Chapter 9 - The Missing Page
Page 47 had been cut cleanly from Eleanor’s binder.
Hidden ledger beneath floor contained page 47.
So they compared.
It listed Project Lily control identities.
Twenty-seven fictional names.
One:
LILY COLE.
Another:
EMMA BENNETT.
Emma stared.
Her maiden name.
But Project Lily predated her relationship with Ethan.
Was this another coincidence?
Emma Bennett was common enough.
Yet birth date beside control record matched Emma’s.
Now impossible coincidence.
Ethan looked at wife.
“Were you a Westbridge patient?”
“No.”
“Was your father using your identity?”
Emma shook.
“I didn't know until three weeks ago.”
Charles explained.
When Project Lily controls were created, staff needed realistic demographic templates.
They were supposed use synthetic data.
A technician imported employee dependents from insurance test file.
Emma, then twenty-six, was Charles Bennett’s dependent on legacy benefits record.
Her name and birth date became dummy patient without consent.
Other staff relatives too.
Serious privacy violation.
No treatment occurred.
No specimen existed under Emma.
Why page removed from Eleanor binder?
Charles removed it.
He didn't want daughter discover her data used.
He intended protect her.
Instead he created mystery.
Emma found torn edge three weeks ago and confronted him.
He confessed.
She hid from Ethan because ashamed father involved.
Again protection became deception.
Then why Emma looked terrified at hospital bracelet?
Because she feared Project Lily data might mean their actual daughter’s identity had been contaminated too.
After Lily’s birth, Westbridge was not involved.
She was born at St. Matthew’s Hospital.
Records independent.
DNA confirmed Ethan and Emma parents.
No swap.
No false birth.
No second Lily.
The central fear narrowed further.
Then Ethan asked:
“Why did we receive W-17 key after wedding?”
Charles denied sending.
Susan Vale likely did.
Rachel found Susan’s archived letter:
Emma Bennett married Ethan Cole.
Two Project Lily control identities have become a real family.
If system is ever corrupted, this coincidence could create catastrophic false linkage. They must be warned.
Susan tried warn anonymously because she had signed nondisclosure settlement? She feared retaliation/lawsuit. Poor choice.
She sent key, expecting Charles or Emma recognize Westbridge code.
Emma didn't.
Years later Rachel found matching key from Susan estate.
Thus strange coincidence—two people whose identities had been misused as control records later married—was real.
How did Ethan and Emma meet?
Ordinary charity event unrelated to Westbridge.
No arranged relationship.
No experiment.
No one brought them together.
Probability unusual but not impossible because both lived same city and Westbridge sourced local names.
Then independent audit began.
Westbridge’s successor organization agreed preserve records and notify affected people.
Regulators investigated privacy failures.
No evidence unauthorized reproductive use emerged.
But Thomas Keene’s actions complicated.
He had impersonated portal user.
Surveilled Rachel.
Sent anonymous message.
He claimed he only wanted ledger discovered.
Investigators found another message draft:
IF ETHAN ASKS ABOUT LILY, TELL HIM EMMA KNOWS.
Never sent.
Thomas intended turn Ethan against Emma?
He said no; draft was note to himself? Implausible.
He finally admitted resentment.
His father Martin died believing Eleanor ruined career.
Thomas blamed Ethan’s mother.
When Rachel investigation reopened, he wanted evidence found—but also wanted Hale? no.
He wanted Ethan feel same distrust Thomas’s family endured.
Petty revenge layered over whistleblowing.
Then Rachel asked:
“Did your father hide ledger because Eleanor forced him?”
Thomas answered:
“No.”
“Why?”
“My father was going to give it to Ethan.”
“When?”
“The week before he died.”
Ethan stared.
Martin Keene died six years ago.
Three years after Eleanor.
“What stopped him?”
May you like
Thomas looked ashamed.
“I did.”
