Chapter 65 - THE MOTHER EVERYONE BELIEVED WAS DEAD FINALLY RETURNED—BUT HER FIRST QUESTION EXPOSED A SECRET THAT COULD DESTROY THE HAWTHORNE FAMILY
The drive to the abandoned Meridian facility took forty minutes.
Sofia barely remembered any of it.
Rainwater covered the highway, reflecting the flashing lights of police vehicles moving ahead of them.
Daniel sat beside her.
Elizabeth and Victoria followed in another car.
No one had confirmed the woman's identity.
No one had explained how Helena Mercer could have survived decades after her supposed disappearance.
But the possibility alone had changed everything.
Daniel looked toward Sofia.
"Are you okay?"
She laughed softly.
"Do you really want the answer?"
He almost smiled.
"No."
Sofia leaned back.
"I'm tired, Daniel."
"I know."
"I'm tired of discovering that people who were supposed to be dead are alive."
"I know."
"I'm tired of watching families get destroyed because somebody decided the truth was too dangerous."
Daniel looked at her.
"So am I."
Sofia turned toward him.
"But if that woman really is Helena, Elizabeth deserves to meet her."
Daniel nodded.
"She does."
They arrived shortly after sunrise.
The facility stood behind a rusted fence, surrounded by overgrown trees and abandoned parking lots.
Police officers guarded the entrance.
Investigators moved through the building carrying evidence containers.
Inside, the corridors smelled of disinfectant and damp concrete.
Sofia felt an immediate chill.
This was where Meridian had begun.
Where children had been treated as experimental subjects.
Where families had been separated.
Where names had been replaced by numbers.
Daniel walked beside her.
Neither spoke.
An investigator led them downstairs.
At the end of a long corridor stood a white door.
A woman waited inside.
She appeared to be in her seventies.
Her silver hair was tied behind her head.
Her face was thin.
But her eyes were sharp.
And when she looked up, Daniel stopped.
The resemblance to Charles Hawthorne's old photograph was unmistakable.
"Helena?" he whispered.
The woman stared at him.
Then her eyes filled.
"Charles?"
Daniel swallowed.
"No."
He stepped closer.
"I'm Daniel."
Helena studied his face.
Her expression changed.
"Daniel Hawthorne?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
She began crying.
"You're grown."
Daniel felt something tighten in his chest.
"You knew me?"
Helena nodded.
"I saw you when you were a baby."
Sofia stepped forward.
"My name is Sofia Ramirez."
Helena looked at her.
For several seconds, she seemed confused.
Then recognition appeared.
"Isabella's daughter."
Sofia froze.
"You knew my mother?"
Helena smiled sadly.
"Isabella tried to help me."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Where have you been?"
Helena looked toward the locked door.
"Here. Other places. They moved me whenever someone began asking questions."
Sofia felt anger rise.
"Who kept you?"
Helena's expression darkened.
"Arthur Bellamy arranged it. Richard Ashford helped him."
Daniel clenched his fists.
"Why?"
"Because I knew what they did to Claire."
Sofia looked toward the doorway.
"Elizabeth is here."
Helena stopped breathing.
"What?"
"Your daughter."
Helena's hands began shaking.
"No."
Sofia approached gently.
"She's alive."
Helena began crying.
"Claire?"
Sofia nodded.
"She's been searching for you."
The door opened.
Elizabeth stood there.
For a moment, neither woman moved.
Elizabeth stared at the elderly stranger.
Helena stared back.
Then Helena whispered:
"Claire?"
Elizabeth covered her mouth.
She had imagined this moment for years.
A mother.
A face.
A voice.
Someone who could explain why her childhood had disappeared.
But now that the moment had arrived, she could barely breathe.
"Mom?"
Helena began sobbing.
Elizabeth crossed the room.
They embraced.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Victoria stood near the doorway, crying silently.
Daniel looked away.
Sofia felt tears rolling down her cheeks.
There were victories that arrived with applause.
And there were victories that arrived in a forgotten medical room, when a mother finally held the daughter she had spent decades believing she would never see again.
This was the second kind.
