Chapter 13 - THE LAST LAB
I don’t remember screaming.
I remember Ethan catching me before I hit the floor.
Then everything inside him changed.
Not louder.
Colder.
More focused.
Every rumor I had ever heard about Ethan Callahan suddenly made sense.
But he never once treated Sophie like property.
He treated her like a child who needed her father.
Michael pulled hospital monitors from his chest and tried to stand.
Ethan shoved him back.
“You’re not coming.”
“She’s my—”
“No.”
Michael stopped.
Then nodded.
Ethan looked at Gabriel.
“You know Harlow’s old routes.”
“Yes.”
“Find him.”
Within thirty minutes, Gabriel identified an abandoned pediatric research facility west of the city.
Federal agents wanted to wait.
Ethan didn’t.
Neither did I.
“You’re staying.”
“No.”
“Rachel.”
“She’s my daughter.”
His eyes closed.
Then:
“Stay behind me.”
The building was dark.
Too quiet.
We found Sophie in a medical room.
Awake.
Crying.
A nurse stood beside her.
Harlow stood near the window.
Older than his pictures.
Calm.
Almost offended.
“You don’t understand what I did.”
I moved toward Sophie.
He raised a syringe.
Ethan stopped.
Harlow looked at him.
“I was trying to save you.”
“You violated people.”
“I created possibilities.”
“You created victims.”
Harlow’s expression hardened.
“Your father wasted power. You waste it too.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“My daughter is not medicine.”
Harlow laughed.
“Daughter?”
He looked at me.
“She exists because I designed her.”
That was when I realized what men like Harlow never understood.
Making something possible did not make it yours.
I moved when Ethan distracted him.
The nurse backed away.
Gabriel came through the side door.
Harlow turned.
Ethan disarmed him.
No gunfire.
No dramatic execution.
Just federal agents entering seconds later and placing Harlow in cuffs.
I grabbed Sophie.
She screamed once.
Then recognized me.
Her whole body relaxed against my chest.
I started crying.
Ethan stood three feet away.
He didn’t reach for her.
He waited.
I looked at him.
“Come here.”
He did.
I placed Sophie in his arms.
She stared at him.
Then grabbed his collar.
Ethan broke.
Not loudly.
One tear.
Then another.
And in that ruined laboratory, the man Chicago feared held his daughter like she was the first thing in his life he was terrified to lose.
But Harlow laughed as agents pulled him away.
“You think this is over?”
Ethan looked up.
Harlow smiled.
“There’s another Callahan child.”
Silence.
“What?”
May you like
Harlow’s final words stopped everyone.
“Michael has a son.”
