Chapter 9 - Celeste Knew Anna Too
Anna stepped in front of Mara.
It was instinctive.
Ridiculous perhaps.
Mara was physically stronger than she was.
But Anna had spent eight years imagining the moment she could protect her sister again.
She would not waste it.
Celeste watched through the monitor.
“You resemble her before treatment.”
Anna ignored the observation.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than Adrian thinks.”
Vale moved toward the control panel.
The screen changed.
Another camera.
Lower level.
A white laboratory.
Empty.
Then another.
A refrigerated storage room.
Another.
A surgical suite.
Celeste had rebuilt everything beneath them.
“You experimented on Ben.”
Celeste tilted her head.
“Ben received a controlled microdose.”
“He’s six.”
“Which is why his regenerative response is valuable.”
Anna’s disgust must have shown.
Celeste smiled sadly.
“You think I don’t understand how that sounds.”
“I don’t care how it sounds to you.”
“Good. Mara used to say things like that.”
Mara made a low rasp.
Celeste’s expression softened.
For one disturbing moment she looked almost affectionate.
“My first miracle.”
Vale snapped:
“She is not yours.”
Celeste laughed.
“Eight years too late for ethics, Adrian.”
That silenced him.
Anna stored that too.
Celeste knew exactly where everyone’s guilt lived.
She pressed it when needed.
“Why Lily?”
Celeste’s eyes moved toward the office.
“Eleanor still hasn’t told you?”
Eleanor stepped into view.
“Leave her alone.”
“You spent four years pretending she was Daniel’s child.”
“She is.”
“Biologically?”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
Celeste smiled.
“Ask for the test.”
Anna did.
Vale used the laboratory’s old genetic analyzer only after confirming controls.
Hours would be required for complete analysis.
But basic kinship markers could be compared.
Lily.
Stored Daniel sample.
Eleanor.
And—after Anna asked Mara and Mara deliberately extended one finger—Mara.
The preliminary result made Vale sit down.
Lily was Eleanor’s biological daughter.
Daniel was her biological father.
Relief crossed Eleanor’s face.
Then Vale kept reading.
“What?”
Anna asked.
Vale looked at Mara.
Then Lily.
“Lily carries a genetic marker that should not be present.”
“What marker?”
“One associated with the Erebos-modified cell line.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
“Daniel’s stored reproductive sample may have been exposed to an engineered vector.”
“Meaning?”
Vale chose his words carefully.
“Lily is Daniel’s daughter. But something may have been introduced before conception.”
Anna looked at Celeste.
“You altered her before she was born.”
Celeste answered:
“I corrected what Daniel was too afraid to finish.”
Eleanor lunged toward the monitor.
“You touched my child?”
“You asked for his child after he died.”
“I asked for IVF!”
“And I gave you Daniel’s daughter.”
The cruelty lay in technical truth.
Lily was not a monster.
She was a child.
Healthy.
Loved.
But Celeste had used conception as experiment.
“Why lock her with Mara?”
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
“I didn’t.”
Everyone stopped.
“Then who did?”
“Mara.”
Anna turned.
Mara remained crouched near Ben.
“No.”
Celeste continued.
“Vale found Lily downstairs. I was coming for her. Mara reached her first.”
Vale frowned.
“I never found Lily downstairs.”
Celeste stared at him.
Interesting.
Someone’s account was wrong.
Lily supplied the missing piece.
“The gray lady pulled me.”
Anna crouched.
“From where?”
“The shiny room.”
“Were your hands tied already?”
Lily nodded.
“Who tied them?”
“The yellow-hair lady.”
Celeste’s face changed.
Caught.
She had lied.
Lily continued.
“The gray lady came from under the table. She scratched the other lady.”
Mara rescued Lily.
She dragged the child through a maintenance opening.
Into the tunnel.
But why leave her restrained?
Lily explained:
“She tried.”
Mara’s altered fingers could not manipulate the tight plastic restraint.
She tore the tape partly loose but footsteps came.
So Mara hid Lily inside the cold oven cavity—the one place connected to the tunnel that Celeste’s lower cameras did not cover.
Then she stayed nearby.
Guarding her.
The monster had not imprisoned the child.
The monster had hidden her from the human being coming to take her back.
Anna looked at Mara.
Mara lowered her head.
“You saved her.”
One enormous eye closed.
Slowly.
Then Celeste’s voice came from the screen.
“Ask Mara why she saved Lily.”
Anna looked back.
“Because Lily is a child.”
“No.”
Celeste smiled again.
“Mara recognized her.”
“From what?”
May you like
Celeste leaned toward the camera.
“From before Lily was born.”
