Chapter 16 - The Children Beneath the House
“They're children.”
Daniel Vale's words came through the phone so quietly that, for several seconds, I thought I had misunderstood him.
Project EVE had existed for decades.
If the people beneath my father's study were its original subjects, they should have been adults.
Some should have been older than me.
They could not still be children.
“How old?” I asked.
“I don't know.”
“You said you counted seven.”
“I did.”
“So how old are they?”
“The oldest looks twelve.”
Nobody in the clinic moved.
Marcus took the phone from my hand.
“Daniel.”
Silence.
Then the man on the other end inhaled sharply.
“Marcus?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Fifty years of grief passed across his face.
“Yeah.”
Another silence.
“You're alive.”
“So are you.”
“I wasn't sure.”
“I've been hearing that a lot today.”
Daniel Vale made a sound that might have been a laugh.
It broke halfway through.
“I'm sorry.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
“That's going to require more detail.”
“I know.”
“Start with disappearing when I was six.”
Daniel didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
“Reginald took me.”
Marcus's anger disappeared.
“He told Mom you ran away.”
“I tried.”
“Where did he take you?”
“St. Augustine first.”
Alexander looked away.
Daniel continued.
“Then several research facilities.”
“Project EVE?”
“Before EVE.”
Marcus gripped the phone.
“What did they do?”
“I'll tell you when we're not speaking over an unsecured line.”
“You've had fifty years.”
“And if you want fifty-one, get out of that clinic.”
Everyone looked toward the ceiling.
“Why?”
“Because Reginald's people are coming.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“Reginald is dead.”
Daniel laughed.
“No.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Another death undone.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I saw him yesterday.”
Elena sat down.
Her gun slipped from her hand and struck the floor.
“My father is alive.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca whispered, “I killed him.”
“You killed someone.”
“But not Reginald.”
“No.”
Rebecca looked sick.
“Then who?”
“His brother.”
The family tree had officially become impossible.
Marcus swore.
“Reginald had a brother?”
“Twin.”
Of course.
I almost laughed.
Of course there was another twin.
“Name?” I asked.
“Raymond Shaw.”
Rebecca stared at Elena.
Neither knew.
Daniel continued.
“Reginald and Raymond used each other's identities for decades. When one needed to disappear, the other became him.”
“So who did Rebecca kill?”
“Raymond.”
“And Reginald?”
“Continued as Raymond for several years. Then changed identities again.”
“To who?”
“I don't know.”
That answer no longer surprised me.
“What does any of this have to do with the children beneath my house?”
Daniel became quiet.
“Everything.”
---
We left the clinic seventeen minutes later.
Rebecca, now recognized by the registry as trustee, shut down the Continuity Protocol and transferred the accessible archives to three encrypted servers.
Alexander objected.
Nobody cared.
Victoria was taken into custody by police Elena had finally called.
This time four vehicles came.
Ryan went with them.
Before they took him away, he asked to speak to me.
I almost refused.
Then I agreed.
Two officers remained within sight.
Ryan stood with his wrists cuffed in front of him.
He looked exhausted.
Older.
“Ava.”
“What?”
“I don't expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
He nodded.
“I wanted to say something before…”
He glanced toward the police vehicle.
“Before whatever happens next.”
I waited.
“The first time Victoria told me to approach you, I said no.”
I said nothing.
“She showed me the house.”
Of course.
“She told me your father had destroyed our family. That everything you had was built with money stolen from us.”
“And you believed her.”
“Yes.”
“Then you married me.”
“Eventually I stopped believing her.”
“But you kept lying.”
“Yes.”
“And last night?”
His eyes dropped.
“There is no explanation that makes it better.”
“No.”
“I became exactly what she taught me power looked like.”
That was probably the closest Ryan had ever come to understanding himself.
It did not repair anything.
But perhaps prison, therapy and years of accountability might do something with that understanding.
Not for us.
There was no us anymore.
“I hope you become someone who never does it again,” I said.
His eyes filled.
“But you won't become that person with me.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
The officers led him away.
I watched until the car disappeared.
Then I turned toward the road home.
---
We reached the Hart estate shortly after four.
The mansion looked exactly as it had that morning.
Glass.
Stone.
Lake.
Sunlight.
Beautiful.
But now I knew there might be seven children living beneath it.
The idea made the house monstrous.
Daniel Vale met us in the library.
Marcus entered first.
The brothers stared at each other.
Daniel was sixty-three.
Marcus was sixty.
But for one second, they became nine and six.
Marcus crossed the room.
Then stopped.
Daniel opened his arms.
Marcus punched him.
Hard.
Daniel fell against my father's desk.
Claire whispered, “Apparently this really is genetic.”
I almost laughed.
Daniel touched his bleeding lip.
“I deserved that.”
Marcus pulled him into an embrace.
Daniel broke.
Not Marcus.
Daniel.
He buried his face against his younger brother's shoulder and sobbed.
“I tried to come back.”
Marcus held him.
“You should have.”
“I know.”
