The name meant nothing to me.
Gabriel Mercer.
But the reaction around the room told me it meant everything to someone else.
My mother went completely still.
Michael’s face lost its color.
Even Claire looked frightened.
I noticed.
“Who is Gabriel?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at my mother.
“Mom.”
She finally whispered:
“Gabriel was Daniel’s older brother.”
Daniel had never mentioned having a brother.
“Where is he?”
My mother shook her head.
“Dead.”
Michael corrected her.
“That’s what we were told.”
I stared at him.
“You think he’s alive?”
“I know he is.”
He pulled out his phone and opened an old photograph.
Two young men stood beside each other.
Daniel.
And another man.
Gabriel.
They looked almost identical.
But there was one difference.
Gabriel wore the silver pendant.
The same pendant Lily and Maya had.
I looked at Maya.
“How do you remember him?”
She closed her eyes.
“I was little. Maybe three.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me I was special.”
She paused.
“He said Daniel wasn’t my father.”
Everyone froze.
I whispered:
“Then who was?”
Maya opened her eyes.
“Gabriel.”
My mother sat down.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
“I knew Gabriel had experimented with the treatment. I didn’t know he had children.”
Maya stared at the floor.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“He told me there was another girl.”
Lily frowned.
“Who?”
Maya looked at her.
“You.”
Silence.
“He said you were the original.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
Maya nodded.
“He said the two of us were designed together.”
I felt sick.
“Designed?”
Maya nodded.
“One of us would carry the treatment.”
She looked at Lily.
“And one would destroy it.”
My mother whispered:
“Your grandmother was right.”
“What?”
She looked at both girls.
“The twins were never supposed to be separated.”
I stared at her.
“Then why were they?”
“Because Gabriel and Eleanor disagreed.”
“About what?”
My mother looked at Maya.
“Gabriel wanted to use the treatment to extend human life.”
She looked at Lily.
“Eleanor wanted to eliminate the need for treatment entirely.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor discovered something.”
“What?”
My mother took a breath.
“The treatment wasn’t extending life.”
She looked terrified.
“It was transferring it.”
I didn’t understand.
“Transferring what?”
“Age.”
Silence.
“Every time the treatment made one person younger, someone else aged faster.”
Maya whispered:
“That’s why they needed subjects.”
I suddenly remembered the hundreds of names on the screen.
All those people.
All those victims.
They weren’t test subjects.
They were sources.
My stomach turned.
“Who was paying for this?”
My mother looked at Michael.
He answered:
“Gabriel.”
“Where did he get the money?”
Michael looked at me.
“From the original Mercer trust.”
The trust.
Everything had come full circle.
The fortune hadn’t been created to protect the treatment.
It had been created to fund it.
I looked at Lily.
“So when I destroyed the trust…”
“You cut off Gabriel’s funding,” Michael said.
“And he lost access to the research.”
“Exactly.”
Then my phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
You finally understand.
Another message arrived.
Come alone.
Then an address.
I stared at it.
My mother grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t go.”
I showed her the phone.
She went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
“What?”
“That’s Gabriel’s house.”
“Where?”
“Three miles from here.”
Michael grabbed his coat.
“I’m coming.”
The next message appeared.
No police. No Michael. No Claire.
Then:
Bring Lily and Maya.
I looked at my daughters.
Neither spoke.
But both understood.
Someone had been waiting eighteen years for this moment.
And now Gabriel Mercer wanted his family back.
We reached the house at sunset.
It was enormous.
Old.
Abandoned.
The front door opened before we touched it.
Inside, photographs covered the walls.
My mother.
Daniel.
Gabriel.
Eleanor.
Claire.
Lily.
Maya.
And me.
Thousands of photographs.
Some were taken before I was born.
Some yesterday.
I turned to Michael.
“He’s been watching us.”
Michael nodded.
Then a voice came from upstairs.
“Not watching.”
Footsteps.
A man appeared at the top of the staircase.
Older than Daniel.
But somehow younger than the photographs suggested.
He smiled.
“Waiting.”
Maya whispered:
“Father.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“My little girl.”
Then his eyes moved to Lily.
“And my other daughter.”
Finally, he looked at me.
His expression changed.
“You.”
I stepped forward.
“Who am I to you?”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“The woman who ruined everything.”
I froze.
“What did I do?”
He descended the stairs.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
He stopped in front of me.
“Because your mother made one mistake.”
“What mistake?”
He whispered:
“She gave birth to you instead of me.”
I stared at him.
Then he smiled.
“And that’s why I’ve spent twenty-five years trying to get you back.”
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