Chapter 12 - THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN DOOR
Hadrian did not take Sorrel to Pennsylvania.
He wanted to.
Part of him believed the sisters should meet immediately.
Ortiz stopped him.
“If Sebastian accessed Livia’s record, we assume surveillance.”
Hadrian hated the logic.
But he accepted it.
Sorrel remained at the yellow house with Dr. Cole, Julian, and six officers.
Hadrian traveled with Ortiz and federal agents.
The town outside Lancaster looked painfully ordinary.
Tree-lined streets.
Small porches.
Bicycles in yards.
A bakery beside a pharmacy.
Nothing suggested an international conspiracy had reached it.
Naomi Grant’s house had a green front door.
Hadrian saw a child’s chalk drawings on the walkway.
A sun.
A cat.
A crooked rainbow.
His chest tightened.
One of his daughters had drawn those.
Ortiz approached first.
She knocked.
No answer.
She knocked again.
“Ms. Grant?”
Silence.
An agent checked the rear.
The back door was unlocked.
Ortiz entered with weapon drawn.
Hadrian waited outside despite wanting to run in.
Seconds became minutes.
Then Ortiz emerged.
Her face told him enough.
“They are gone.”
Hadrian pushed past.
The house was not ransacked.
Breakfast dishes remained in the sink.
A school backpack sat by the stairs.
A half-finished glass of orange juice stood on the table.
Hadrian looked at the refrigerator.
A photograph was held beneath a magnet.
Naomi.
A dark-haired girl.
Livia.
Hadrian walked closer.
His breath stopped.
Livia had Sorrel’s eyes.
Sorrel’s chin.
The same small crease beside her mouth.
If the hair were styled differently, Hadrian might mistake them.
He touched the photograph.
His hand trembled.
Ortiz found a neighbor.
Mrs. Parker had seen Naomi and Livia leave at approximately 7:10 the previous morning.
“Were they alone?”
“A man picked them up.”
Hadrian felt cold.
“What man?”
“Older.”
“White hair?”
Mrs. Parker thought.
“No.”
“Scar near his ear?”
She shook her head.
“He wore a baseball cap.”
“What car?”
“Blue SUV.”
“Did Naomi seem frightened?”
“No.”
“She hugged him.”
Hadrian frowned.
Naomi knew the man.
Security camera footage from a nearby pharmacy captured the vehicle.
The driver turned enough to reveal his face.
Hadrian stared.
Marcus Redd.
Ortiz swore.
Marcus had found Livia.
Not Sebastian.
At least not yet.
Hadrian’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Ortiz nodded for him to answer.
“Hello?”
Marcus spoke.
“Hadrian.”
Hadrian’s hand tightened.
“Where is my daughter?”
Silence.
Then Marcus laughed softly.
“You figured that out quickly.”
“Where is Livia?”
“She is safe.”
“If you touch her—”
“I am trying to keep her alive.”
Hadrian stopped.
Marcus continued.
“Sebastian knows the hospital match.”
“We know.”
“Then you know he is coming.”
“Why did Naomi go with you?”
“Because Naomi knows me.”
Hadrian looked at the photograph.
“How?”
“I placed Livia with her.”
Hadrian froze.
“What?”
“Dr. Bell arranged the legal paperwork.”
“I handled the money.”
“Why?”
“Sebastian ordered it.”
“You knew all along.”
“Not everything.”
Marcus’s voice sounded tired.
“I knew there were two children.”
“I did not know Eleanor was unaware.”
Hadrian’s anger rose.
“You stole my daughter.”
“I was twenty-nine.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Marcus exhaled.
“It is an excuse.”
Hadrian said nothing.
Marcus continued.
“Naomi was a nurse.”
“Her husband had died.”
“She wanted a child.”
“Sebastian offered security.”
“She believed Livia’s biological parents had consented to a private adoption.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Naomi may have been innocent too.
“Where are they?”
“I need something first.”
“Of course.”
Marcus almost laughed.
“You sound like Eleanor.”
The name sharpened Hadrian’s anger.
“Do not talk about her.”
“I loved her too.”
“You helped murder her.”
“No.”
Hadrian froze.
Marcus continued.
“I helped hide what Sebastian did after.”
“That makes you innocent?”
“No.”
“I have never claimed innocence.”
“Then why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
At least Marcus understood that.
“But Sebastian wants the girls.”
“Why both?”
“Project Orchard.”
“I know about it.”
“You know the beginning.”
“What is the end?”
Marcus became quiet.
“B-6.”
“The edited embryo.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to it?”
“Sebastian believed it failed.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
Hadrian stared.
“What does that mean?”
“Eleanor discovered B-6 was viable.”
“Was it implanted?”
