Chapter 29: Adrian’s Confession
Adrian contacted me the next morning.
The call came through an encrypted video connection.
His face appeared on the screen.
He had a cut above his eyebrow.
A concrete wall stood behind him.
“You escaped,” I said.
“I was taken.”
“By Thomas?”
“By people working for him.”
“Why are you free now?”
“I’m not.”
He moved the camera.
A metal chain connected his ankle to the wall.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know Noah was not biologically yours?”
Adrian looked away.
“Answer me.”
“I knew there was a possibility.”
I stopped breathing.
“What did you do?”
“My mother took me to an Aster clinic before our wedding. She told me the family needed genetic material for future medical protection.”
“What material?”
“Blood. Tissue. Other samples.”
“You never asked why?”
“I believed her.”
“You always believed whatever protected your money.”
“Yes.”
The admission came without argument.
“After Noah was born,” Adrian continued, “Margaret told me there had been a complication. She said the trust rejected my genetic profile.”
“So she replaced you.”
“I think Thomas used another donor.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about the second baby?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“I saw him once.”
My anger turned to horror.
“When?”
“The night Noah was born.”
“You told me there was only one child.”
“My mother said the second infant belonged to another patient.”
“You knew he had my name on his bracelet?”
“I did not see the bracelet.”
“Where did they take him?”
“A doctor carried him through a private elevator.”
“Which doctor?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Judge Voss’s son.”
The custody judge had a son who worked as a neonatal surgeon.
He had died in a boating accident six months after Noah’s birth.
At least, that was the official record.
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because Thomas showed me what happens after the succession.”
“What happens?”
“He does not need you anymore.”
The screen shifted.
A door opened behind Adrian.
Jonathan Vale entered.
He was holding Noah’s white blanket.
“Adrian,” I said.
Vale struck him and took the phone.
His face filled the screen.
“The trustee is offering an exchange.”
“For Noah?”
“For the second child.”
“I don’t have him.”
“Not yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“You will.”
The camera turned.
A baby slept in a crib beside Adrian.
It was Nicholas.
The second infant from the photographs.
Alive.
Jonathan Vale looked back at me.
“Bring Claire Arden to the original Aster House tomorrow night.”
“Why Claire?”
“Thomas wants both daughters together.”
“And if I refuse?”
Vale placed one hand on the crib.
Adrian lunged against the chain.
The video ended.
Claire had been standing behind me.
“You are not going,” I told her.
“Yes, I am.”
“He will kill you.”
“No.”
May you like
She looked at the blank screen.
“He needs us alive for something worse.”
