Chapter 12 - The Hospital Trap
Claire went anyway.
Not because she ignored the warning.
Because she needed medical care.
But police were informed.
The ambulance was redirected to a major hospital with no known Northstar affiliation.
Claire was examined.
The baby was stable.
The contractions were caused by dehydration and severe physical stress.
No immediate delivery.
For the first time in weeks, Claire lay in a clean bed with water beside her and nobody controlling when she could drink.
She cried over that glass longer than she expected.
A nurse asked permission before touching her.
Claire cried again.
Small choices suddenly felt enormous.
Ryan remained in custody while investigators documented injuries and reviewed videos.
Melissa voluntarily gave a statement.
Evelyn stayed in the waiting room.
Thomas did too.
Claire allowed neither inside yet.
Sarah sat with Claire because Claire chose her.
Not because genetics or Northstar assigned anything.
Then Rebecca called again.
This time investigators traced what they could.
Burner phone.
Moving vehicle.
Rebecca said she wanted to meet Melissa alone.
Police refused.
Melissa agreed to a controlled meeting instead.
Rebecca never arrived.
But she left a package.
Inside was Dr. Vale’s notebook.
Not dead.
Not missing unwillingly.
He had fled.
The blood in his car was staged.
Again, a fake death.
Claire laughed when she heard.
Of course.
The notebook exposed Continuity Protocol.
After Arthur died, a small group of Northstar executives secretly preserved the genetic archive because pharmaceutical companies still paid for access.
They did not need Claire’s baby.
They needed Claire to sign updated consent documents that would legitimize decades of questionable research.
Ryan’s abuse created opportunity.
If Claire appeared unstable, a temporary medical proxy could be appointed.
Who?
Her husband.
Ryan.
He could sign certain authorizations.
That was why Dr. Vale fed Ryan paranoia.
He did not order the chain.
He cultivated control.
Ryan supplied the rest.
But Claire had never been mentally incompetent.
Ryan’s own videos proved it.
His cruelty destroyed Northstar’s legal strategy.
The evidence he created for entertainment became evidence against both himself and the scheme.
Then investigators found something remarkable.
In one recording, Ryan mocked Claire:
“Nobody is coming.”
Behind his voice, another phone conversation was audible downstairs.
Dr. Vale speaking to someone.
A woman answered:
“Then make sure Melissa keeps playing along.”
Melissa stared.
“I never talked to him.”
The voice was not Melissa.
Rebecca.
The twins had been used interchangeably again.
Rebecca had occasionally entered the Hale house when Melissa was away.
Ryan apparently knew.
Melissa did not.
Claire asked:
“Why?”
Because Rebecca was monitoring Ryan.
Not for Northstar.
For Olivia.
Rebecca and Olivia had been working together.
The cold woman in the storage-unit video had been performing for a hidden Northstar camera while secretly communicating with Olivia through gestures.
The camera Claire saw was not the only camera.
Rebecca wasn’t necessarily enemy.
She was infiltrating the operation.
Then why warn them away from the hospital?
Because she didn’t know Claire had changed destinations.
She believed Claire would be taken to Dr. Vale’s affiliated hospital.
Melissa finally spoke with Rebecca through investigators.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Rebecca cried.
“Because I watched what they did to Ryan.”
“What?”
“They told him the truth about his birth when he was twenty-one.”
Melissa froze.
Ryan had known Evelyn wasn’t his biological mother for fifteen years.
Evelyn had lied when she said he learned nothing.
Claire felt cold.
Ryan knew much more than he admitted.
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Rebecca continued:
“And he agreed to work for Northstar.”
