CHAPTER 12 — ST. AGNES
Grace refused to believe Claire was dead.
The injection could have been a sedative.
Margaret could have been protecting her.
Or killing her.
In their family, the difference had become impossible to recognize.
Naomi entered the command center with Clara and Lydia.
She checked Silas’s pulse.
“Alive.”
“Why?” Grace demanded. “Daniel shot him.”
“He wears an internal ballistic plate.”
Silas laughed weakly.
“I told you. My family plans for everything.”
Ethan kicked the weapon away from him.
Daniel remained trapped at the console while the succession protocol transferred more of the network into his identity.
Seventy-two percent.
“Can you disconnect him?” Grace asked.
Naomi examined the restraints.
“The system is using his pulse and blood flow as continuous confirmation. If we remove him incorrectly, the network may execute every pending command.”
Daniel looked at the screens.
“Go to Claire. I will slow the transfer.”
“How?” Clara asked.
“By refusing the cognitive authentication.”
The system displayed questions only Daniel could answer.
Names.
Dates.
Locations.
He intentionally responded incorrectly.
The transfer slowed.
Grace looked at him.
“Silas designed this for you.”
“He always wanted a successor who hated him enough to understand him.”
Ethan gathered weapons.
“I’m going to St. Agnes.”
Grace followed.
Clara blocked her path.
“You cannot walk into another trap.”
“Claire needs us.”
“So did every person we left behind.”
Grace stared at her.
Clara continued.
“Silas is alive. Daniel is trapped. Hundreds of witnesses remain exposed. We divide.”
Naomi nodded.
“Clara and I will remain here. Lydia will take Daniel’s place if we find a way to transfer the biometric lock.”
Lydia looked at her twin.
“You want me attached to Silas’s network?”
“I want someone inside it who will not use it.”
Lydia laughed bitterly.
“You have known me your entire life and still believe that?”
Naomi’s face softened.
“I believe you are tired.”
That seemed to affect Lydia more than any accusation.
Grace and Ethan left through the executive helipad.
Margaret’s private helicopter remained fueled.
Ethan took the controls.
“You can fly this?”
“My father believed heirs should be useful.”
“Silas?”
“Both fathers.”
The helicopter lifted over Manhattan.
Grace sat beside him, holding Evelyn’s letter.
Below them, police surrounded Holloway Tower.
News vans filled the streets.
The war was becoming public.
“After tonight, there is no company,” Grace said.
“There should never have been one.”
“Will you release the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it implicates you?”
“Yes.”
Grace looked at him.
His face was bruised and exhausted.
For years, she had loved this man.
That love did not disappear simply because the truth made it forbidden.
It remained like an injury.
Alive.
Painful.
Impossible to use.
“What happens to us?” Ethan asked.
Grace looked away.
“We were built on a crime.”
“That does not mean every moment was false.”
“No. That makes it worse.”
Ethan’s hands tightened on the controls.
“I loved you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Grace’s voice broke.
“And I wish you hadn’t.”
They landed on the roof of St. Agnes Medical Center.
The restricted ward occupied the abandoned eastern wing.
Hospital records showed the floor had been closed for renovation for six years.
Yet electricity flowed behind the doors.
Ethan disabled the lock.
They entered.
Medical rooms lined the corridor.
Some contained empty beds.
Others held equipment labeled with Holloway research codes.
Grace discovered photographs of Claire at different ages.
Twelve.
Sixteen.
Twenty.
Twenty-eight.
She had been studied for most of her life.
At the end of the hallway, they found Margaret.
She sat beside Claire’s bed.
Claire was unconscious but breathing.
Grace rushed to her.
“What did you inject?”
“A neural suppressant.”
“Why?”
“The succession protocol was using her brain activity as a secondary server.”
Margaret removed the IV connection.
“I had to disconnect her before Daniel’s transfer completed.”
Ethan stood near the door.
“You knew about Claire.”
“I helped hide her here.”
“You told Silas she was dead.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Margaret looked at him.
“Because Evelyn begged me to save one child.”
“Which child?”
“All of you.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“You have an unusual definition of saving.”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I knew you and Grace shared a mother before your wedding. I tried to stop it.”
“You attended.”
“Silas threatened to expose Claire and kill Clara.”
“So you let us marry.”
“I believed I could annul it quietly afterward.”
“You forged the divorce.”
“Yes.”
Grace looked at Margaret.
“Why did you continue letting us live as husband and wife after the legal dissolution?”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
“I was a coward.”
It was the first explanation that sounded true.
Claire stirred.
Her eyes opened.
“Grace?”
Grace held her hand.
“I’m here.”
Claire looked toward the letter.
“You brought it.”
“Yes.”
“We need both blood samples.”
Grace pressed her thumb against a portable scanner.
Claire did the same.
The letter’s hidden code unfolded on the monitor.
The final section opened.
Instead of witness names, a video appeared.
Evelyn Mercer sat in front of a camera.
She looked ill but alert.
“My daughters,” she began. “If you are seeing this, then every lie I told has failed.”
Grace’s eyes filled with tears.
Evelyn continued.
“I created Claire using Grace’s genetic material because I feared Silas would take one child. I believed two identical daughters would confuse his biometric system.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I told myself it was protection. In truth, I created a human life to serve as a shield.”
Grace gripped Claire’s hand.
“I loved all my children, but I treated each of you as a piece on a board. Ethan became a sacrifice. Clara became an agent. Grace became bait. Claire became a key.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“I became what I hated.”
The video paused.
A new file appeared.
FINAL COMMAND: DESTROY NETWORK
Claire looked relieved.
“We can end it.”
She pressed the command.
Access denied.
A warning appeared.
FOUR HEIRS REQUIRED.
Grace understood.
“Ethan. Daniel. Claire. Me.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not Daniel.”
The screen displayed the four biometric profiles.
Grace Mercer.
Claire Mercer.
Ethan Holloway.
Clara Hayes.
All children of Evelyn.
Grace stared.
“Clara is Silas’s daughter.”
Margaret answered.
“No.”
“Daniel lied.”
“Daniel believed what Evelyn told him.”
“Then who is Clara’s father?”
Margaret looked toward Ethan.
“Your father.”
Ethan’s face changed.
“Silas?”
“No.”
Margaret whispered the name.
“Daniel Vale Senior.”
Grace remembered Daniel’s adoptive family.
Another generation.
Another hidden affair.
Claire looked at the screen.
“We need Clara.”
A shot shattered the hospital window.
Margaret fell forward.
Blood spread across her back.
Ethan dragged Grace and Claire to the floor.
A sniper laser swept through the room.
Margaret struggled to breathe.
“Service elevator,” she whispered. “Go.”
Grace pressed her hands against the wound.
“Come with us.”
Margaret looked at Ethan.
“I am sorry.”
He stared at the woman who raised him.
Then the second shot struck her.
Margaret died before Ethan could answer.
The lights failed.
An announcement echoed through the hospital.
SUCCESSION TRANSFER COMPLETE.
Daniel’s voice came through the speakers.
But it sounded calm.
Too calm.
“Grace, bring Claire back to the tower.”
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
Grace held Claire’s hand.
“That isn’t Daniel.”
The voice continued.
May you like
“I control the network now.”
“Come home.”
