Chapter 5 - The Dead Man
Adrian did not accuse me.
That almost made it worse.
He just stared at the paper.
Then at me.
Then back at the paper.
“Who is Michael Reeves?”
“My brother.”
The words came out flat.
Adrian blinked.
“Your brother?”
“My older brother. He died when I was nineteen.”
Daniel Price sat down without being asked.
Victor took the DNA report from Adrian.
He read it twice.
Then he looked at me.
“This is impossible.”
“Yes.”
Adrian rubbed both hands over his face.
“Why would anyone use your dead brother as the father?”
I understood before he did.
“To make the report look scientifically real without creating a living man who could deny it.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“A closed loop.”
Daniel whispered, “Jesus.”
Adrian snapped toward him.
“You helped file this.”
“I believed it was authentic.”
“You believed a dead man fathered my child?”
“I did not know he was dead.”
I wanted to laugh again.
Nothing was funny.
I sat because my knees no longer trusted me.
Victor studied the report.
“This lab.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What about it?”
“Cole Meridian owns part of it.”
Silence.
Of course it did.
Everything in Adrian’s world seemed to circle back to the company.
The buildings.
The lawyers.
The hospitals.
The laboratories.
Even the people trying to destroy me.
Victor called someone.
“Pull every access log for Meridian Genomics. Last ninety days. Especially prenatal testing.”
He listened.
“No. Don’t send it by email. Bring it.”
He hung up.
Adrian crouched beside me.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For ever letting Cassandra close enough to us to do this.”
I looked at him.
“You still don’t know she did all of it.”
His eyes hardened.
“She gave you the tea.”
“You think that’s different?”
“That’s the first intelligent thing anyone has said in this room for ten minutes.”
Adrian did not enjoy that.
But I was thinking about Cassandra’s face in the lobby.
Not scared of the vial.
One of the security officers entered carrying a tablet.
His eyes moved across the screen.
Victor turned the tablet around.
ADRIAN COLE.
Victor’s voice was quiet.
I looked at him.
A message from an unknown number filled the screen.
ASK YOUR WIFE WHERE SHE WAS AT 2:08 A.M.
Below it was a photograph.
May you like
It showed me entering the same laboratory.
Holding hands with Cassandra.
