shorthand.”
“For what?”
“Possibly a sibling embryo.”
“Then why use Sorrel’s name?”
“I do not know.”
Hadrian felt frustration rising.
Every answer created another question.
The archive transfer records contained partial metadata.
Embryo B-6 shared parental genetic markers with Hadrian and Eleanor.
The second sample was different.
Its maternal markers matched Eleanor.
Its paternal markers were encrypted.
Hadrian stared.
“That is not mine?”
Dr. Sethi hesitated.
“Not according to this summary.”
Julian looked disturbed.
“Did Eleanor use another donor?”
Hadrian immediately shook his head.
“No.”
He knew every conversation they had with Westbridge.
No donor sperm.
No donor eggs.
Their embryos were supposed to be genetically theirs.
Dr. Sethi continued.
“Or the data were altered.”
Hadrian preferred that explanation.
But he no longer trusted anything.
He asked a question he almost feared.
“Could Sorrel herself have been misidentified?”
Silence.
Dr. Sethi chose her words carefully.
“We would need testing.”
Hadrian looked toward the stairs.
He hated the idea of turning Sorrel into another source of evidence.
Yet if Project Orchard involved her birth, he needed truth.
A simple cheek swab was collected with Sorrel’s consent.
Hadrian explained only that doctors were checking old records.
Sorrel looked at the swab.
“Will it hurt?”
“No.”
“Then okay.”
Results would take twenty-four hours under emergency processing.
Meanwhile, Ortiz traced North Cedar Medical Logistics.
The company owned no trucks.
No warehouse.
No employees.
But it had leased one aircraft.
A Gulfstream registered through a Delaware corporation.
Flight records showed departure from Denver three days earlier.
Destination.
Quebec.
Then Iceland.
Then no public trail.
Sebastian was moving the biological material internationally.
Hadrian called every political contact he had.
Gideon contacted federal agencies.
International warrants expanded.
For the first time, the case became public beyond the custody scandal.
News outlets learned Sebastian Cross was alive.
Old photographs filled television screens.
The financial press erupted.
A supposedly dead billionaire had operated secretly for eight years.
Vale Meridian stock dropped another twelve percent.
The board panicked.
Malcolm Price requested Hadrian resign temporarily.
Hadrian refused.
“You want me gone because Sebastian needs me gone.”
Malcolm laughed.
“This conspiracy theory is destroying the company.”
Hadrian stared into the camera.
“Sebastian appeared on recorded video yesterday.”
Malcolm’s expression shifted.
Barely.
But Hadrian saw it.
“You knew.”
Malcolm scoffed.
“Knew what?”
“That he was alive.”
“This is absurd.”
Hadrian leaned closer.
“How long have you worked for him?”
Malcolm disconnected.
Two hours later, investigators searched Malcolm’s office.
They found nothing obvious.
But his assistant disappeared before police arrived.
At 4:00 p.m., Celeste was arrested.
Not for the full conspiracy.
Not yet.
For unlawful restraint, child endangerment, and evidence tampering.
Hadrian watched footage of her entering the courthouse.
She looked furious.
Reporters shouted.
“Did you chain Sorrel Vale?”
“Were you paid to seek guardianship?”
“Do you know Sebastian Cross?”
Celeste ignored them.
Her attorney requested bail.
Prosecutors presented the smartwatch recordings.
The judge set bail at five million dollars with electronic monitoring.
Someone paid it within forty minutes.
Hadrian stared at the transaction notice Gideon obtained.
“Who?”
“Anonymous trust.”
“Trace it.”
“They are.”
Celeste left custody before sunset.
Hadrian felt rage.
“She walks out after what she did.”
Gideon remained calm.
“Temporary release is not acquittal.”
“She should not be near anyone.”
“She is prohibited from contacting Sorrel.”
Hadrian looked at him.
“Celeste has ignored every rule that inconveniences her.”
Security around the yellow house doubled.
At 8:13 p.m., Celeste called Hadrian.
He almost rejected the call.
Ortiz stopped him.
“Answer.”
They recorded.
Hadrian put the phone on speaker.
“What?”
Celeste sounded different.
No arrogance.
No performance.
Fear.
“Hadrian.”
“You are violating your release conditions.”
“I’m not calling about Sorrel.”
“You are not supposed to contact me either.”
“Then hang up.”
Hadrian waited.
Celeste whispered.
“But if you do, Sebastian will kill me before morning.”
Ortiz motioned for him to keep her talking.
Hadrian’s voice remained cold.
“Why should I care?”
Celeste inhaled sharply.
“You shouldn’t.”
For the first time, she sounded honest.
“But I know where Marcus is.”
Hadrian glanced at Ortiz.
“Where?”
“Alive.”
“That was not my question.”
“I need protection.”
“You have police.”
“No.”
Her fear intensified.
“He owns police.”
“Who?”
“Sebastian.”
Hadrian thought of Julian’s vanished evidence years earlier.
Maybe she believed it.
Maybe it was another manipulation.
Celeste continued.
“I can give you the location.”
“Then give it.”
“Not until I am somewhere safe.”
Hadrian almost laughed.
“You chained my daughter.”
Celeste went silent.
“You told her I abandoned her.”
Silence.
“You withheld food.”
Nothing.
“You helped build a case to take her away from me.”
Celeste whispered.
“I know.”
Hadrian’s anger sharpened.
“No.”
“You do not get to say that like it was a clerical mistake.”
“I know what I did.”
“Then live with it.”
Celeste began crying.
Hadrian felt nothing.
“I did not know what Sebastian planned at first.”
“You knew enough.”
“I thought it was corporate leverage.”
“You abused a child for corporate leverage.”
“Yes.”
