Chapter 46 - The Final ExperimentThe countdown reached:
02:18
The underground laboratory doors locked automatically.
Nobody could leave.
Jonathan's voice filled the room.
"You always disappoint me."
I stared at the ceiling.
"Why?"
"Why did you do this?"
A pause.
Then his answer came.
"Because love makes people weak."
Elizabeth looked devastated.
"You were supposed to protect them."
"I was supposed to prepare them."
Michael walked toward the main computer.
"The system needs DNA confirmation."
Claire looked at the files.
"That's why Project HEIR existed."
"No."
Michael shook his head.
"That's only part of it."
He opened another folder.
A file hidden beneath thousands of documents.
PROJECT ORIGIN
My name was attached.
My hands went numb.
"What is this?"
Michael looked at me.
"The truth about your birth."
I didn't want to hear it.
But I already knew.
The worst truths always arrived before you were ready.
Michael opened the file.
Inside were medical records.
My mother's pregnancy.
Genetic testing.
Experiments.
I stared.
"Jonathan..."
"He wasn't trying to choose an heir."
Michael whispered.
"He was trying to create one."
Elizabeth covered her mouth.
"I thought I destroyed everything."
Michael shook his head.
"You destroyed the copies."
"But not the original."
The countdown continued.
01:20
Rose grabbed my hand.
"Are you okay?"
I looked at my little sister.
The child who spent her entire life hidden.
Because of my father.
"I don't know."
Michael moved toward the machine.
"The system can only be stopped by the first successful genetic match."
"Your DNA."
I stared.
"What happens if I do?"
Michael hesitated.
That hesitation answered everything.
"What happens?"
The room became silent.
Finally...
He said:
"The system will unlock."
"And every secret Jonathan buried for twenty years..."
"Will be released."
Claire looked confused.
"Why is that dangerous?"
Michael looked at her.
"Because the truth won't only destroy Jonathan."
"It will destroy everyone connected to him."
Elizabeth stepped forward.
"Do it."
I looked at her.
"Mom..."
She smiled sadly.
"I spent eleven years running."
"I won't spend another second hiding."
I placed my hand on the scanner.
The machine activated.
A red light scanned my palm.
Then my eyes.
Then my DNA.
The entire room went dark.
For one terrifying moment...
Nothing happened.
Then...
Every screen in the laboratory turned on.
Thousands of files appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Secrets.
But one file appeared larger than all the others.
FINAL SUBJECT: ADAM WHITMORE
I froze.
Adam.
My name.
Not the name I had lived with.
The name Jonathan had hidden.
Then another line appeared.
STATUS: FAILED
Everyone stared.
Failed?
Michael stepped closer.
"I didn't know about this."
"What does it mean?"
Before anyone answered...
A final video automatically began playing.
Jonathan appeared.
Younger.
Holding a newborn baby.
He looked directly into the camera.
"If you are watching this..."
"Then the first experiment survived."
My heart stopped.
He smiled.
"But there is one thing you were never told."
The video zoomed closer.
Jonathan whispered:
"Adam was never my only child."
The screen changed.
A second baby appeared.
A baby girl.
Same birth date.
Same hospital.
Same parents.
Same DNA.
The room went silent.
Because beneath the image...
A name appeared.
SUBJECT TWO: ROSE WHITMORE
Then Jonathan said:
"The twins were never the experiment."
A pause.
"The experiment..."
May you like
"...was what they would become together."
End of Chapter 46...
