Chapter 18 - THE TRAITOR INSIDE
Nobody had seen anyone enter the bathroom.
No exterior window opened.
No camera showed movement.
The message appeared inside a house surrounded by law enforcement.
Hadrian understood the implication.
The threat came from someone already inside.
Ortiz locked down the property.
Every officer surrendered phones.
Every visitor was searched.
Security logs were reviewed.
Only twelve people had access to the upstairs floor.
Hadrian.
Eleanor.
Julian.
Dr. Cole.
Naomi.
Gideon.
Three officers.
Two federal agents.
One housekeeper assigned by the protective service.
Sorrel and Livia were excluded.
Hadrian trusted several names completely.
That worried Ortiz.
“Trust is how Celeste entered your life.”
Hadrian could not argue.
The lipstick tube was found in a waste bin.
Fingerprints wiped.
But DNA remained.
Saliva trace on the cap.
Analysis began.
While they waited, Hadrian moved the girls to a federal safe location.
Six was already elsewhere under a court-appointed medical guardian.
Victoria did not know exactly where.
At least they hoped.
Hadrian refused to separate Sorrel from him again.
Eleanor came too.
Naomi and Livia traveled separately.
The family scattered for safety.
That night, Hadrian and Eleanor finally had time alone.
Neither slept.
Eleanor stood beside the window.
“Do you hate me?”
Hadrian considered the question.
“Sometimes.”
She nodded.
“Fair.”
“I also love you.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“That is worse.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t deserve how easy that would make things.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“Nothing is easy.”
“No.”
“You survived.”
“Yes.”
“You also chose for me.”
“Yes.”
“You decided I could not know.”
“Yes.”
“You decided Sorrel could lose you.”
Eleanor cried silently.
“Yes.”
Hadrian did not comfort her immediately.
Some pain needed to be acknowledged before it could be softened.
Eleanor whispered.
“I thought every day about coming home.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Fear.”
Hadrian looked at her.
“I was terrified my father would punish you for seeing me.”
“So you sacrificed yourself.”
“And you.”
“And Sorrel.”
Eleanor nodded.
“That was wrong.”
Hadrian appreciated the words.
Not because they fixed anything.
Because she did not hide behind good intentions.
He moved closer.
“We rebuild slowly.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“If you want.”
“I do not know what I want yet.”
“Neither do I.”
That was honest enough.
At midnight, Ortiz called.
The DNA from the lipstick cap matched someone.
Hadrian’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Julian.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
No.
He remembered Eleanor’s warning.
Do not trust Julian completely.
Julian was located in another room.
He denied writing the message.
Ortiz searched him.
His bag contained a North Cedar access card.
Hadrian stared.
Julian went pale.
“That is not mine.”
“Of course.”
“I have never seen it.”
Hadrian’s anger rose.
“Did you make another deal?”
“No.”
“You made one before.”
“To protect Sorrel.”
“You lied to me for years.”
“I know.”
“You knew Eleanor lived.”
“For six months.”
“And now a threat appears with your DNA.”
Julian looked desperate.
“I did not write it.”
Ortiz interrupted.
“The DNA only proves you touched the lipstick.”
Julian frowned.
Then realization appeared.
“Sorrel.”
Hadrian’s expression changed.
“What?”
“She drew on my face yesterday.”
Sorrel had jokingly used Eleanor’s lipstick to mark Julian’s cheek while playing.
Everyone remembered.
Julian had opened the tube himself.
Someone later took it.
The DNA had been planted.
Someone wanted Julian blamed.
The North Cedar card could also have been planted.
Hadrian looked around.
The traitor was not Julian.
The traitor wanted them to turn on Julian.
Security footage showed one person entering Julian’s room without obvious cause.
Federal Agent Daniel Keene.
Keene had been assigned to the case after Crosshaven.
Ortiz investigated his background.
Nothing suspicious publicly.
Then Gideon found a financial connection.
Keene’s brother received consulting payments from a medical foundation linked to Victoria.
Keene disappeared from the safe facility seventeen minutes before Ortiz issued an arrest order.
The internal leak was identified.
But he had already transmitted location data.
Within an hour, the safe house was compromised.
Hadrian moved Sorrel again.
Eleanor separated from him intentionally.
“We cannot put both of us with her.”
Hadrian hated it.
But agreed.
Naomi and Livia moved to another protected location.
Six remained secret.
At 4:00 a.m., Keene was captured at a private airfield.
He carried three passports and half a million dollars in cash.
Under interrogation, he admitted feeding information to North Cedar for seven years.
He had helped bury Julian’s original complaint about Eleanor’s crash.
He had alerted Sebastian to the reopening investigation.
He had planted the bathroom threat.
He had also provided one critical piece of information.
Victoria was not in Monaco.
She was in the United States.
Hadrian leaned forward.
“Where?”
Keene refused.
Prosecutors offered a deal.
He still refused.
Then investigators showed him Sebastian’s pattern.
Malcolm dead.
Marcus shot.
Celeste hunted.
Anyone who became inconvenient was discarded.
Keene’s confidence cracked.
