Chapter 12 - The Boys Who Refused to Separate
Noah hadn't been taken by Vance.
Walter had him.
For three minutes, I was ready to kill Walter.
Then he called.
“Don't come after me.”
“Where is my son?”
“With me.”
Tessa grabbed the phone.
“You took Noah?”
“I saved him.”
Walter had spotted one of Vance's men near the SUV.
He moved Noah before the man reached him.
Bad communication.
Good instinct.
I informed him that doing it again without telling Tessa would shorten his life.
He believed me.
Noah returned twenty minutes later.
Tessa held him so tightly he complained he couldn't breathe.
Then Noah said:
“We have to get Lucas.”
That was the only plan anyone cared about.
Daniel knew the clinic layout.
Federal tactical teams surrounded the property.
I was told to stay outside.
I ignored that instruction until Tessa grabbed my sleeve.
“If you go in angry, you make them manage you too.”
She still knew me.
So I stayed.
Longest nineteen minutes of my life.
Then agents emerged.
One suspect.
Two nurses.
No Vance.
No Lucas.
The medical room from the video was empty.
Recorded feed.
Daniel swore.
“He moved him.”
Then Noah ran toward one wall.
“Lucas!”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
Noah pressed his ear against it.
Nothing.
Then—
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps.
The twins had a game.
Three taps meant I'm here.
Agents opened a hidden service panel.
A narrow corridor ran behind the wall.
At the end, Lucas sat beneath a blanket.
Alone.
Alive.
Tessa reached him first.
Then Noah.
The boys crashed into each other.
I stopped several feet away.
I wanted to hold them.
But that wasn't mine to take yet.
Lucas looked over Noah's shoulder.
At me.
“Are you Grant?”
“Yes.”
“Noah says you're Dad.”
My throat tightened.
“I'd like to be, if that's okay.”
He thought about it.
Then held out one hand.
I took it.
Small.
Warm.
Real.
For six years, I had controlled an empire.
That tiny hand terrified me more than any rival ever had.
Then Lucas said:
“The doctor left something for you.”
A key.
Locker number.
Phoenix Sky Harbor.
We had come full circle.
Vance had known exactly where this began.
Back in Phoenix, airport police opened the locker.
Inside was a hard drive.
Arthur's missing medical files.
Videos.
DNA reports.
And a recording addressed to me.
My father appeared on-screen weeks before his death.
“Grant, if you're seeing this, Vance survived me.”
I leaned closer.
“Tessa and both boys must be protected. But there is something I never told you.”
Of course.
Arthur looked exhausted.
“Vance's experiments did not begin with Tessa.”
My stomach tightened.
“They began thirty-seven years ago.”
The year I was born.
Lorraine whispered:
“No.”
Arthur continued:
“Your mother delivered two sons.”
Everything inside me stopped.
I looked at Lorraine.
She was crying.
“I was told one died.”
Arthur's recording continued.
“He didn't.”
A photograph appeared.
Two newborn boys.
Identical.
One labeled Grant.
The other:
GABRIEL.
Arthur looked directly into the camera.
“Grant, you have a twin brother.”
Then the recording glitched.
May you like
When it returned, Arthur said:
“And Vance raised him.”
