Chapter 7 - The Boy Who Never Drowned
I did not believe it.
Then I believed it too much.
Hope can be more dangerous than grief.
Grief eventually becomes familiar.
Hope tears the scar open.
Agent Hale warned me.
“Thomas may have been manipulated.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know.”
“Do you have proof David survived?”
“No.”
“DNA?”
“No.”
“Photographs?”
“One.”
He slid it across the table.
A man around thirty-two.
Brown hair.
Standing outside Facility 12.
His face partially turned away.
My hands began shaking.
Something about the posture.
The shoulders.
Impossible.
I remembered a six-year-old.
Not this man.
Rosa placed her hand over mine.
“Don’t decide what you’re seeing before you know.”
She was right.
Agent Hale continued.
The man used the name Daniel Ward.
Cybersecurity consultant.
No verifiable childhood records before age fourteen.
Thomas had met him repeatedly.
Adrian had also met him.
Now Daniel Ward had disappeared.
Three missing men.
Thomas.
Daniel.
And, emotionally, Adrian—the son I thought I knew.
Then Celeste made her first mistake.
She called Rosa.
Not me.
“You think she cares about you?” Celeste said.
Rosa put the call on speaker.
“She’s using you.”
Rosa looked at me.
I remained silent.
Celeste continued:
“You’re a charity project. Evelyn does that. She collects broken people.”
That hurt because there was enough truth inside it to be poisonous.
Rosa answered:
“You called the wrong person.”
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“Because I already know Evelyn isn’t perfect.”
Celeste went quiet.
Rosa continued:
“That’s the difference between us.”
Then she disconnected.
I looked at her.
“You should listen to her.”
“Why?”
“Because I did test you.”
“Yes.”
“I manipulated the situation.”
“Yes.”
“I considered leaving you the trust because you were kind to me.”
“Yes.”
Rosa shrugged.
“And then I told you not to.”
I laughed unexpectedly.
She smiled.
“See? Problem solved.”
It wasn’t.
But something inside me loosened.
That night, Agent Hale traced Celeste’s call.
The location stunned us.
Facility 12.
Federal agents moved immediately.
By the time they arrived, the facility was empty.
But they found blood.
Restraints.
Three chairs.
And one active computer.
On the screen:
ORPHEUS RESTORATION: 96%.
Thomas had not merely continued the project.
Someone was about to activate it.
Agent Hale opened another folder.
Thousands of financial profiles.
Politicians.
Executives.
Judges.
Federal employees.
Orpheus had evolved into a blackmail engine.
Whoever controlled it could expose financial secrets across the country.
Then one final profile opened automatically.
EVELYN SHAW.
Under family relationships appeared:
ADRIAN SHAW — ADOPTED.
DAVID SHAW — BIOLOGICAL.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
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And beneath David’s name was a live location.
Rosa’s apartment.
