Chapter 16 - THE BLOODY BAT WAS LEFT ON CHARLES HAWTHORNE’S DESK—THEN SOFIA NOTICED ONE DETAIL EVERYONE ELSE MISSED
Rain struck the enormous windows of Hawthorne Villa hard enough to sound like handfuls of gravel.
Sofia Ramirez stood inside Charles Hawthorne’s study with the silver baseball bat resting on the desk before her.
Blood darkened one edge.
Marcus’s security badge lay beside it.
And the television screen where Marcus had appeared only moments earlier had gone completely black.
Nobody spoke.
Daniel stood at Sofia’s right shoulder, still staring at the gold Hawthorne ring that had appeared on the mysterious hand in Marcus’s video.
Elias remained near the doorway.
Margaret sat in her black wheelchair.
Isabella held both hands against her mouth.
Claire looked terrified.
Victoria had become unnaturally quiet.
Outside, lightning illuminated the villa’s wet lawn and swimming pool—the same lawn where Sofia’s life had changed when she had stopped Victoria from striking Margaret months earlier.
Arthur Bell’s words still echoed in Sofia’s mind.
The first successful Eden subject has been standing beside you this entire time.
Then Marcus had contradicted him.
Arthur Bell isn't Director Gray.
Director Gray died thirty years ago.
And the person who replaced him is someone you already buried.
Sofia looked at the bat.
Something was wrong.
She stepped closer.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
“The blood.”
“What about it?”
Sofia leaned down.
It was too cleanly placed.
One narrow streak.
No spatter.
No fingerprints visible on the polished handle.
“This wasn't used to hit Marcus.”
Daniel frowned.
“How do you know?”
“I don't.”
Sofia looked at him.
“But if someone hit a man hard enough to leave this much blood, there should be impact spatter.”
Elias approached.
“So the blood was placed there.”
“Maybe.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“Why?”
Sofia looked at the bat.
“Because somebody wants us looking at it.”
She remembered the hollow handle.
The first key.
Then the second.
Sofia twisted the grip.
Nothing.
She tried again.
Click.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You found something?”
The bottom section detached.
Inside was a rolled piece of photographic film.
Not paper.
Film.
Daniel carefully removed it.
Elias found an old light box inside Charles’s study.
They placed the film across it.
A photograph emerged.
Twenty-seven years old.
A laboratory.
Six people.
Charles Hawthorne.
Richard Ashford.
Samuel Kane.
Adrian Vale—the real Adrian, not Michael impersonating him.
Luis Ramirez.
And a sixth figure.
A woman.
Her face was partially turned away.
But Margaret gasped.
“No.”
Sofia looked at her.
“Who is she?”
Margaret’s hands trembled.
“I don't know.”
“You recognized her.”
“No.”
“Margaret.”
The elderly woman looked at Isabella.
Then Sofia.
Finally she whispered:
“I recognize the dress.”
Sofia frowned.
“What dress?”
“The Eden nurses wore blue.”
The woman in the photograph wore white.
Margaret continued.
“White was reserved for directors.”
Daniel stared.
“So she was Director Gray?”
“No.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Director Gray was a man.”
“Then who was she?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“His wife.”
Silence.
Sofia looked back at the film.
“Name?”
Margaret whispered:
“Helena Gray.”
Daniel immediately searched the archive.
No Helena Gray.
No marriage record.
No employee file.
Nothing.
Elias looked toward Margaret.
“You knew her?”
“She came to Eden twice.”
“What did she do?”
Margaret swallowed.
“She selected subjects.”
Sofia’s stomach tightened.
“Selected?”
“For treatment.”
“Experiments.”
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
Elias stared at the photograph.
“Did she select me?”
Margaret began crying.
“Yes.”
Elias looked away.
Sofia stepped toward him.
He raised a hand.
“Not now.”
She respected it.
Daniel continued searching.
Then Victoria noticed something.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked.
She pointed toward Helena’s wrist.
A bracelet.
Victoria zoomed the scanned photograph.
Her face changed.
“I've seen that.”
“Where?”
Victoria looked at Sofia.
“My mother had one.”
Sofia stared.
Victoria’s mother, Catherine Ashford, had died when Victoria was eleven.
At least that was what Victoria had always believed.
Daniel frowned.
“Your mother knew Eden?”
“I don't know.”
Victoria’s voice shook.
“She had that exact bracelet.”
Margaret whispered:
“Catherine.”
Victoria turned.
“You knew my mother?”
Margaret immediately regretted speaking.
Sofia approached.
“Margaret.”
The old woman looked exhausted.
“Catherine Ashford worked at Eden.”
Victoria’s face went blank.
“No.”
“She wasn't a researcher.”
“What was she?”
“Legal counsel.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“My father told me she taught piano.”
Margaret nodded sadly.
“Richard lied.”
Victoria stared at the photograph again.
“Is Helena my mother?”
“No.”
Margaret answered quickly.
“Catherine and Helena were different women.”
“Then why the same bracelet?”
“Because it wasn't jewelry.”
Margaret touched the image.
“It was an access key.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“So Catherine had director-level access.”
“Yes.”
Victoria sat down.
Another parent.
Another lie.
Sofia understood the expression on her face because she had worn it too many times herself.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
Marcus.
Daniel answered immediately.
“Marcus?”
Static.
Then breathing.
“Sir…”
Daniel switched to speaker.
