Chapter 10 - Blackwood
Claire whispered, “What?”
Charles looked older with every sentence.
“In the beginning, Blackwood was legitimate.”
He described an experimental neurological treatment designed decades earlier.
It was supposed to help people with severe trauma disorders.
The company ran out of funding.
Investors demanded results.
Researchers rushed.
Safeguards weakened.
Daniel didn’t care about the science.
He cared about names.
“Who did you test?”
Charles looked at Margaret Hale.
She answered.
“Volunteers.”
“At first.”
Daniel caught the phrase.
“And later?”
Charles looked away.
“People we could observe.”
Michael stepped closer.
“Families.”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
“Our family?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Claire backed away.
Daniel felt suddenly unable to breathe.
“Who?”
Charles looked at him.
“Your mother.”
Daniel stared.
“She knew?”
“Not initially.”
Michael cursed.
Claire whispered, “You used Mom?”
Charles began crying.
“I told myself the exposure was minimal.”
Daniel’s voice shook.
“What exposure?”
Margaret interrupted.
“Daniel, the exact medical details are not important right now.”
“They’re important to me.”
“The program altered medications without informed consent.”
Daniel went cold.
His father nodded.
“Your mother found out.”
“And she threatened to expose you.”
“Yes.”
“Then she died.”
Charles looked at Daniel.
“I did not kill her.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I loved her.”
Daniel laughed.
“That didn’t stop you from using her.”
Charles flinched.
Margaret stepped forward.
“Eleanor’s heart condition was real.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You were her doctor.”
“Yes.”
“Were you part of Blackwood?”
Silence.
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
Claire sat down.
Michael stared at the floor.
Their childhood had just been rewritten.
Daniel forced himself to continue.
“What did Rebecca discover?”
Charles answered.
“She found evidence Blackwood never ended.”
“Who continued it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I spent years trying to find out.”
“While pretending to be unconscious.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever revived the program tried to kill me after my stroke.”
Daniel stared.
“They caused it?”
“I believe so.”
“Who?”
Charles looked toward Claire.
Then Michael.
Then Daniel.
“I thought it was one of you.”
Silence filled the room.
Claire looked devastated.
“You thought your children tried to kill you?”
“I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Daniel’s anger sharpened.
“So you hid.”
“I used the coma to disappear.”
“And your death?”
“Protection.”
“Rebecca found you.”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
“All of it?”
“Enough.”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
He played the greenhouse video.
Charles watched himself say, Daniel can never know.
Daniel stopped it.
“What couldn’t I know?”
Charles looked frightened.
For the first time, truly frightened.
Margaret turned away.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
No answer.
“What?”
Charles whispered, “You were part of Blackwood too.”
Daniel stared.
“I was a child.”
“You were eleven.”
Claire gasped.
Daniel remembered almost nothing unusual from age eleven.
A summer of migraines.
Hospital visits.
His father calling them allergies.
Nothing else.
“What did you do to me?”
Charles looked ashamed.
“We tested whether the treatment could reduce traumatic memory.”
Daniel stopped.
“What trauma?”
Charles looked toward Margaret.
She said quietly, “You witnessed something.”
“What?”
Neither answered.
Daniel’s voice rose.
“What did I witness?”
Charles finally said it.
“Your mother’s first attempt to expose Blackwood.”
Daniel froze.
“She tried before she died?”
“Yes.”
“You saw something.”
“What?”
Charles took a breath.
“You saw the man who stopped her.”
Daniel’s heart pounded.
“Who?”
“We erased enough of the memory that you stopped naming him.”
Daniel felt sick.
Claire whispered, “Dad…”
Charles ignored her.
“For years, I believed the memory was gone.”
“But?”
“Rebecca found your childhood therapy tapes.”
Daniel stared.
“What tapes?”
“She believed your memory was returning.”
Daniel’s mind flashed.
Dreams.
A hallway.
His mother shouting.
A silver ring.
A man closing a door.
Images he had always dismissed.
Charles reached into a drawer.
He removed a cassette tape.
A child’s handwriting was visible on the label.
DANIEL - SESSION 14.
Daniel took it.
His hand trembled.
Charles whispered, “This is why Rebecca died.”
Daniel looked at him.
“She listened to the tape.”
“What’s on it?”
Charles’s eyes filled with fear.
“Your eleven-year-old voice naming the person who threatened your mother.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Who?”
Charles looked toward the doorway.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Margaret turned pale.
“No one else is supposed to be here.”
Owen drew his weapon.
Another creak.
Then a shadow moved across the upstairs landing.
Charles whispered a name.
“Evan.”
But when Owen reached the staircase, a gunshot exploded from above.
Glass shattered.
Charles jerked backward.
Daniel dropped beside him.
Blood spread across the old man’s shirt.
May you like
And the figure upstairs ran.
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