Chapter 14 - HELEN WARD
Helen Ward was seventy-eight years old.
That fact surprised me.
After days of hidden cameras, missing doctors, staged deaths, and corporate sabotage, I had imagined someone frightening.
Helen looked like a retired librarian.
Small.
White hair.
Gray wool coat.
A walking cane.
She sat in a secure conference room sipping tea when I entered.
Rachel remained beside the door.
Nathan watched through glass.
Grant stayed upstairs with Ellie.
Helen smiled.
“You have Eleanor’s eyes.”
“Do not call my grandmother Eleanor as if you were friends.”
“We were more than friends.”
I sat opposite her.
“What does that mean?”
“I loved her.”
The answer stopped me.
Helen looked down at her tea.
“For thirty-one years.”
I said nothing.
“She loved your grandfather too.
Life is not always as simple as people prefer.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
That was a family secret I had not expected.
But it was not why she was there.
“You ran Project Continuity.”
“I administered it.”
“You experimented on children.”
“I prevented disease.”
“Without consent.”
Her expression tightened.
“Sometimes.”
“That word doesn’t improve the sentence.”
“No.”
She looked at me carefully.
“You’re stronger than your father.”
“I’m not here for compliments.”
“I know.”
“What happened to the second embryo?”
Helen took a breath.
“It became a child.”
The room narrowed.
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Whose child?”
“Biologically?
Yours and Grant’s.”
My heart hammered.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Who carried it?”
“A surrogate.”
“Without our permission.”
“Yes.”
My chair scraped backward.
Rachel moved closer.
Helen remained calm.
“Where is the child?”
“You need to understand why first.”
“I need absolutely nothing before you tell me where my child is.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“You consider the child yours?”
“It came from my body.”
“Interesting.”
I stared at her.
“You’re going to lecture me about consent after stealing an embryo?”
“No.
I’m asking because biology has become inconvenient in your family.”
She was right.
I hated her for being right.
“Where?”
“A family in Vermont.”
“Name.”
“I will give it to you.”
“Now.”
“Not until you understand what happens if you expose Project Continuity carelessly.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It is a warning.”
“From the person who built it?”
“From the person who spent the last six years dismantling it.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Helen set down her cup.
“Samuel Vale corrupted the project.
He sold access.
Victor discovered it.
Your grandmother was already dead.
Your grandfather was too proud to acknowledge what she had created.”
“Samuel died eight years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And the project continued.”
“Because networks outlive founders.”
“Dr. Shaw said you recruited her.”
“I did.”
“To modify Ellie.”
“To correct the Mercer mutation.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed that part of the work was still morally defensible.”
“Without asking me?”
Helen lowered her eyes.
“No.”
At least she did not lie.
“And the second embryo?”
“That was not my decision.”
“Whose?”
“Dr. Shaw.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“She feared your first transfer would fail.
She modified two embryos.”
“And transferred one.”
“Ellie.”
“What happened to the second?”
“Frozen.”
“Then eight months ago?”
Helen’s expression changed.
“Someone removed it.”
“Who?”
“We believed Shaw.”
“You just said she acted independently.”
“I said she created the embryo independently.
I did not say she removed it.”
“Then who?”
“Victor was investigating when he died.”
The pieces moved.
Victor murdered seven months ago.
Embryo removed eight months ago.
His death likely connected.
“Where is the baby?”
Helen pulled a folded page from her bag.
Rachel immediately stepped forward.
I took it.
Birth certificate.
A boy.
NOAH JAMES REED.
Born six weeks ago.
Mother: Claire Reed.
Father: blank.
My chest hurt.
“Where is Claire?”
“Vermont.”
“Does she know?”
“That the embryo was stolen?
No.”
“What was she told?”
“That the embryo came from anonymous donors.”
“Why show me now?”
“Because the people who stole it are coming for both children.”
“Who?”
Helen looked toward the glass.
“Your board.”
I almost laughed.
“Kingsley’s board?”
“Three members.
Possibly four.”
“Names.”
“I can prove two.”
“Who?”
“Malcolm Pierce.”
Chief financial officer.
My father’s closest friend for twenty-five years.
“And?”
Helen’s voice lowered.
“Richard Kingsley.”
My uncle.
My father’s younger brother.
Nathan’s older brother.
My godfather.
I sat very still.
“Why?”
“Control.”
“The trust again?”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
“The children are worth more than the trust.”
I felt ill.
“How?”
“Patents.”
Grant’s voice suddenly came through the speaker behind me.
He had been listening.
“What patents?”
Helen looked toward the glass.
Nathan let Grant into the room.
He entered without taking his eyes off Helen.
She said, “The modification used on Ellie appears to work.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“She’s not a product.”
“To you, no.
To biotechnology companies, the method could be worth tens of billions.”
My stomach turned.
“And Noah?”
“The second embryo was altered using an improved version.”
Grant grabbed the table.
“You made another version of our child as a test?”
Helen shook her head.
“I did not.”
“Someone did.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We believe Malcolm Pierce financed it.”
I remembered the hotel.
The frozen accounts.
Why had everything accelerated when I removed Grant’s authority?
Because freezing accounts triggered the internal security review.
It exposed linked files.
Maybe whoever was hiding Project Continuity realized the discovery window had opened.
“You wanted me to freeze Grant.”
Helen looked surprised.
“What?”
“The cash.
The hotel.
The humiliation.
The file unlocked because I froze him.”
Grant looked at me.
I continued.
“Someone arranged the circumstances so I would use the emergency authority.”
Helen shook her head.
“I did not.”
“Celeste knew about the trust.
Grant knew enough to panic when I pulled out the satellite phone.”
Grant frowned.
“I panicked because I knew what that phone could do.”
“Exactly.
Someone knew how we would react.”
A marriage manipulated into existence.
An affair exploited.
A custody plot fed with fabricated evidence.
Every one of our weaknesses had been used.
Not random events.
Levers.
Helen whispered, “Then they’re further ahead than I thought.”
My phone rang.
Rachel checked the caller.
Security floor.
I answered.
“Mara?”
It was my mother.
Her voice was frantic.
“Ellie is gone.”
The room disappeared around me.
“What?”
“Grant’s mother came upstairs.
Security said she was authorized.”
Grant went white.
“My mother?”
“She said Grant sent her.”
“I didn’t.”
My mother was crying.
“She took Ellie thirty seconds ago.”
Rachel was already running.
I shouted into the phone.
“Stop the elevators.”
“They did.”
A security alarm began screaming.
Then my mother said:
“She didn’t use the elevator.”
My blood froze.
“How?”
“The service stairs.”
Rachel shouted orders into her radio.
Grant was at the door.
I followed.
Then my satellite phone vibrated.
One photograph.
Ellie asleep in the back seat of a car.
Beside her sat Grant’s mother, Diane Mercer.
And beneath the photograph:
May you like
**ONE HEIR WAS NEVER ENOUGH.
BRING HELEN WARD IF YOU WANT ELLIE BACK.**
