Chapter 13 - The Father Test
Miriam had escaped custody because Raymond arranged it.
He admitted that.
He thought she knew where Adrian was.
She did.
Unfortunately, she reached him first.
We raced home.
The estate was empty.
Ethan gone.
Adrian gone.
Miriam gone.
But Ethan had left something.
Five chairs arranged in the dining room.
On one sat a note.
Dad, she wants you to choose.
I knew immediately.
The original blue-room facility.
We arrived before dawn.
Ethan sat behind reinforced glass.
Adrian stood beside him.
Miriam controlled the locks.
“Welcome, Alexander.”
“What do you want?”
“To finish Catherine's experiment.”
“Catherine stopped believing in it.”
“Catherine became weak.”
There it was.
Miriam had never been Mercer's assistant.
Not really.
Mercer had commercialized the blue room.
Miriam had ideologized it.
She believed dangerous fathers should be permanently separated from children.
No courts.
No appeals.
No second chances.
Men like me were her proof.
“You're not wrong about what I've done.”
That surprised her.
“I've hurt people.”
Ethan watched me.
“I've built parts of my life on fear.”
Miriam smiled.
“Then admit Ethan is safer without you.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that's Ethan's decision eventually. Not yours.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You think children know what's best?”
“No.”
“Then—”
“I think adults don't automatically know either.”
That stopped her.
I looked at Ethan.
“My job isn't to own him.”
My son's eyes filled.
“It's to keep showing up until he's old enough to decide what kind of man I was.”
Miriam activated another screen.
Four girls appeared in another room.
Claire screamed.
She hadn't realized they were missing.
Charlotte hadn't either.
Mercer's old people had taken them during the chaos.
Five children.
Five chairs.
Miriam's final test.
“Choose.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
“Your son or Michael's daughters.”
She would release one room.
The other remained locked until police arrived.
Except smoke had begun entering both ventilation systems.
Not lethal yet.
Enough to create panic.
Children crying.
Adults screaming.
Miriam watched me.
“Every father chooses his own blood.”
I looked at Ethan.
Then the girls.
Then at Miriam.
“No.”
She smiled.
“Then they all stay.”
“No.”
I turned toward Michael.
“You choose Ethan.”
He stared.
“What?”
“I choose your girls.”
Understanding hit.
Miriam hadn't expected cooperation.
Michael ran toward Ethan's access corridor.
I went toward the girls.
Claire went with Michael.
Charlotte came with me.
Adrian suddenly attacked Miriam from behind.
Locks released.
Alarms screamed.
We moved.
Minutes later, all five children were outside.
Safe.
Miriam was arrested.
She stared at me as officers led her away.
“You cheated.”
I looked at Michael.
“No.”
Then at the children.
“We acted like fathers.”
Ellie ran toward me.
She wrapped her arms around my leg exactly as she had beneath the café table.
“Daddy Alexander!”
Michael raised an eyebrow.
“Excuse me?”
For the first time in two days, Claire laughed.
Even I smiled.
Then Ethan came toward me.
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
He held Catherine's wooden box.
“There was something inside the bottom.”
Another compartment.
Of course.
Inside was a sealed photograph.
Six children stood outside the original blue-room facility twenty-five years earlier.
Catherine.
Michael.
Adrian.
Charlotte.
Claire.
And me.
I stared at my younger face.
Impossible.
“I've never been there.”
Ethan turned it over.
Catherine's handwriting.
Alexander was the first child in the blue room.
May you like
And he is the only one who doesn't remember.
My smile disappeared.