“You bastard.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
They stayed like that for almost a minute.
Then Daniel looked at me.
Everything changed.
He studied my face.
My bruises.
My eyes.
“I don't know whether I'm your father.”
“You said that.”
“Rebecca believes I am.”
“She was told you were.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“Reginald used my genetic material repeatedly.”
My stomach tightened.
“Without consent.”
“Consent wasn't a concept he respected.”
“So I could be yours.”
“Yes.”
“Or?”
“Someone else's.”
“Do you want me to be?”
The question escaped before I could stop it.
Daniel looked startled.
Then sad.
“I don't know you well enough to deserve wanting that.”
The answer was painful.
And decent.
“I'd like to know you,” he added.
I nodded.
“That's enough for today.”
“Yes.”
It was.
---
My father's hidden room was beneath the study.
Daniel Hart had concealed the entrance beneath the enormous Persian rug behind his desk.
I had played on that rug as a child.
Ryan had hosted investors above it.
Victoria had walked across it dozens of times.
None of us knew.
Daniel Vale moved the desk.
Beneath it was a steel hatch.
Rebecca stared.
“I never knew.”
“Daniel showed me three years ago,” Vale said.
“The wedding?”
“Yes.”
“What was inside then?”
“Nothing.”
I frowned.
“Then where did the children come from?”
“I don't know.”
He entered a code.
**COMPASS.**
The hatch unlocked.
Of course.
A narrow staircase descended.
The smell reached us first.
Disinfectant.
Metal.
Warm air.
Not abandonment.
Someone was maintaining the space.
Marcus went first.
Then Daniel.
Rebecca.
Me.
Claire.
Evelyn.
Elena remained upstairs with trust security.
The stairs ended at a corridor.
White walls.
Fluorescent lights.
No dust.
“This is active,” Claire whispered.
“Yes.”
Doors lined both sides.
Each had a small observation window.
I approached the first.
A girl sat inside.
Maybe eight years old.
She was drawing.
There was a bed.
Desk.
Books.
No visible lock on her side.
I knocked gently.
She looked up.
Her face was pale.
Dark hair.
Large eyes.
When she saw me, she smiled.
“Hi.”
My throat tightened.
“Hi.”
She approached the glass.
“Are you Ava?”
I froze.
“How do you know my name?”
She pointed upward.
“Daniel told us.”
“Daniel?”
“Mr. Hart.”
My father.
The man who raised me.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
I stared at Daniel Vale.
He shook his head.
Not him.
Daniel Hart.
Alive yesterday?
Again?
“Your father was here,” Claire whispered.
I opened the door.
The girl didn't seem frightened.
“What is your name?”
“Lucy.”
“How old are you?”
“Nine.”
“How long have you lived here?”
She thought.
“Always.”
My stomach dropped.
“Do you go outside?”
“Sometimes.”
“Where?”
“The garden.”
“What garden?”
“Downstairs.”
There was another level.
“Who takes care of you?”
“Dr. Samuel.”
Elena had named a physician earlier.
Dr. Samuel Pierce.
The doctor supposedly present when Daniel Hart died.
My blood turned cold.
“Samuel Pierce?”
Lucy smiled.
“Dr. Sam.”
Rebecca gripped the doorframe.
“He was part of it.”
Daniel Vale nodded.
“Apparently.”
“Where is Dr. Sam?” I asked.
Lucy pointed down the corridor.
“He left when the alarm happened.”
“What alarm?”
“The fire alarm.”
The Continuity Protocol.
“When?”
“Today.”
“Was Mr. Hart with him?”
Lucy nodded.
“Mr. Hart told us to stay in our rooms until Ava came.”
My eyes burned.
“He said I was coming?”
“Yes.”
“What else did he say?”
Lucy smiled.
“He said you'd open the doors.”
I looked down the corridor.
Seven rooms.
Seven children.
I began opening them.
A boy named Ethan.
Ten.
A girl named Sophie.
Seven.
Twins named Noah and Liam.
Eleven.
A quiet boy named Caleb.
Maybe twelve.
And the youngest.
Emma.
Six.
All healthy-looking.
All educated.
All strangely calm.
Too calm.
Claire knelt beside Emma.
“Do you know your last name?”
Emma shook her head.
“We don't have those yet.”
Yet.
My chest hurt.
“Do you know who your parents are?”
“No.”
“Does anyone?”
She smiled.
“Mr. Hart does.”
My father.
Again.
“Where is he?”
Emma pointed downward.
“In the garden.”
---
The underground garden was impossible.
We descended another staircase and entered a vast greenhouse built beneath the mansion's south lawn.
Artificial sunlight glowed overhead.
Vegetables.
Flowers.
Trees in enormous containers.
A small pond.
Someone had spent millions creating a hidden world.
The children followed us.
Lucy held my hand.
I let her.
At the far end stood a medical wing.
One door was open.
Inside was a hospital bed.
Empty.
Blood stained the sheet.
Fresh.
Daniel Vale touched it.
