Chapter 10 - WHAT MY FATHER LEFT BURIED
The house stood two hours north of Chicago.
Small.
Abandoned.
Hidden behind pine trees.
I had never seen it before.
Luka drove.
Emma slept in the back with Hannah and Evelyn.
Daniel rode with Detective Price.
Nobody trusted him.
Especially me.
Inside the house, everything had been preserved.
Books.
Photographs.
Medical journals.
A child's wooden rocking horse.
My rocking horse.
I recognized the chipped red paint.
Memories hit me.
Not clear memories.
Fragments.
My father carrying me.
A fireplace.
Luka as a boy.
I turned.
“You were here.”
He nodded.
“Many times.”
I found a photograph.
My father.
Luka.
Me.
I was three years old, sitting on Luka's shoulders.
“You knew me.”
“Yes.”
“And when you walked into the hospital—”
“I recognized you immediately.”
“Why pretend otherwise?”
“Because your father asked me to let you live without us.”
I looked down at the photograph.
“You kept watching anyway.”
“From a distance.”
“For eighteen years?”
“Yes.”
That should have frightened me.
Instead, somehow, it made me want to cry.
Price found the basement.
Behind a false wall was a laboratory.
Nothing sinister.
Just dusty equipment and rows of notebooks.
Then Evelyn found the safe.
Inside was a letter.
CLAIRE.
My hands shook as I opened it.
My father's handwriting.
My little Sparrow,
If you're reading this, the people I feared have found you.
Remember one thing before anything else.
You were never my experiment.
You were my daughter.
Everything I did was to give you a chance to grow up.
I started crying.
Luka looked away.
The letter continued.
There is one person I trust with your life.
Luka Moretti.
Not because of his name.
Despite it.
He knows what it means to survive something that powerful men intended to own.
If he comes back to you, it means I was right to trust him.
I looked at Luka.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
And stopped.
“What?”
Luka asked.
I handed him the letter.
His face changed.
Price read over his shoulder.
Samuel had written:
Victor believes Luka was the first successful M-17 child.
He is wrong.
There was another.
A child born before Luka.
A child whose existence Victor must never discover.
The name is recorded in File M-01.
Evelyn whispered, “My God.”
I looked around.
“Where's M-01?”
Daniel spoke from behind us.
“Victor has it.”
We turned.
May you like
He was holding Price's gun.
And pointing it directly at Luka.
