Chapter 9 - THE PRISONERS OF SAINT AGNESChloe couldn't understand how both her parents could be alive.
She had watched her father die.
Or thought she had.
She remembered holding his cold hand.
Remembered the doctor telling her his heart had stopped.
Remembered signing paperwork through tears.
Victor saw the disbelief on her face.
“We'll confirm everything before we believe another word.”
Gabriel examined Pierce's documents.
“There's a restricted section beneath Saint Agnes. No public floor plans. No outside medical oversight.”
Victor looked at the clock.
11:18 p.m.
They had forty-two minutes before Elena's midnight deadline.
“Get the vehicles ready.”
Chloe followed him.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“My family is in that building.”
Victor faced her.
“And that makes you the person Caldwell will want most.”
She stepped closer.
“You promised to help me find them. You didn't promise to lock me away while you did it.”
Victor studied her for a moment.
Then nodded.
“You stay with me. No exceptions.”
They reached Saint Agnes shortly before midnight.
The building appeared deserted.
A single security guard watched television behind the reception desk.
Gabriel showed him a court-authorized emergency medical inspection order obtained through an attorney working with federal investigators.
The guard reluctantly opened the restricted elevator.
Below ground, the lights flickered.
Chloe heard distant footsteps.
Then a woman's voice.
“Chloe?”
She turned.
A thin woman stood behind the glass of an observation room.
Her hair was streaked with gray.
Her cheeks were hollow.
But Chloe knew those eyes.
“Mom?”
Rebecca Bennett pressed both hands against the glass.
Chloe ran toward her.
Victor forced the damaged door mechanism open while Gabriel called for medical assistance.
Rebecca stumbled into her daughter's arms.
For eleven years, Chloe had imagined this impossible moment.
Now her mother was real.
Warm.
Breathing.
Crying against her shoulder.
“My baby,” Rebecca whispered. “I'm so sorry.”
Chloe held her tighter.
“Where's Dad?”
Rebecca stiffened.
Her expression changed from joy to terror.
“Chloe, listen carefully.”
“What?”
“Your father didn't die from his illness.”
Chloe pulled back.
Rebecca trembled.
“He discovered who was financing the new experiments.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Who?”
Rebecca looked at him with heartbreaking pity.
“Victor, your father wasn't the only Costello involved.”
Then a voice came from the hallway.
“She's telling the truth.”
Everyone turned.
An older man stood beneath the emergency lights.
Victor stared at him.
May you like
Because standing in the doorway was his younger brother, Adrian.
The brother he had buried eight years earlier.
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