“Someone was here.”
Rebecca examined the IV line.
“Recently.”
On the bedside table was a recorder.
A label:
**FOR AVA**
I pressed play.
My father's voice filled the room.
Daniel Hart.
Weak.
But alive.
**Compass, if you're hearing this, then Elena has finally brought you far enough to find the children.**
Elena, upstairs, hadn't known about them.
Or claimed not to.
**Do not blame her. She was never told.**
I exhaled.
One truth at least.
**These seven are the last living children created through the post-EVE program.**
Claire covered her mouth.
**They are not experiments.**
Daniel paused to breathe.
**They are evidence of experiments that should never have happened.**
I looked at the children.
Lucy was listening.
Did she understand?
**Samuel Pierce helped me remove them from Reginald's facilities over nine years.**
Nine years.
That explained the different ages.
They hadn't lived here from birth.
Lucy had been told a gentler story.
**I kept them here because every ordinary system I might have trusted was compromised by the Continuity network.**
I felt anger rising.
Another prison built in the name of protection.
**I know what you're thinking.**
I almost laughed.
Of course he did.
**I told myself the rooms were safe, not locked. The garden was beautiful. The children had teachers, books, doctors.**
His voice cracked.
**But a beautiful cage is still a cage.**
Lucy tightened her hand around mine.
**That is why I told them you would open the doors.**
I began crying.
**You were always better at doors than I was.**
The recording paused.
Then continued.
**There is one final thing you need to know.**
Of course.
**The children share a biological connection.**
Marcus leaned closer.
**Not to each other.**
Pause.
**To you.**
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
The recording continued.
**Reginald continued using genetic material from Subject E-17 after I removed you.**
Rebecca whispered, “No.”
**Some of these children may be your biological half-siblings. Others may be nieces or nephews depending on the paternal lines used.**
I looked at Lucy.
Her eyes.
Were they like mine?
I couldn't tell anymore.
**Samuel has the complete records.**
The recorder clicked.
Then one final sentence.
**Do not let Reginald reach him.**
Silence.
Daniel Vale immediately searched the medical room.
“Samuel left in a hurry.”
Rebecca opened a cabinet.
“Medication gone.”
Claire checked another door.
“Laptop too.”
“He ran,” Marcus said.
“Or someone took him.”
A noise came from the garden entrance.
Everyone turned.
Elena stood there.
Breathing hard.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Security found a vehicle leaving the western service road.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
She held up her phone.
“But the license plate belongs to Samuel Pierce.”
“Where is it going?”
“North.”
“Can you track it?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
Elena looked at the screen.
“St. Augustine.”
Of course.
The place where every secret went to disappear.
Then Lucy tugged my sleeve.
“Ava?”
I looked down.
“What?”
“Dr. Sam said someone might come before you.”
My blood chilled.
“Who?”
“He called him Grandpa.”
Nobody moved.
“Grandpa who?”
Lucy shrugged.
“He didn't say.”
Reginald.
I crouched.
“Did you ever meet him?”
“Yes.”
Every adult in the room froze.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did he look like?”
Lucy thought carefully.
“Old.”
“Gray hair?”
“No.”
That stopped me.
“Dark hair?”
She nodded.
Reginald should have been elderly.
“What else?”
“He had a scar here.”
She touched her chin.
Daniel Vale dropped the medical file he was holding.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He stared at Lucy.
“Which side?”
She pointed to the left.
Daniel's face went white.
“Who is it?”
He didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
“I know that scar.”
“From where?”
“St. Augustine.”
“Who?”
Daniel sat down slowly.
“Subject One.”
Alexander stiffened.
“No.”
“What?”
Alexander had followed us into the garden.
For the first time since I had met him, he looked terrified.
“Subject One died.”
Daniel Vale shook his head.
“No.”
“Who was Subject One?” I asked.
Neither answered.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at Alexander.
Then at me.
“Project EVE's first successful child.”
My stomach tightened.
“Before me?”
“Decades before.”
“Then he'd be old.”
“He should be.”
“But Lucy saw someone young.”
“Yes.”
“What was Project EVE actually trying to do?”
Alexander closed his eyes.
Daniel answered.
“Not create better heirs.”
“What, then?”
“To stop them from aging.”
The underground garden became silent.
I looked at the seven children.
The impossible ages.
The records marked dead.
The hidden medical rooms.
“No.”
Alexander whispered:
“Reginald wasn't trying to preserve the Hart bloodline.”
His face had lost all color.
“He was trying to preserve himself.”
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Samuel Pierce sat tied to a chair inside a white room.
Behind him stood a man who looked approximately thirty-five.
Dark hair.
Left-chin scar.
He was smiling.
Below the image:
**YOU FOUND THE CHILDREN. GOOD.**
A second message.
**NOW BRING SUBJECT E-17 TO ST. AUGUSTINE.**
Then a third.
**COME ALONE, AVA.**
The final message appeared several seconds later.
**YOUR GRANDFATHER WOULD LIKE TO MEET YOU.**