Chapter 10 - Emily's Version of Mercy

The video was dated four months earlier.

Emily sat in what looked like a hotel room.

No visible location.

No metadata.

She spoke calmly, almost clinically.

"Dad created the rooms because he believed public scandal destroyed families faster than private cruelty. He was wrong about many things. He was not wrong about every family."

I felt sick.

Claire whispered, "She still believes in it."

Emily continued.

"I helped design the early protocols. Short-term containment. Medical supervision. Judicial review. Nothing like what it became. Dad removed oversight. Lawyers learned the rooms could protect assets. Doctors learned they could bill indefinitely. Families learned silence was cheaper than truth."

Vanessa crossed her arms.

"Convenient."

The recording went on.

"When I tried to expose him, he made me Subject Two. That was his answer to dissent."

Emily looked tired then.

"I escaped. I spent ten years dismantling the network from outside. Claire found me because she was smarter than Dad expected. Vanessa found me because anger makes people persistent. Aaron found me because guilt makes him reckless."

My breath caught.

Aaron knew Emily was alive.

Again.

Everyone knew something before me.

"And Daniel," Emily said, "you never found me because Dad made sure you stayed useful."

The screen changed.

A scan of my 2011 authorization appeared.

"You signed it. You did not read it. That matters. Negligence is not innocence."

I closed my eyes.

Claire did not comfort me.

She shouldn't have.

Emily's face returned.

"Lily's file is mine."

Claire stepped toward the monitor.

"No."

"I created Subject Eight after Claire was captured. Not to contain Lily. To make Dad believe the protocol already belonged to someone else. It kept him from assigning her himself."

Vanessa shook her head.

"You used a six-year-old as bureaucratic camouflage."

"Yes."

The honesty made it worse.

"I am not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I am asking you to understand that every move inside this system has a cost."

The video ended with coordinates.

A warehouse outside Albuquerque.

And one sentence.

BRING DANIEL ALONE.

Claire laughed bitterly.

"Of course."

Vanessa said, "We don't go."

I looked at the subject list again.

Caleb Brooks had a flashing red status beside his name.

TRANSFER PENDING.

Destination: ALBUQUERQUE.

I grabbed my coat.

Claire stepped in front of me.

"Daniel."

"They are moving Caleb there."

"Which is exactly why Emily wants you there."

"Then I go."

"Not alone."

"The message says alone."

"And your family has lied for thirty years. Maybe stop following instructions just because they're typed in capital letters."

I almost smiled.

Almost.

Vanessa pulled up the transfer manifest.

Her face changed.

"Daniel."

"What?"

She turned the screen.

Caleb was not the only person being transferred.

A second name appeared beneath his.

RICHARD HAYES.

Status: DETAINEE.

---

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