“She promised me extraction.”
Ortiz almost laughed.
“She abandoned you.”
Keene stared at the table.
Then he gave the location.
An estate outside Boston.
Hadrian knew it.
The Cross family’s original home.
Sold thirty years earlier.
Except apparently not.
Authorities surrounded the property.
Victoria was gone.
But someone else remained.
Sebastian.
They found him in the library.
No weapon.
No attempt to flee.
He sat beside the fireplace drinking tea.
Hadrian watched the arrest remotely.
Sebastian smiled at officers.
“You are late.”
He allowed handcuffs.
No resistance.
Hadrian felt uneasy.
Why surrender?
Sebastian was transferred to federal custody.
He requested one phone call.
To Hadrian.
Hadrian accepted.
“You finally lost.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You still think this is a game with a winner.”
“You are in custody.”
“Yes.”
“Victoria abandoned you.”
“Yes.”
“Project Orchard is exposed.”
“Yes.”
Hadrian frowned.
Sebastian sounded almost satisfied.
“What did you do?”
Sebastian stirred something off camera.
“The difference between Victoria and me is that she believes the research matters.”
“And you?”
“I learned long ago that information matters more.”
Hadrian felt cold.
“What information?”
“Every government wants what B-6 represents.”
“Every pharmaceutical company.”
“Every private defense contractor.”
“You exposed her existence.”
Hadrian’s stomach sank.
They had tried to keep Six anonymous.
But Crosshaven documents might have leaked.
Sebastian continued.
“Your press release exposed Project Orchard.”
“Your raids created records.”
“Your scientists created reports.”
“Now dozens of people know.”
Hadrian closed his eyes.
Sebastian smiled.
“You rescued her from me.”
“And introduced her to the world.”
The call ended.
Hadrian immediately contacted Ortiz.
She already knew.
A classified medical report had leaked.
Six’s abnormal cellular aging markers appeared on an encrypted marketplace.
No name.
But enough data to attract attention.
Victoria may have released it.
Or Sebastian.
Either way, the danger expanded.
This was no longer one family conspiracy.
Wealthy buyers had begun searching for the source.
Hadrian looked at Eleanor.
“We need to protect Six from everyone.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Including our own company.”
Hadrian frowned.
“What?”
Eleanor opened an old Vale Meridian subsidiary record.
A biotech investment.
Purchased three years earlier.
Approved by Marcus.
One minority investor was Malcolm Price.
The subsidiary had received Project Orchard-derived research without Hadrian’s knowledge.
Vale Meridian itself could be legally exposed.
Worse, executives inside the company might want Six.
Hadrian called an emergency board meeting.
He disclosed everything.
Several directors were horrified.
One resigned immediately.
Malcolm’s vacant seat remained.
Then Thomas Vane, the chairman emeritus, asked.
“Does the child’s genome create commercial value?”
Hadrian stared.
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
Thomas continued.
“I am speaking hypothetically.”
“No.”
Hadrian’s voice was cold.
“There is no hypothetical.”
“She is a human being.”
“Of course.”
“But if the research already exists—”
Hadrian disconnected him from the meeting.
“Anyone else?”
Silence.
Hadrian made a decision that stunned the board.
Vale Meridian would divest every Project Orchard-linked biotech asset.
All patents would be transferred into an independent public-interest trust.
No proprietary claim would be made over Six’s genome.
Shareholders would lose billions in potential upside.
Hadrian did not care.
Malcolm’s allied directors threatened litigation.
Hadrian accepted.
Sorrel’s thirty-one percent became decisive.
Julian, as trustee, could vote it.
Hadrian looked at him.
Julian hesitated.
Then voted with Hadrian.
The divestment passed.
For the first time, Sorrel’s trust was used not to seize power.
But to prevent anyone from owning another child’s body.
The next morning, Sebastian appeared in federal court.
He pleaded not guilty.
Reporters packed the steps.
Celeste entered through a side door to testify before the grand jury.
Marcus was moved under armed guard.
Eleanor’s survival became public.
The world exploded with headlines.
Then Victoria made her move.
At 11:17 a.m., every major news network received a video.
Victoria sat against a white background.
She looked calm.
“I created Project Orchard.”
“I will not apologize for trying to cure disease.”
She framed herself as a visionary.
She accused governments of suppressing innovation.
She claimed Eleanor stole research.
She claimed Hadrian destroyed treatments that could save millions.
Public opinion divided almost instantly.
Some called Victoria a monster.
Others called her a persecuted scientist.
Investors offered money.
Activists defended the children.
Conspiracy theories spread.
Six’s existence became the center of international obsession.
Then Victoria said one final thing.
“The world deserves to know whether the treatment works.”
Hadrian’s blood chilled.
“And in seventy-two hours, it will.”
The video ended.
Dr. Sethi stared at the screen.
“What does that mean?”
Eleanor went pale.
“I know.”
Hadrian turned.
“What?”
Eleanor whispered.
“Victoria built a second trial.”
Hadrian’s stomach tightened.
“On whom?”
Eleanor looked at him.
May you like
“Children.”
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