Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
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The words hit me like lightning.
“My mother is dead.”
“No.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“She survived.”
Adrian stared.
“What are you talking about?”
Rebecca held out a file.
Inside was a photograph.
My mother.
Older.
Alive.
Standing outside a rehabilitation facility in Maine.
I could barely breathe.
“She disappeared eighteen years ago,” I whispered.
“Because Eleanor threatened her.”
I looked at Eleanor.
“Is this true?”
She didn't answer.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Mother.”
Eleanor finally spoke.
“Your mother chose to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because she betrayed us.”
Rebecca laughed.
“She exposed you.”
I looked at her.
“Where is my mother?”
“Safe.”
“I want to see her.”
“You will.”
She handed my son to Adrian.
I almost screamed.
He held the baby carefully.
Rebecca said:
“Your mother asked me to protect him.”
I stared at Adrian holding our son.
Something in the moment hurt.
It was the first time I had ever seen him hold a child who might be his.
His eyes filled with tears.
“He's so small.”
I looked away.
Because I wasn't ready to forgive him.
Not yet.
We left the facility with Rebecca.
She agreed to cooperate.
Two days later, we reached Maine.
A small house stood beside a frozen lake.
My mother opened the door.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then she covered her mouth.
“Naomi.”
I ran into her arms.
She held me.
Crying.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I wanted to come back.”
“Why didn't you?”
She looked at Rebecca.
“Because Eleanor threatened Adrian.”
My heart stopped.
“She threatened him?”
“She said if I exposed the research, Adrian would be destroyed.”
I looked at him.
He stood outside the door holding our son.
My mother continued.
“She lied to both of us.”
I sat down.
“What did the Whitmore family do?”
My mother told me everything.
The research program began thirty years earlier.
The goal was to identify inherited disease markers.
But the family's pharmaceutical division saw an opportunity.
A treatment could be patented.
If the genetic source remained rare, the company could charge enormous prices.
Patients became data.
Families became test subjects.
My mother discovered the abuse.
She tried to expose them.
Instead, Eleanor threatened her.
My mother disappeared.
Rebecca continued the work in secret.
Then my mother's records surfaced.
My pregnancy became a problem.
The twins became valuable.
And Eleanor used Adrian as a weapon.
My mother's voice broke.
“They wanted you separated because your children had the marker.”
I looked at Adrian.
“Did you know?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“You believed the photos.”
“Yes.”
He looked devastated.
“My mother told me you were trying to sell my family secrets.”
I stared.
“I begged you.”
“I know.”
He swallowed.
“I was twenty-four.”
“So was I.”
He nodded.
“I should have trusted you.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
My mother looked toward the babies.
“The boy is the key.”
“To what?”
She took a breath.
“To proving the original trials.”
I stared.
“The genetic data in his blood can connect every patient record.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And expose the entire Whitmore medical network.”
Adrian looked at his mother.
“So that's why she wants him.”
“Yes.”
I looked down at my daughter.
“And what about her?”
My mother smiled sadly.
“She has the same marker.”
My chest tightened.
“Then why take only him?”
Rebecca answered:
“Because one child can be hidden.”
“Two cannot.”
Adrian's expression darkened.
“Who else knows?”
My mother looked at him.
“Everyone.”
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What's wrong?”
She looked at me.
“Eleanor is gone.”
Adrian stood.
“How?”
“She escaped custody.”
Rebecca grabbed the baby bag.
“She has one target.”
I held my daughter closer.
“My children.”
My mother shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
She whispered:
“She's coming for you.”