The admission silenced the room.
Celeste breathed shakily.
“I was supposed to make you look negligent.”
“I was supposed to make her dependent on me.”
“I was supposed to get guardianship.”
“And then?”
“Vote the shares.”
“And then?”
“I would be paid.”
“Twenty million.”
She went silent.
Hadrian knew the recording had been accurate.
Celeste whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why the chain?”
Celeste began crying harder.
Hadrian did not soften.
“Answer me.”
“She kept trying to leave the basement.”
“What basement?”
“The old wine storage room.”
Hadrian’s stomach turned.
“She was locked there?”
“Sometimes.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Ortiz touched his arm, reminding him to remain controlled.
Celeste continued.
“Marcus said fear would make her easier to manage.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted the money.”
Hadrian’s voice became almost inaudible.
“At least that answer is honest.”
Celeste sobbed.
“Then Sebastian came back.”
“When?”
“February.”
“That is when Marta confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“What did Sebastian want?”
“The archive.”
“Project Orchard.”
Celeste stopped breathing for a second.
“So you know.”
“What is SORREL-2?”
Silence.
Hadrian repeated.
“What is it?”
Celeste whispered.
“I don’t know everything.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
“Sebastian said Eleanor stole his future.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said Project Orchard created something no government would allow.”
Hadrian looked at Ortiz.
“Genetic editing?”
“Yes.”
“Of an embryo?”
“Yes.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
“B-6?”
“Maybe.”
Hadrian’s patience thinned.
“What is Sorrel-2?”
Celeste’s voice trembled.
“Marcus thought it was another embryo.”
“And Sebastian?”
“Sebastian laughed when Marcus said that.”
Hadrian felt cold.
“What did he say?”
Celeste hesitated.
“He said, ‘You still think Eleanor gave birth to only one child.’”
The room became silent.
Hadrian stared at the phone.
His mind rejected the sentence.
Eleanor had given birth to Sorrel.
He had been at the hospital.
He had held his daughter minutes after delivery.
There had been no second baby.
“That is impossible.”
“I know.”
“Eleanor carried one child.”
“I know.”
“What did Sebastian mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Celeste rushed on.
“But Marcus found medical records.”
“What records?”
“Westbridge.”
“What did they show?”
“I never saw them.”
“You are lying.”
“I’m not.”
Hadrian’s voice hardened.
“Where is Marcus?”
Celeste gave an address.
An abandoned lakeside clinic ninety miles north.
Ortiz immediately dispatched a tactical team.
Celeste whispered.
“Hadrian.”
“What?”
“You need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Marcus is not Sebastian’s prisoner.”
Hadrian frowned.
“He appeared tied to a chair.”
“I know.”
“Then what?”
Celeste’s breathing changed.
“He agreed to it.”
Hadrian stared.
“Why?”
“To make you bring the notebook.”
“That makes no sense.”
“He wanted Sebastian to believe he was loyal.”
“So Marcus is still working with him?”
“No.”
“Then who is he working for?”
Celeste gave a broken laugh.
“Himself.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Of course.
Celeste continued.
“Marcus planned to betray Sebastian.”
“He wanted the archive.”
“Why?”
“He believes whatever is inside is worth billions.”
Hadrian felt disgust.
Every adult in the conspiracy seemed to see Sorrel’s history as an asset to monetize.
Celeste whispered.
“And Hadrian?”
“What?”
“You asked why Sebastian wanted guardianship.”
“Yes.”
“It was not only to access the archive.”
Hadrian waited.
“He needed Sorrel’s DNA.”
“For what?”
Celeste began crying again.
“To find the other girl.”
Hadrian stopped breathing.
“What other girl?”
The line went dead.
Ortiz immediately tried to reconnect.
Nothing.
Hadrian stared at the phone.
Then his own phone received a security alert.
Celeste’s electronic ankle monitor had stopped transmitting.
Her location vanished.
At nearly the same moment, the front door opened.
Dr. Sethi entered carrying a sealed genetic report.
She had flown in personally because she refused to send the result electronically.
Hadrian knew from her face that something was wrong.
“What did the test show?”
Dr. Sethi looked at Sorrel upstairs.
Then at Hadrian.
“You are Sorrel’s biological father.”
Relief hit him first.
Then fear returned.
“And Eleanor?”
“She is Sorrel’s biological mother.”
Hadrian nodded.
“So the records were altered.”
“Some were.”
“What else?”
Dr. Sethi placed two reports side by side.
“We compared Sorrel’s genome to the surviving metadata from Archive 19-C.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“And?”
“Sorrel has a near-identical genetic match to the second sample.”
Hadrian frowned.
“Near-identical?”
Dr. Sethi swallowed.
“A sibling.”
Hadrian stared.
“What kind of sibling?”
Dr. Sethi answered carefully.
“An identical twin.”
The room went silent.
Hadrian shook his head.
“No.”
“I know what you remember.”
“There was one baby.”
“I understand.”
“I watched Sorrel being born.”
“Yes.”
“Eleanor had one pregnancy.”
Dr. Sethi looked at the report.
“The genetics do not lie.”
Hadrian felt the world tilt.
“If there was an identical twin…”
Dr. Sethi nodded.
“Then at some point very early in embryonic development, a single embryo divided.”
Hadrian stared.
“And according to the Westbridge metadata, both genetically identical embryos were viable.”
His voice barely worked.
“Where is the second child?”
Dr. Sethi looked at him.
“That is the question.”
Hadrian thought of Celeste’s last words.
To find the other girl.
Then Sorrel appeared on the stairs.
She had overheard enough to understand one word.
“Daddy?”
Hadrian turned.
Sorrel looked frightened.
May you like
“What is a twin?”
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