Chapter 5 - Michael Knew Why Ava Was Tracked
Mark stepped between Michael and Rebecca.
“Don’t look at my daughter.”
Michael stopped.
“I’m not here for her.”
“You came into my house uninvited.”
“The door was open.”
Claire looked toward Eleanor.
She had left it open during the chaos.
Michael continued.
“I came because the tracker activated.”
Rebecca tightened her hold on Ava.
“You put it there?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know?”
Michael reached into his coat slowly.
Mark tensed.
Michael removed a phone.
On the screen was a map.
A blinking dot.
This house.
Claire stared.
“You’re monitoring the same tracker.”
“Yes.”
Mark’s voice hardened.
“Why?”
Michael looked at Eleanor.
“Because I’ve been tracking the people who use that hardware for three years.”
Eleanor whispered, “Who?”
Michael stared at her.
“Thomas’s company.”
Silence.
Mark frowned.
“Dad’s company was dissolved.”
“No.”
Michael shook his head.
“It changed names.”
Thomas Vance had operated a private medical logistics firm.
After his death, several divisions were sold.
One became Meridian Pediatric Research.
Rebecca knew the name.
Her hospital used Meridian for specialized newborn screening.
Her stomach dropped.
“They had access to Ava.”
Michael nodded.
“Exactly.”
Mark looked sick.
“You think they put the tracker on her at the hospital?”
“Probably.”
Rebecca nearly sat down.
Someone had handled Ava during routine newborn tests.
Wrapped her.
Returned her.
And hidden a tracker inside the blanket.
Michael continued.
“That is why I came.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“How do we know you’re Michael?”
He took out a sealed laboratory report.
Sibling DNA comparison.
The test had been run using Mark’s publicly stored sample from an ancestry service.
Mark stared at him.
“You stole my DNA?”
Michael almost smiled.
“Technically you gave it to the internet.”
Despite everything, Claire snorted.
Nobody else did.
The report showed a near-certain identical sibling relationship.
Mark read it twice.
Then looked up.
“Where were you?”
Michael’s expression changed.
“Everywhere Thomas sent me.”
The answer landed badly.
Eleanor cried.
Michael ignored her.
He had been raised under another name by a family connected to Thomas’s company.
At eighteen, he discovered irregularities in his adoption.
At twenty-one, he learned the name Eleanor Hale.
At twenty-three, he found Thomas’s records.
“And you never contacted us?”
“I did.”
Mark stared.
“When?”
Michael looked at Eleanor.
“Two years ago.”
Eleanor went still.
Mark turned.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“I sent letters.”
“I never received them.”
“Someone did.”
Claire asked, “Who had access to Eleanor’s mail?”
Mark answered automatically.
“Her assistant.”
Everyone froze.
Eleanor’s longtime assistant was Patricia Sloan.
She had worked for Thomas first.
Then Eleanor.
Rebecca remembered Patricia visiting the hospital the day after Ava was born.
She had brought flowers.
And held the baby.
Michael looked at the tracker.
“Patricia works for Meridian.”
Mark stared.
“No.”
“She always has.”
Then Rebecca’s phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived from an unknown number.
It showed Ava in the hospital nursery.
Taken through glass.
Below it:
THE SECOND GENERATION COMPLETES THE CLAIM.
Rebecca felt the blood leave her face.
Michael looked at the message.
His expression hardened.
“They don’t need Mark and me anymore.”
Mark understood.
“Why?”
May you like
Michael looked at Ava.
“Because Ava is the next branch.”
