Chapter 11 - THE DOCTOR’S BETRAYAL
The doctor’s name was Nathan Cole.
He was a respected prenatal specialist who had examined Emma twice during her pregnancy.
He had smiled, answered her questions, and assured her that her baby was healthy.
Now investigators believed he had secretly provided Charles with medical information.
Detective Reed searched Cole’s office.
They found copied ultrasound images, blood test results, and notes about Emma’s delivery plan.
Cole had also scheduled a private transfer after the birth.
The paperwork stated that the newborn required specialized observation.
In reality, the transfer location was a hidden Sterling laboratory outside the city.
Police arrested Cole before he could leave the country.
During questioning, he claimed he had never intended to harm the baby.
Charles had promised him funding for medical research.
Cole believed Phase Two would involve only observation and genetic testing.
Detective Reed did not believe him.
Neither did Emma.
She changed hospitals.
Only a small team knew the new location.
Every doctor and nurse underwent additional screening.
Emma spent the final weeks of her pregnancy in a quiet room overlooking a public garden.
Rosa visited each morning.
Gordon sent updates from physical therapy.
Detective Reed came whenever the case changed.
Daniel wrote letters.
Emma did not answer them.
In the first letter, he apologized.
In the second, he admitted that his silence had become a weapon used against her.
In the third, he said he would accept whatever sentence the court imposed.
Emma stored the letters unopened after reading only the first lines.
Forgiveness was not a debt she owed him.
One afternoon, Rosa sat beside the window knitting a yellow baby blanket.
“Do you miss the mansion?” Emma asked.
Rosa laughed softly.
“I miss the kitchen.”
“The kitchen?”
“It had six ovens.”
Emma smiled for the first time in days.
Rosa’s expression then became serious.
“My sister worked for the Sterlings before I did.”
Emma looked at her.
“I didn’t know that.”
“She disappeared twelve years ago.”
Rosa explained that her sister, Elena, had worked as an assistant in one of Charles’s laboratories.
The family claimed she stole money and fled.
Rosa never believed it.
She took the job at the mansion to search for information.
“Did Gordon know?”
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
“Nothing until last week.”
Among Samuel’s archive files was a staff photograph.
Elena stood in the back row.
On the reverse side, Samuel had written a storage number.
Police searched the corresponding storage unit.
Inside were Elena’s journals.
They revealed that she had discovered Charles continued Project Eve using tissue samples taken from former subjects.
She planned to expose him.
The final journal entry ended in the middle of a sentence.
A second search of Charles’s laboratory uncovered a sealed room.
Investigators found Elena’s identification card, clothing, and personal belongings.
No human remains were found.
But the evidence suggested she had been held there.
Rosa covered her mouth as Emma told her.
“She may still be alive,” Emma said.
Detective Reed agreed.
Financial records showed monthly payments to a private care facility in Vermont under a false patient name.
Police raided the facility.
They found Elena alive.
She had been kept heavily medicated for twelve years and told that her family had abandoned her.
When Rosa received the call, she fell to her knees beside Emma’s bed.
“My sister is alive.”
Emma held her as both women cried.
Elena’s survival created another witness against Charles.
It also revealed something more urgent.
Before being taken away, Elena had hidden a vial containing the original Project Eve compound.
She said Charles believed the vial was destroyed.
But someone had recently contacted her care facility asking about it.
That person was not Charles.
The caller was Vivian Sterling.
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Vivian had been released on bail that morning.
By nightfall, she had disappeared.
