Chapter 13 - Seventy-Two Hours

The countdown started the moment Serena escaped.

Seventy-two hours.

Monroe’s technicians examined the phone.

The timer connected to an encrypted remote server.

At zero, something would happen.

No one knew what.

Victor refused to leave Ethan.

The boy slept beside him that night.

Lily sat outside the bedroom.

At 3:00 A.M., Victor found her still awake.

“You should sleep.”

“So should you.”

He almost smiled.

Then he sat across from her.

“For years, I thought money made Ethan safe.”

Lily looked at him.

“Money pays for doors.”

“Cameras.”

“People.”

“It doesn’t decide who can be trusted.”

Victor nodded.

“I should have known.”

“You should know now.”

He looked toward Ethan.

“I almost lost him.”

Lily did not soften the truth.

“Yes.”

Victor looked at her.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For seeing him.”

Lily’s expression changed.

She remembered Serena’s words.

No one will believe a maid.

“I know what invisible feels like.”

Victor understood there was history there.

But he did not ask.

Not yet.

At dawn, Monroe arrived.

They had cracked Serena’s secondary phone.

The countdown was tied to a financial release.

At zero, archived Hale Biomedical files would automatically be uploaded to multiple news outlets and federal agencies.

Victor frowned.

“That sounds like exposure.”

“It is.”

“Why would Serena want that?”

Monroe pulled up another screen.

“Because the archive includes your electronic signature on dozens of illegal research approvals.”

Victor stared.

“They were forged.”

“Maybe.”

“But public opinion won’t know that at first.”

Lily understood.

“She wants the company destroyed.”

Monroe nodded.

“And Victor personally.”

The phone contained another file.

A prewritten message from Serena.

Victor Hale knew children were being used.

Victor Hale approved everything.

Victor Hale covered up deaths.

Victor looked sick.

“How many children?”

Monroe opened the Aster records.

Thirty-two.

Some had severe complications.

Three had died.

Victor whispered.

“My company did this.”

Monroe looked at him.

“People inside your company did.”

“That distinction matters legally.”

Victor stared at the names.

“It doesn’t matter enough.”

Then Lily noticed one patient surname.

Mason.

Her surname.

She leaned toward the screen.

Patient 17.

Sofia Mason.

Age six.

Date enrolled.

Eighteen years earlier.

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Lily stopped breathing.

“That’s my sister.”