Chapter 6 - The Impossible Result
The report had to be wrong.
I said it once.
Then again.
Evelyn didn't argue.
Instead, she gave me the original laboratory records.
Three separate tests.
Same impossible result.
Noah matched me normally.
Lucas matched me too.
But Lucas also matched my father at a level that shouldn't occur between grandfather and grandson.
“Chimerism?” Tessa asked.
I looked at her.
She shrugged.
“I had six years to Google weird twin things.”
Evelyn nodded slowly.
“That was Dr. Vance's first theory.”
Then Vance discovered something else.
Arthur had undergone fertility treatment decades earlier.
Samples had been stored.
Unauthorized use was suspected.
“Are you saying someone used my father's genetic material during Tessa's pregnancy?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
“I can't.”
That was why Arthur paid Vance two million dollars.
Not silence.
Investigation.
Lorraine believed the payment covered up an affair or illegal fertility procedure.
Arthur let her believe it.
Before he could complete the investigation, he died.
“Heart attack,” I said.
Evelyn looked away.
My father's death suddenly became less certain.
“Did Lorraine kill him?”
“I don't know.”
“Walter?”
“I don't know.”
Too many ghosts.
Then the apartment window shattered.
Everyone dropped.
No gunshot.
A small metal object rolled across the floor.
Smoke.
Mason grabbed Evelyn.
I got Tessa behind the kitchen wall.
Men entered through the hallway.
Not amateurs.
They didn't attack us.
They grabbed the ledger.
That was their objective.
One man reached the stairwell.
Mason tackled him.
The others escaped.
We restrained the one left behind.
He wasn't Walter.
He carried no identification.
But he had a photograph inside his jacket.
Lucas.
Taken three days earlier.
On the back:
RETURN SUBJECT L.
I almost stopped thinking.
Tessa saw my face.
“Grant.”
That one word pulled me back.
Dead men answer nothing.
I crouched beside him.
“Who hired you?”
Silence.
“Walter?”
His eyes shifted.
Enough.
“Where is Walter?”
Nothing.
Then Evelyn recognized a tattoo beneath his sleeve.
Not criminal.
Military.
A private security contractor.
Halcyon Risk.
I knew the company.
Whitlock Holdings had paid Halcyon for years.
The contract predated me.
My father had created it.
I called the current CEO.
He answered immediately.
“Grant.”
“Why are your men following my son?”
Silence.
Then:
“You found Tessa.”
Not a question.
“Answer me.”
“I can't on the phone.”
“Try.”
“Your father left standing instructions.”
My hand tightened.
Arthur again.
“What instructions?”
“If the second boy was ever located, he was to be brought to a secure facility.”
Tessa looked ready to tear the phone from my hand.
“Why?”
The CEO's answer was quiet.
“Because your father believed Lucas wasn't safe around the Whitlocks.”
“From whom?”
“Lorraine.”
That made sense.
Then he added:
“And you.”
The room went silent.
“My father thought I would hurt my own son?”
“No.”
May you like
Pause.
“He thought Lucas might hurt you.”
