Chapter 10 - SAMUEL SAID THE EXPERIMENT WAS NEVER ABOUT DANIEL—THEN SOFIA FOUND HER OWN NAME ON A LIST OF CHILDREN WHO NEVER EXISTED
The sentence followed Sofia for hours.
Sofia was the child Meridian was designed to create.
Not Daniel.
Her.
She stood inside Charles Hawthorne’s study as morning sunlight spread across the floor.
Nothing about the room looked sinister.
Books.
Leather chairs.
Old photographs.
A dead man's desk.
Yet almost every terrible truth had somehow passed through it.
Daniel paced.
“Samuel is manipulating us.”
“Probably.”
“You don't sound convinced.”
“Because manipulators sometimes use truth.”
Daniel stopped.
Sofia continued.
“If we assume everything Samuel says is false, he controls us just as easily.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then we verify.”
Exactly.
They began with Meridian.
Adrian had surrendered.
Samuel had disappeared.
Elias remained hospitalized.
That left records.
The sealed west wing contained dozens of boxes.
Sofia and Daniel worked for hours.
Isabella joined them.
Margaret remained nearby.
Victoria arrived unexpectedly.
Daniel stiffened.
She raised her hands.
“I know I'm not welcome.”
Sofia looked at her.
“Why are you here?”
“Because my father kept records.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Victoria placed a USB drive on the table.
“I found it inside his apartment.”
“Before or after he escaped?”
“Before.”
“Why didn't you give it to police?”
Victoria looked ashamed.
“Because I wanted to know what was on it first.”
Sofia sighed.
“Of course.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know.”
They opened the drive.
Thousands of files.
Financial records.
Medical payments.
Surveillance.
Then:
MERIDIAN / GENERATION TWO.
Sofia’s stomach tightened.
The folder contained twenty-four names.
Except they were not names.
Codes.
M-01.
M-02.
M-03.
Through M-24.
Status:
TERMINATED.
FAILED.
NONVIABLE.
TRANSFERRED.
Then:
M-19 — LIVE BIRTH.
Sofia clicked.
Female.
Birth date matching hers.
Gestational carrier:
Isabella Ramirez.
Genetic mother:
Eleanor Hawthorne.
Genetic father:
K-7.
Sofia stared.
“There.”
Proof.
Elias was her biological father.
But then Daniel noticed something.
“Scroll.”
Below:
GENETIC PATERNITY: UNCONFIRMED.
Sofia frowned.
“How can it be unconfirmed?”
Isabella whispered:
“Because they never tested you.”
Victoria looked through another file.
“Why not?”
The answer appeared in a memo.
CHARLES HAWTHORNE ORDERED ALL POST-BIRTH GENETIC TESTING TERMINATED.
Sofia stared.
“Charles stopped them.”
Daniel nodded.
“Why?”
Another memo.
IF THE CHILD IS HEALTHY, HER PATERNITY IS IRRELEVANT.
Sofia felt unexpectedly moved.
Charles had participated in something terrible.
But after Sofia’s birth, he had drawn a line.
Too late.
But a line.
Then Victoria found another file.
“Guys.”
Everyone looked.
M-20.
Male.
Born six weeks after Sofia.
Sofia frowned.
“Another survivor.”
M-20 had no listed parents.
Status:
REMOVED FROM PROGRAM.
Sofia scrolled.
M-21.
Female.
Live birth.
M-22.
Male.
Live birth.
M-23.
Female.
Live birth.
M-24.
Male.
Live birth.
Six survivors.
Not three.
Samuel had lied.
Daniel stared.
“Where are they?”
The records had been erased.
But Victoria found payment trails.
California.
Texas.
Virginia.
New York.
Illinois.
And one—
Hawthorne Villa.
Sofia stared.
“One of them lived here?”
Daniel frowned.
“Who?”
They searched staff records.
Family records.
Guest logs.
Nothing.
Then Margaret spoke.
“There was a child.”
Everyone turned.
“What child?”
She looked terrified.
“Charles brought a boy here once.”
“When?”
“Twenty-five years ago.”
“How old?”
“Maybe four.”
Sofia frowned.
“That doesn't fit.”
“He wasn't Generation Two.”
“Then who?”
Margaret whispered:
“Samuel’s first child.”
Daniel stared.
“My brother?”
“Yes.”
Samuel had another son.
Older than Daniel.
Charles hid him at Hawthorne Villa for several months.
“Name?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Michael.”
Daniel looked at Sofia.
“Where is he now?”
“I don't know.”
Victoria suddenly went pale.
Sofia noticed.
“What?”
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“I know a Michael.”
“Who?”
“My father’s security chief.”
Silence.
Richard Ashford had employed the same man for twenty years.
Michael Kane.
They searched photographs.
Margaret saw him.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“That’s him.”
Daniel’s older half-brother had been working for Richard Ashford.
Sofia’s pulse accelerated.
“Find him.”
Marcus searched databases.
Michael Kane had vanished the same day Samuel disappeared.
Sofia stared at the screen.
Father and son.
Together?
Enemies?
Nobody knew.
Then another file opened automatically.
A video.
Richard Ashford appeared.
Recorded two years earlier.
