Chapter 13 - THE PRICE OF TWO DAUGHTERS
Hadrian returned to the yellow house before dawn.
Sorrel was awake.
She sat on the stairs in pajamas.
Hadrian stopped.
She looked at his empty hands.
“You didn’t bring her.”
Hadrian’s heart broke.
“No.”
Sorrel looked down.
“Is she real?”
“Yes.”
“My sister?”
“Yes.”
“Does she look like me?”
Hadrian sat beside her.
He showed the photograph from Naomi’s refrigerator.
Sorrel stared.
Her eyes widened.
“She has my face.”
Hadrian almost smiled.
“Almost.”
Sorrel touched the screen.
“Her hair is longer.”
“Yes.”
“She has freckles.”
“You have two.”
“She has more.”
Hadrian nodded.
Sorrel looked at him.
“Is Sebastian hurting her?”
Hadrian hated that his seven-year-old knew enough to ask.
“I don’t know.”
Sorrel’s chin trembled.
“I want her to come home.”
“So do I.”
“Does she have to live with us?”
“No.”
Sorrel looked surprised.
“She has a mother who loves her.”
“Naomi?”
“Yes.”
Sorrel thought carefully.
“Then we can share.”
Hadrian swallowed.
“What do you mean?”
“She can have her mommy and us.”
The simplicity nearly destroyed him.
Adults had spent years fighting over ownership.
Shares.
Trusts.
Genetics.
Guardianship.
A seven-year-old understood something they did not.
Love did not require possession.
Hadrian kissed Sorrel’s forehead.
“We can share.”
At 8:00 a.m., Sebastian made contact.
A video appeared simultaneously on Hadrian’s phone, Julian’s phone, and Vale Meridian’s corporate server.
Sebastian sat in an elegant room.
No mask.
No distortion.
He no longer cared about being officially dead.
“Hadrian.”
His voice was exactly as Julian remembered.
“You have caused an extraordinary amount of inconvenience.”
Hadrian watched with Ortiz.
Sebastian continued.
“You always did mistake stubbornness for virtue.”
Hadrian almost heard the old man speaking across Eleanor’s dinner table.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Hadrian whispered.
“Eleanor’s notebook.”
Sebastian smiled in the video.
“I have something that belongs to you.”
The camera moved.
Naomi appeared tied to a chair.
Her lip was bleeding.
Beside her sat Livia.
Not tied.
But frightened.
Hadrian stopped breathing.
Seeing her move was different from seeing a photograph.
Livia blinked like Sorrel.
Tilted her head like Sorrel.
Held her hands exactly the way Sorrel did when nervous.
Hadrian had to force himself to focus.
Sebastian spoke.
“The notebook.”
“Schedule D.”
“All copies of Eleanor’s Project Orchard files.”
Hadrian muttered.
“You will get nothing.”
Sebastian smiled.
“You will reconsider.”
The camera moved closer to Livia.
She looked directly into it.
“Who are you?”
Sebastian asked.
She stared at him.
“Livia.”
“Who is Hadrian Vale?”
Livia shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Hadrian felt a strange pain.
Of course she did not know him.
Sebastian looked into the camera.
“Do you hear that, Hadrian?”
“She does not know you.”
“Do not mistake biology for parenthood.”
Hadrian thought of Naomi.
For once, Sebastian accidentally said something true.
Naomi was Livia’s mother in every way that mattered.
Hadrian did not intend to replace her.
He intended to save them both.
Sebastian continued.
“You have twelve hours.”
The video ended.
Ortiz immediately began analysis.
No visible windows.
No identifiable sound.
Furniture generic.
But Julian noticed a painting.
He stepped toward the screen.
“I know that room.”
Hadrian looked at him.
“Where?”
“My father owned a yacht.”
“You said most assets were sold.”
“The yacht was supposedly sold before he died.”
“Name?”
“Eidolon.”
Maritime records showed Eidolon had changed ownership four times.
Each owner traced through shell companies.
Current location unknown.
Coast Guard databases searched.
A yacht matching the profile had departed Newport three days earlier with its tracking beacon disabled.
Hadrian stared at the map.
Sebastian was at sea.
That explained why he felt protected.
But he still needed somewhere to transfer passengers.
Ortiz coordinated coastal searches.
Hadrian focused on the notebook.
Sebastian wanted it desperately.
Why?
They had already copied most pages.
Julian examined the binding.
One section appeared thicker.
He cut the stitching carefully.
A micro-SD card slid out.
Eleanor had hidden another layer.
The card contained financial ledgers.
Project Orchard participant names.
Clinic payments.
Surrogate contracts.
Children’s birth dates.
Hadrian stared.
Forty-three embryo cases.
Twelve unauthorized procedures.
Seven live births.
Four children currently living.
Three files marked DECEASED.
The scope was horrifying.
Sebastian had experimented on families who believed they were receiving ordinary fertility treatment.
B-6 was only one of several edited embryos.
Dr. Sethi examined the files.
“These are records of crimes spanning years.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“Can they prove Sebastian’s involvement?”
“Yes.”
His signature appeared on funding directives.
Voice memos.
Video conferences.
The notebook was not merely evidence of Eleanor’s murder.
It could expose an international illegal medical program.