“No.”
“Then why does Sebastian need Sorrel and Livia?”
“To prove something.”
“What?”
Marcus paused.
“That the editing worked.”
Hadrian frowned.
“They were not edited.”
“No.”
“Then how?”
“Their unedited genome is the baseline.”
Hadrian remembered scientific terminology.
Control subjects.
Comparison.
Sebastian needed both twins to compare against B-6.
“What is B-6 now?”
Marcus did not answer.
Hadrian felt a sudden chill.
“It is not still an embryo.”
Silence.
“Marcus.”
“No.”
Hadrian’s heartbeat changed.
“Someone implanted it.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Hadrian stood completely still.
Another child.
A third child genetically connected to Hadrian and Eleanor.
But edited.
“Who carried it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is the child?”
“That is what Sebastian is trying to find.”
Hadrian’s mind reeled.
“Why does he not know?”
“Eleanor switched the records.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Of course she did.
“She moved B-6.”
“Yes.”
“She hid the identity.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did the archive contain B-6?”
“Decoy.”
Hadrian stared.
The preserved sample labeled B-6 had not necessarily been the original.
Eleanor had created false trails.
“So Sebastian stole the wrong archive.”
“Exactly.”
Hadrian almost laughed.
Even years after her death, Eleanor was still fighting her father.
Marcus continued.
“Sebastian thinks Sorrel and Livia can lead him to B-6 through genetic databases.”
“That is why he needed Sorrel’s DNA.”
“Yes.”
“And now he has Livia’s hospital profile.”
“Yes.”
Hadrian’s voice hardened.
“Bring her back.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because Sebastian has someone inside federal law enforcement.”
Ortiz’s expression changed.
Marcus continued.
“If I tell you where we are, he may know within minutes.”
“Then why call?”
“Because Naomi found something.”
Hadrian looked at Livia’s photograph.
“What?”
“When Livia was adopted, a packet came with her.”
“From whom?”
“No name.”
“What was inside?”
“A letter for her biological father.”
Hadrian froze.
“From Eleanor?”
“Yes.”
His throat tightened.
“What does it say?”
“Naomi never opened it.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because she gave it to me five minutes ago.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
“Read it.”
Marcus hesitated.
“It is addressed to you.”
“Read it.”
Paper rustled.
Then Marcus spoke Eleanor’s words.
“Hadrian, if you receive this, then I failed to bring Livia home myself.”
Hadrian’s eyes burned.
“I discovered what my father did.”
“I discovered Sorrel had a twin.”
“I know you will hate me for not telling you immediately.”
“I needed proof before I destroyed another family.”
Hadrian understood.
Naomi had raised Livia for years.
Eleanor had not wanted to tear a child away without certainty.
Marcus continued.
“Naomi Grant did not steal our daughter.”
“She was deceived.”
“Please remember that.”
Hadrian looked at Naomi’s photograph.
“I intended to tell you on October ninth.”
His breath stopped.
The day she died.
Marcus’s voice grew quieter.
“If I do not make it home, protect both girls.”
“And find B-6 before my father does.”
Marcus paused.
Then read the final line.
“Because B-6 is not only our child.”
Hadrian frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus continued.
“It is evidence of what he did to dozens of families.”
Silence.
Project Orchard was larger than the Vale family.
Dozens of families.
Possibly dozens of children.
Marcus folded the letter.
Hadrian spoke.
“Where are Naomi and Livia?”
Marcus hesitated.
Then a girl’s voice sounded faintly in the background.
“Mom?”
Hadrian’s heart stopped.
Livia.
His daughter.
He had never heard her voice.
It sounded almost exactly like Sorrel’s.
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Marcus whispered.
“We are moving.”
Then a loud crash erupted.
Naomi screamed.
Marcus shouted.
The call became chaos.
Hadrian heard tires.
Glass breaking.
A gunshot.
Then Livia screamed.
“Mommy!”
The line went dead.
Hadrian shouted Marcus’s name into the phone.
Nothing.
Ortiz began tracing.
Hadrian stood in the green-doored house while the first sound he had ever heard from his second daughter replayed in his mind.
Mommy.
Then the trace returned.
Marcus’s phone had last transmitted from a highway thirty miles west.
Police units raced there.
Twenty-three minutes later, they found the blue SUV.
It had crashed into a barrier.
Blood covered the driver’s door.
Naomi’s purse lay in the road.
Marcus was gone.
Naomi was gone.
Livia was gone.
But on the back seat, investigators found one thing.
A child’s friendship bracelet.
Plastic letters spelled one name.
LIVIA.
Beside it was a black card bearing a silver cedar tree.
North Cedar.
May you like
Sebastian had found them.
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