Eventually, Helena pulled back.
She touched Elizabeth's face.
"The scar."
Elizabeth nodded.
"I fell when I was little."
Helena shook her head.
"No."
Elizabeth froze.
"What?"
Helena's expression changed.
"You didn't fall."
Sofia stepped closer.
"Helena?"
Helena touched the scar.
"That happened the night they took you."
Elizabeth began trembling.
"What happened?"
Helena closed her eyes.
"Richard came to the house with Bellamy."
Victoria looked away.
Helena continued.
"They said Charles had authorized your transfer."
Daniel frowned.
"My father?"
Helena nodded.
"That's what they told me."
"Did you believe them?"
"No."
Her voice hardened.
"I knew Charles would never willingly give away his daughter."
Sofia thought of the letter hidden in the chapel.
Charles had written that he never stopped looking for Claire.
Perhaps that part, at least, had been true.
Helena looked toward Daniel.
"Did Charles survive?"
Daniel's face softened.
"He died twelve years ago."
Helena closed her eyes.
For a moment, she looked as though she had lost him all over again.
Then she whispered:
"He never knew."
Daniel frowned.
"Never knew what?"
Helena looked toward Elizabeth.
"That I was pregnant again."
Silence filled the room.
Sofia felt her pulse accelerate.
Daniel stared.
"Pregnant?"
Helena nodded.
"After Claire disappeared, I discovered I was carrying another child."
Elizabeth stepped backward.
"You had another baby?"
Helena began crying.
"Yes."
Victoria covered her mouth.
Daniel's voice became strained.
"What happened to the child?"
Helena looked toward the corridor.
"They took him."
Sofia felt cold.
"A boy?"
Helena nodded.
"They told me he died."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Do you know his name?"
Helena swallowed.
"I named him Benjamin."
Sofia looked at Elizabeth.
Another Hawthorne child.
Another missing identity.
Another life that had been erased.
But Helena was not finished.
She reached beneath her hospital blanket.
Her trembling fingers closed around a small photograph.
"I kept this hidden."
She handed it to Sofia.
The photograph showed a newborn baby wrapped in a white blanket.
A small hospital identification band circled his wrist.
Sofia examined it.
The printed name had faded.
But the date remained visible.
Daniel leaned closer.
Then froze.
Sofia noticed.
"Daniel?"
He stared at the photograph.
"No."
Elizabeth looked at him.
"What?"
Daniel reached for the picture.
His hands were shaking.
Sofia followed his gaze.
The baby's wristband carried a second identification number.
A number she recognized from the Meridian records.
The same number Mateo had been investigating.
Daniel whispered:
"That child wasn't registered as Benjamin."
Sofia stared.
"What was he registered as?"
Daniel looked up.
His face had gone white.
"Subject One."
Silence.
Helena began crying.
"They told me he was dead."
Sofia felt the room tilt.
Daniel continued staring at the photograph.
Then his phone rang.
Mateo.
Sofia answered immediately.
"Mateo?"
Her brother sounded frightened.
"Sofia, I found the original birth certificate."
She gripped the phone.
"Whose?"
"The child Helena Mercer gave birth to."
Sofia stared at Daniel.
"Where is he?"
Mateo hesitated.
Then said:
"Sofia, you need to sit down."
Her heart began pounding.
"Tell me."
Mateo's voice broke.
"The child wasn't adopted into another family."
Sofia stopped breathing.
"He was raised inside the Hawthorne household."
Daniel stared.
Mateo continued.
"And his name was changed."
Sofia could barely speak.
"To what?"
A long silence followed.
Then Mateo whispered:
"Daniel."
The phone nearly slipped from Sofia's hand.
Daniel stepped backward.
Helena covered her mouth.
Elizabeth began crying.
And somewhere inside the abandoned Meridian facility, a locked door suddenly opened.
A man emerged from the darkness.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Carrying a black leather briefcase.
He looked directly at Daniel.
Then smiled.
"Now that you know who your mother is..."
He placed the briefcase on the table.
May you like
"...it's time you learned what Charles Hawthorne did to your real father."
TO BE CONTINUED...