Sebastian wanted every copy erased.
Hadrian made a decision.
“Release it.”
Gideon stared.
“What?”
“Not all private family data.”
Hadrian pointed at the criminal records.
“But enough.”
“To whom?”
“Federal prosecutors.”
“Medical regulators.”
“Three investigative journalists.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Distributed evidence is harder to destroy.”
Exactly.
Sebastian expected Hadrian to protect secrets.
Hadrian would do the opposite.
At noon, authorities publicly announced a criminal investigation into Project Orchard.
Sebastian’s image appeared worldwide.
North Cedar accounts were frozen.
Several former Westbridge executives were arrested.
Two clinics were raided.
Hadrian waited for Sebastian’s reaction.
It came at 12:17.
The old man called directly.
Hadrian answered.
“You stupid bastard.”
Sebastian’s calm was gone.
Hadrian almost smiled.
“Hello, Sebastian.”
“You released confidential genetic data.”
“I released evidence of crimes.”
“You destroyed decades of research.”
“You experimented on children.”
“You do not understand the science.”
“I understand consent.”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“Your wife sounded exactly like you.”
Hadrian’s rage sharpened.
“Do not say her name.”
“Eleanor was brilliant.”
“She was also sentimental.”
“You killed her.”
“I corrected a threat.”
Hadrian felt Ortiz watching him.
He kept his voice controlled.
“And now?”
“Now you have made negotiation difficult.”
“Good.”
Sebastian went silent.
Hadrian continued.
“You need me more than I need you.”
Sebastian laughed.
“I have your daughter.”
“You have Naomi Grant’s daughter.”
Silence.
Hadrian chose his words carefully.
“She is biologically mine.”
“But Naomi is her mother.”
“You expected me to become irrational because of blood.”
“You expected me to trade everything.”
“You misunderstood me.”
Sebastian’s voice turned cold.
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“I will save Livia.”
“I will save Naomi.”
“But I will not give you the evidence.”
“You are gambling with a child.”
“No.”
Hadrian looked at Ortiz.
“I am betting you need her alive.”
Sebastian did not answer.
That confirmed it.
He needed Livia’s genetic profile.
Maybe blood samples.
Maybe medical access.
But alive.
Hadrian continued.
“You cannot harm her without destroying your own objective.”
Sebastian whispered.
“You have become less stupid.”
The line disconnected.
Ortiz nodded.
“He revealed something.”
Hadrian knew.
“Livia is necessary.”
“Yes.”
“So we have time.”
“Some.”
At 2:40, coast guard surveillance found Eidolon.
The yacht was fifty-eight miles offshore.
Heading north.
A boarding operation began.
Hadrian watched the live tactical feed from a command room.
Helicopter.
Coast Guard cutter.
Armed team approaching.
The yacht ignored commands.
Then suddenly slowed.
Boarders entered.
Deck empty.
Cabins empty.
Engine room empty.
No Sebastian.
No Naomi.
No Livia.
Only a laptop in the salon.
The screen displayed a live video.
Sebastian smiled.
“Predictable.”
Hadrian stared.
The yacht had been a decoy.
The signal came from somewhere else.
Then Livia appeared behind him.
She held a drawing.
Two stick figures.
One labeled MOM.
One labeled ME.
Sebastian took the paper.
“You have a sister.”
Livia looked confused.
The old man placed a photograph of Sorrel beside her drawing.
Livia stared at Sorrel.
Hadrian saw shock on her face.
Sebastian spoke.
“Would you like to meet her?”
Livia nodded slowly.
Sebastian smiled into the camera.
“Then your father should cooperate.”
The feed ended.
Hadrian’s phone buzzed.
A new message.
TWO DAUGHTERS.
ONE CHOICE.
Then another file arrived.
A map coordinate.
Ortiz checked.
The location was inland.
An abandoned Cross pharmaceutical facility.
Hadrian frowned.
“Why give us the location?”
Ortiz looked equally suspicious.
Then Gideon’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
Hadrian asked.
Gideon lowered the phone.
“Emergency family court hearing.”
Hadrian stared.
“Now?”
“In one hour.”
“Requested by whom?”
Gideon looked almost disbelieving.
“Celeste.”
Hadrian’s anger returned.
“She violated monitoring and disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Why would the court hear her?”
“Because she filed evidence alleging you arranged Livia’s illegal adoption.”
Hadrian stared.
“What?”
Gideon held up the filing.
“Celeste claims you knew about the second child for seven years.”
“She claims you abandoned Livia intentionally.”
“And she is asking the court to remove Sorrel from your custody immediately.”
Hadrian looked at Ortiz.
Sebastian had given them a location at the exact moment Celeste launched another legal attack.
The conspiracy was not collapsing.
It was changing tactics.
Then Sorrel’s smartwatch suddenly activated.
No one had touched it.
A voice came through the speaker.
Live.
Celeste.
“Hadrian.”
Everyone froze.
The watch had somehow received an incoming audio connection.
Celeste whispered.
“I am inside the yellow house.”
Hadrian’s blood turned to ice.
He looked toward the upstairs hallway.
Sorrel was not beside him.
She had gone upstairs five minutes earlier.
Celeste continued.
May you like
“And if you want Sorrel to stay safe, do not send the police after me.”
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