Chapter 7 - Project Lantern
Project Lantern was never officially authorized.
It began as an offshoot.
Children of Glass Harbor participants were monitored for psychological resilience, identity formation and inherited trauma.
No invasive experimentation was documented.
That distinction offered Daniel little comfort.
People had followed families.
Collected school reports.
Medical histories.
Employment records.
Marriages.
Children.
Sophia had been assigned a Lantern identifier before Claire left the maternity ward.
Someone had been watching his daughter for five years.
Daniel looked at Maya.
“Who runs Lantern?”
“We don’t know.”
“Voss?”
“He says no.”
“Evelyn?”
“Possible.”
Then Sarah requested to speak with Daniel.
He almost refused.
But Sarah knew something.
She was under investigation for what she had done to Sophia, and Daniel made clear that cooperation would not buy forgiveness from him.
Sarah understood.
“I was hired through Lantern.”
“By whom?”
“Anonymous contact.”
“What were your instructions?”
“Move into the house. Observe Sophia.”
“Observe what?”
“Whether she remembered things she shouldn’t.”
Daniel frowned.
“She’s five.”
“I know.”
“What could she remember?”
Sarah hesitated.
“People.”
Sophia had begun describing a “gray-haired grandma” months before she supposedly saw Evelyn.
Claire dismissed it as imagination.
Sarah reported it.
Then the instructions changed.
Find out whether Sophia had physically met Evelyn.
“Why would that matter?”
“Because Evelyn wasn’t supposed to approach her.”
“According to whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Sarah’s cruelty on the patio hadn’t been ordered.
That had been Sarah’s own decision.
Frustrated.
Afraid.
Desperate to make Sophia reveal where Claire hid the key.
Daniel said quietly:
“You turned surveillance into abuse.”
Sarah nodded, crying.
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to blame Lantern.”
“I know.”
That answer mattered.
Then Lucas entered with a social worker.
He wanted to speak.
“Uncle Daniel, Mom is lying about one thing.”
Sarah looked at him.
“What?”
“The basement.”
Lucas swallowed.
“Grandma wasn’t alone.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Who was with her?”
“A little girl.”
Silence.
“What little girl?”
“She looked like Sophia.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“How old?”
“Maybe five.”
Sarah whispered:
“Lucas…”
“I saw her!”
Daniel’s mind raced.
A second child?
Clone nonsense was immediately dismissed.
Twin impossible unless hidden at birth.
Could be resemblance.
Then Lucas added:
“Grandma called her Sophie.”
Not Sophia.
Sophie.
Daniel knew that name.
Sophia’s original birth certificate listed a clerical correction.
Her first entered name had been Sophie.
Claire changed it before discharge, saying the nurse misunderstood.
Daniel had never thought about it again.
He called Claire.
No answer.
Then Evelyn called him.
“Daniel.”
“Where is my wife?”
“Safe.”
“Who is Sophie?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“You need to come alone.”
“No.”
“If you bring anyone—”
“I’m done with people giving me conditions.”
Evelyn went quiet.
Daniel continued:
“You want to talk? Talk.”
A long pause.
Then Evelyn said:
“Sophie is the reason Claire went to Chicago.”
“She didn’t go to Chicago.”
“She did first.”
“Who is Sophie?”
Evelyn finally answered.
“A child Claire believed died five years ago.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No.”
“Sophia was not Claire’s only pregnancy.”
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
That was impossible.
He had been there.
Every appointment.
Every ultrasound.
Then Evelyn clarified:
“Not pregnancy.”
“Embryo.”
Daniel froze.
Years before Sophia’s natural conception, Claire had undergone fertility preservation during a medical procedure.
Daniel remembered.
Stored embryos.
They had been told none remained viable.
Evelyn whispered:
“One survived.”
Daniel stared at Sophia through the hospital glass.
“And somebody used it?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“That is what Claire has been trying to find out.”
Somewhere in Virginia was a five-year-old girl genetically related to Daniel and Claire.
May you like
A child neither of them knew existed.
And Project Lantern had been watching both girls.