“If Victoria finds this…”
Victoria froze.
“…then I failed.”
Her eyes filled.
Richard continued.
“Michael Kane has been lying to me for fifteen years.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“He says he works for me.”
Richard looked exhausted.
“He doesn't.”
Sofia whispered:
“Who does he work for?”
Richard answered from the screen.
“His father.”
Samuel.
Victoria stared.
Richard continued.
“Samuel never stopped Meridian.”
Silence.
“He simply moved it.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped.
“Where?”
The video changed.
A building appeared.
Modern.
White.
Beautiful.
A private pediatric research center.
Daniel recognized it.
“Hawthorne Children’s Institute.”
Sofia stared.
“Your charity hospital?”
“Yes.”
Richard continued.
“Samuel has been using Hawthorne money to fund Meridian for twenty years.”
Daniel went white.
“No.”
Victoria looked at him.
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
Sofia believed him.
Daniel had inherited the foundation.
He had not created it.
Richard’s recording continued.
“The children are hidden under legitimate treatment programs.”
Sofia felt sick.
“What children?”
The answer came.
“Children descended from Meridian subjects.”
Daniel sat down.
Samuel had spent decades tracking bloodlines.
Sofia.
Elias.
Daniel.
Possibly others.
Sofia whispered:
“He's still studying us.”
Richard continued.
“If Samuel discovers Sofia Ramirez is M-19, he will come for her.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Sofia stared.
“He already knows.”
Daniel stood.
“We're going to the institute.”
The Hawthorne Children’s Institute sat forty minutes outside the city.
Federal authorities met them.
Records were seized.
Doctors questioned.
Most knew nothing.
Then they found a restricted basement.
Biometric lock.
Daniel’s fingerprint opened it.
He stared.
“My access.”
Someone had used his executive credentials.
Inside were freezers.
Medical files.
DNA samples.
Thousands.
Sofia searched.
RAMIREZ, SOFIA.
Her file.
Blood samples collected every year.
She stared.
“How?”
Daniel opened the record.
Routine medical appointments.
School physicals.
Employment screenings.
Someone had tracked Sofia all her life.
Then she found another file.
HAWTHORNE, DANIEL.
Beside it:
ASHFORD, VICTORIA.
Victoria froze.
“Me?”
They had tracked her too.
Sofia opened the file.
Victoria was not Meridian-born.
But her DNA had been monitored.
Why?
Then Daniel found the answer.
A compatibility report.
VICTORIA ASHFORD + DANIEL HAWTHORNE.
Sofia’s stomach turned.
Samuel had evaluated them genetically.
Their planned marriage had not merely been Richard’s obsession.
Samuel had encouraged it.
Why?
Daniel opened the final page.
PROPOSED GENERATION THREE PAIRING.
Victoria stepped backward.
“Oh my God.”
Samuel wanted Daniel and Victoria to have a child.
Not knowing—or not caring—that Richard believed Daniel might be his son.
Sofia whispered:
“This wasn't about money.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
“It was breeding.”
The word made everyone sick.
Then a door opened behind them.
A young woman stood there.
Approximately twenty-four.
Dark hair.
Hospital gown.
Bare feet.
She stared at Sofia.
Then began crying.
“You came.”
Sofia froze.
“Who are you?”
The woman approached.
“My name is Claire.”
“Do I know you?”
“No.”
Claire looked at Sofia as if she had waited her entire life.
“But I know you.”
“How?”
Claire raised her sleeve.
A black star tattoo marked her wrist.
Sofia stared.
Claire whispered:
“I'm M-21.”
Another survivor.
Sofia stepped closer.
“Who are your parents?”
Claire’s expression changed.
“I don't know.”
Then she looked toward Daniel.
“But Samuel told me you do.”
Daniel frowned.
“Me?”
Claire nodded.
“He said if Sofia ever found me…”
She swallowed.
“…Daniel would have to tell her what happened to the other babies.”
Sofia slowly turned toward him.
Daniel stared back.
“I don't know what she's talking about.”
Claire looked confused.
Then terrified.
“You really don't remember?”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Remember what?”
Claire whispered:
“You were here.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I was twenty-five.”
“Yes.”
“I've never been in this basement.”
Claire began crying.
“Yes, you have.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“No.”
Claire pointed toward a security camera.
“Samuel kept the tapes.”
They found the archive.
One recording.
Twenty years earlier.
Daniel Hawthorne appeared on screen.
Twenty-five years old.
Standing beside Samuel Kane.
Daniel watched his younger self enter a room.
Inside were five children.
Samuel handed him a clipboard.
Young Daniel signed it.
Current Daniel whispered:
“I don't remember this.”
On the recording, Samuel asked:
“Do you authorize relocation?”
Young Daniel answered:
“Yes.”
Sofia stared at him.
Daniel went pale.
Then the screen displayed the destination.
TRANSFER FACILITY: BLACKWOOD.
Sofia frowned.
“What's Blackwood?”
Claire screamed.
“No!”
Everyone turned.
Claire backed away.
“You can't go there.”
Sofia approached.
“Why?”
Claire’s eyes filled with terror.
May you like
“Because that's where they sent the children who remembered.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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