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Sofia looked at the blood on the bat.
“Marcus, is the blood yours?”
Silence.
“No.”
Everyone stared.
Sofia had been right.
“Whose?”
“I don't know.”
“What happened?”
Marcus breathed heavily.
“I was taken from the east corridor.”
“By whom?”
“A woman.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Sofia noticed.
“What woman?”
Marcus continued.
“Maybe sixty-five. Gray hair. Tall.”
Daniel looked at Margaret.
“Name?”
“She never gave one.”
Marcus coughed.
“She wore a bracelet.”
Victoria stood.
“What kind?”
“Silver.”
Sofia looked at the photograph.
Helena Gray’s bracelet.
Victoria whispered:
“She’s alive.”
Maybe.
Marcus continued.
“She said something.”
“What?”
“She said Sofia has seventy-two hours.”
Sofia’s pulse changed.
“For what?”
“To decide.”
“Decide what?”
Marcus’s breathing became shaky.
“Whether Eden dies…”
A sound interrupted him.
A door opening.
Marcus whispered:
“She’s coming.”
“Marcus!”
He continued quickly.
“She said if Sofia refuses—”
The line crackled.
“—Daniel becomes the replacement.”
The call ended.
Daniel stared at Sofia.
“Replacement for what?”
Nobody knew.
Then the computer screen activated by itself.
A countdown appeared.
71:59:58.
71:59:57.
71:59:56.
Beneath it:
EDEN SUCCESSION PROTOCOL.
PRIMARY CANDIDATE: SOFIA RAMIREZ.
SECONDARY CANDIDATE: DANIEL HAWTHORNE.
Sofia stared.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“I'm not inheriting another secret organization.”
Victoria almost laughed.
“This family really does have terrible estate planning.”
Sofia looked at her.
“Not helping.”
“Sorry.”
Daniel opened the succession file.
Encrypted.
One line accessible:
DIRECTOR GRAY AUTHORITY SHALL PASS TO THE FIRST STABLE DESCENDANT OF SUBJECT ZERO.
Sofia’s heart pounded.
“Subject Zero.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Daniel looked at her.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Margaret whispered:
“Director Gray’s first patient.”
“Name?”
She shook her head.
“I never knew.”
Sofia looked at the countdown.
“Then why am I the first candidate?”
Nobody answered.
Daniel suddenly understood.
“Because you're related to Subject Zero.”
Sofia felt cold.
Elias approached.
“If Sofia is related, then maybe I am.”
“Or Isabella.”
Daniel looked toward her mother.
Isabella shook her head.
“I don't know anything about Eden.”
Sofia studied her.
Then remembered Arthur Bell.
He had said the first successful Eden subject had been standing beside her.
Not necessarily at the moment he called.
Standing beside her throughout her life.
Someone she had buried.
Luis.
Sofia’s breath caught.
“Luis.”
Isabella looked at her.
“What?”
“Luis worked at Meridian.”
“Yes.”
“What if he wasn't just an employee?”
Elias frowned.
“What are you thinking?”
Sofia looked at Margaret.
“Was Luis part of Eden?”
Margaret did not answer.
Sofia knew.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Margaret.”
She began crying.
“Luis made me promise.”
Sofia’s voice hardened.
“Luis is dead.”
Margaret whispered:
“I know.”
“Then tell me.”
Margaret looked toward the rain.
“Luis Ramirez was Subject Zero.”
Silence.
Sofia’s heart stopped.
The man who had raised her.
Daniel’s supposed father at one point.
The gentle man who burned pancakes and cried at graduations.
Subject Zero.
Elias whispered:
“But Sofia isn't biologically related to Luis.”
Margaret looked at him.
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then why would Sofia inherit his authority?”
Margaret stared at Sofia.
“Because Eden didn't define descendants by blood.”
Sofia froze.
“What?”
“Subject Zero demanded one condition before cooperating.”
“What condition?”
“He said family wasn't biology.”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
That sounded exactly like Luis.
Margaret continued.
“He demanded that legal and chosen children count.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
Even decades earlier, Luis had somehow reached forward to protect her.
Daniel looked at the countdown.
“And secondary candidate?”
Margaret looked at him.
“Luis was your biological father according to the records they had then.”
“But those records were false.”
“Eden never corrected them.”
Daniel stared.
“So the system thinks both of us are Luis’s children.”
“Yes.”
The irony was almost unbearable.
A false family record and a real chosen relationship had converged.
Then Sofia’s phone buzzed.
A video message.
Marcus.
He appeared tied to a chair.
Behind him stood a woman.
Only her silhouette visible.
She spoke.
“Sofia Ramirez.”
Her voice was calm.
“You have seventy-two hours to claim Eden.”
Sofia stared.
“Or?”
The woman stepped into the light.
Victoria screamed.
Because she recognized her.
The woman looked older than the photographs.
But unmistakable.
Catherine Ashford.
Victoria’s supposedly dead mother.
Catherine smiled at her daughter through the camera.
“Hello, Victoria.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
Catherine continued.
“If Sofia refuses…”
She placed one hand on Marcus’s shoulder.
“…I will activate the person Eden was really designed to protect.”
Sofia’s pulse accelerated.
“Who?”
Catherine looked directly into the camera.
“The child nobody knows survived.”
Then the screen went black.
May you like
And upstairs, somewhere inside Hawthorne Villa, a baby began crying.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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