Chapter 9 - MARGARET'S LAST CONFESSIONThey found Margaret's car abandoned near the Potomac.
The driver's door was open.
Her purse was inside.
Her wedding ring was missing.
Emily collapsed against Robert.
“She wouldn't leave.”
Robert looked at the river.
“She didn't.”
A search team found a second phone beneath the passenger seat.
It contained one video.
Margaret appeared on screen.
She looked exhausted.
“Robert, if you're watching this, I'm already gone.”
Robert's eyes filled with anger.
“I lied to you.”
Margaret continued.
“I didn't know how to protect you.”
She revealed that Emily's biological father was not Adrian Cole.
It was another man.
A scientist named Thomas Hayes.
Robert's older brother.
Robert's face went pale.
His brother had died before Emily was born.
Or so he had believed.
Margaret admitted the truth.
Thomas had been part of Black River.
He had discovered that the project was being turned into a weapon.
He tried to expose it.
He disappeared.
Margaret was pregnant.
She gave birth to Emily.
Robert believed Emily was his because Margaret told him she was.
Thomas had been declared dead.
But he wasn't.
Margaret's message ended with one final sentence.
“Thomas is alive.”
Robert stared at the screen.
Emily whispered:
“My biological father is alive?”
Robert nodded.
Then the phone rang.
A man's voice came through.
“Hello, little girl.”
Emily froze.
Robert grabbed the phone.
“Who is this?”
The man laughed.
“Your brother's daughter.”
Robert recognized the voice.
Thomas.
His dead brother.
Robert sat down.
“You're alive.”
“I've been alive for twenty-eight years.”
“Where?”
“Close.”
“Why did you abandon her?”
“Because everyone I loved became a target.”
Robert's voice hardened.
“Then why come back now?”
Thomas answered:
“Because the system is awake.”
The call ended.
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Robert looked toward the Potomac.
Far across the river, a black SUV disappeared into traffic.
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