Chapter 14 - Sophie’s Secret
Madeline laughed when Quinn showed her the photograph of the BM-17 vials.
We were watching the interrogation through glass.
“You think Sophie did that?”
Quinn sat across from her.
“She treated Ilaria.”
“So did ten other people.”
“Victor says Sophie administered the doses.”
“Victor says whatever keeps Victor alive.”
“Did Sophie know about BM-17?”
Madeline looked away.
“That’s a yes.”
“No.”
“It’s fear.”
Madeline’s jaw tightened.
“Leave my sister out of this.”
Quinn almost smiled.
“You abused a four-year-old.”
“Kidnapped her mother.”
“Committed fraud.”
“Helped hide a homicide.”
“And now you’re protective of your sister?”
Madeline leaned forward.
“Sophie is not like me.”
“That may be the first thing we agree on.”
“Then help us find her.”
Madeline stayed silent.
Quinn placed another photograph on the table.
Lydia Shaw.
“You know Lydia?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Victor introduced us.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Did Lydia treat Ilaria?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was giving Ilaria BM-17?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Madeline slammed both hands on the table.
“I wanted Elena gone.”
“I wanted Daniel.”
“I wanted that family to feel what losing someone felt like.”
“But I did not want Ilaria disabled.”
The room behind the glass became silent.
For once, her outrage appeared real.
Quinn waited.
“Then who did?”
Madeline looked toward the mirror.
Toward us.
“I don’t know.”
“Who brought Lydia into the family?”
“Margaret.”
“Margaret says you did.”
Madeline laughed bitterly.
“Of course she does.”
“Did Sophie administer anything?”
“She told me Lydia gave her supplements for Ilaria.”
“What supplements?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t care.”
That admission landed harder than any lie.
She might not have ordered the poisoning.
But she had created the perfect environment for it.
Quinn continued.
“Where would Sophie go with Victor?”
“She wouldn’t go willingly.”
“The airport video shows her entering the vehicle.”
“Then he threatened her.”
“With what?”
Madeline looked down.
“Her son.”
I had not known Sophie had a child.
“A son?”
“Jacob.”
“Six years old.”
“Where is he?”
“With his father in Maryland.”
Quinn immediately called local police.
Minutes later, officers arrived at the father’s home.
Jacob was safe.
But a package had been delivered that morning.
Inside was one of Sophie’s earrings.
And a photograph of Jacob leaving school.
Victor had leverage.
Quinn returned to Madeline.
“Help us find her.”
Madeline closed her eyes.
“There’s a lab.”
“What lab?”
“Victor maintains one outside Frederick.”
“Address?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then describe it.”
“Old veterinary research facility.”
“Red roofs.”
“Near a water tower.”
Pike searched satellite maps.
Three possible locations.
Police were sent to all.
At the second facility, they found fresh tire tracks.
Inside were medical refrigerators.
Animal cages.
Old Bellamy equipment.
And handwritten notebooks documenting BM-17 trials.
One notebook contained Ilaria’s initials.
I.M.
DOSE 1.
DOSE 2.
DOSE 3.
DOSE 4.
The notes described weakness after each exposure.
Victor had recorded my daughter’s decline as data.
Elena had to leave the room.
I stayed.
I forced myself to read.
At the bottom of the page was a signature.
S.H.
Sophie Hart.
My anger turned cold.
Sophie had known.
Pike opened another notebook.
A note from Victor:
SUBJECT I.M. RESPONSE EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS.
CONTINUE UNTIL MOTOR LOSS STABILIZES.
I nearly tore the page.
Quinn stopped me.
“This is evidence.”
“That is my daughter.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I pointed at the page.
“That sentence is my daughter.”
Quinn gave me a moment.
Then she found a later entry.
S.H. REFUSES FURTHER DOSING.
THREATEN WITH JACOB IF NECESSARY.
Sophie had participated.
Then she tried to stop.
Victor forced her.
It did not absolve her.
But it changed the shape of the crime.
Another document listed payments.
The person authorizing the project used only initials.
M.R.
My mind went immediately to Marcus Reed.
But Marcus denied involvement in the medical side.
Quinn confronted him.
He stared at the initials.
“Not me.”
“Convenient.”
“I swear.”
“Who else has those initials?”
He thought.
Then looked at me.
“Margaret Richard?”
“No.”
My mother used Margaret Anne Mercer.
M.A.M.
Pike searched company executives.
Medical researchers.
Trust officers.
Then found one.
Dr. Malcolm Reese.
Former Bellamy chief scientific officer.
Retired ten years earlier.
He had worked directly under Charles Grayson.
He was eighty-one.
And still alive.
Federal agents went to his home.
Empty.
But security footage showed Victor picking him up three days earlier.
The network kept collapsing inward.
Old scientists.
Old crimes.
Old family secrets.
All connected to one little girl.
Then my phone rang.
Sophie.
I answered.
“Daniel?”
She was crying.
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I didn’t know what the first vial was.”
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
“It matters to me.”
“Where is Ilaria?”
“Safe.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Victor has you?”
“Yes.”
“Lydia?”
“She’s here.”
“Malcolm Reese?”
Silence.
“Sophie.”
“Yes.”
“What does Victor want?”
“He wants Ilaria.”
“That’s not happening.”
“I know.”
“Then help us.”
Her breathing shook.
“There’s something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“BM-17 didn’t cause the original weakness.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“It made it worse.”
“But Ilaria was already showing symptoms before the first dose.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“I kept the original therapy notes.”
“What caused the first symptoms?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did Victor choose her?”
“Because Lydia had already identified the gene variant.”
“He believed Ilaria’s natural condition was activating the same regeneration pathway.”
“So he experimented on her.”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t—”
A man spoke in the background.
Victor.
“Sophie.”
She gasped.
The phone moved.
Victor came on.
“You are learning quickly, Daniel.”
“Let her go.”
“Eventually.”
“What do you want?”
“You know.”
“No.”
“Your daughter.”
“Never.”
He sighed.
“Then perhaps you should ask why her mother was really investigating the foundation.”
I looked at Elena.
“She found the money.”
“That was incidental.”
“What was she actually searching for?”
I covered the microphone.
“Elena?”
Her face changed.
She whispered:
“I was searching for Ilaria’s medical records.”
Victor heard anyway.
“Exactly.”
He sounded pleased.
“Elena discovered someone altered Ilaria’s original genetic report.”
I turned toward her.
“What?”
Elena was crying.
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Tell me now.”
“The report we received wasn’t the original.”
“What did the original say?”
She looked toward Ilaria, who was in another room.
“That the gene variant did not come from you.”
Silence.
Victor laughed softly.
My entire body went cold.
“If it didn’t come from me…”
Elena shook her head desperately.
“Daniel, I never cheated.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Victor answered for her.
“Because the embryos used during your fertility treatment were manipulated.”
My stomach turned.
Ilaria had been conceived through IVF after years of fertility struggles.
“What are you saying?”
“Charles’s research did not end when he died.”
“Your clinic used genetic material from a stored research sample.”
“No.”
“You think your daughter accidentally inherited the exact mutation we spent decades studying?”
“No.”
Victor’s voice became almost gentle.
“Ilaria was created to carry it.”
I could not speak.
Elena whispered:
“That’s what I discovered before I disappeared.”
Our daughter had not merely become an experimental subject at age two.
May you like
According to the records, the experiment may have begun before she was even born.
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