CHAPTER 15-The Other Daughter
Rachel did not tell anyone about the phone call immediately.
Not Grant.
Not Michael.
Not even Detective Harris.
Because for the first time since this nightmare began, she was afraid of the answer.
Not afraid of another secret.
She had already survived secrets.
She was afraid that the truth would become too large to carry.
A sister.
Another child connected to Adrian Hayes.
Another person whose life had been shaped by decisions made before she was even old enough to understand them.
Rachel sat beside Maddie's bed that night.
Watching her daughter sleep.
She thought about all the children.
Grant.
Michael.
The twenty-three donor children.
Herself.
And now Emily.
How many people had grown up wondering why something about their lives felt different?
How many people had searched for answers?
How many had been hurt by a truth they never chose?
The next morning, Rachel finally told Grant.
They were standing in the kitchen.
The same place where their marriage had almost fallen apart.
The same place where secrets had been revealed.
"I received a call."
Grant immediately became serious.
"From Hayes?"
"No."
She paused.
"Someone named Emily."
Grant waited.
"She says she's my sister."
Silence.
Grant slowly sat down.
"Your sister?"
Rachel nodded.
"She says Hayes gave her my number."
Michael arrived moments later.
When he heard the name, his expression changed.
"Emily."
Rachel looked at him.
"You know her?"
Michael hesitated.
"Not personally."
"But?"
He opened his laptop.
"I saw her file."
Rachel felt cold.
"You saw her file?"
Michael nodded.
"Hayes had thousands of records."
He searched.
Then stopped.
The screen turned toward them.
A file appeared.
SUBJECT: EMILY CARTER
Rachel stared.
Her own last name.
Her own family.
"How?"
Michael looked at her.
"Your father."
Rachel shook her head.
"No."
Michael sighed.
"Rachel, your father was trying to undo what Hayes did."
"Then why is there another child?"
Nobody answered.
They met Emily at a quiet coffee shop outside the city.
Rachel almost didn't recognize her.
Not because Emily looked different.
Because she looked familiar.
The same eyes.
The same expression when she was nervous.
The same small movement of her hands.
It felt like looking at a stranger who somehow belonged to her.
Emily stood when Rachel approached.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
Then Emily whispered:
"You look like him."
Rachel frowned.
"Who?"
"Our father."
Rachel's chest tightened.
Their father.
Not Hayes.
Her father.
Emily sat down.
"I know this is a lot."
Rachel studied her.
"Tell me everything."
Emily nodded.
"Because I need answers too."
Emily's story was different from Rachel's.
And somehow, that made it worse.
She had not grown up with loving parents.
She had grown up inside the system.
Adrian Hayes had raised her as part of his research.
Not as a daughter.
As data.
"He told me I was special."
Emily looked down.
"When I was little, I thought that meant he loved me."
Rachel felt pain in her chest.
"How old were you when you learned the truth?"
"Eleven."
Rachel looked at her.
"What happened?"
Emily gave a sad smile.
"I found my own file."
A pause.
"It had my name."
"My medical history."
"My genetic results."
She swallowed.
"But it also had a number."
Rachel understood.
A subject number.
Emily nodded.
"That was when I realized I wasn't his daughter."
She looked at Rachel.
"I was his project."
Rachel asked the question she was afraid to ask.
"Who is our mother?"
Emily looked away.
"I don't know."
The answer surprised Rachel.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"How?"
"Because Hayes erased everything."
Michael became tense.
"That means he was hiding something."
Emily nodded.
"Yes."
Rachel looked at her.
"What?"
Emily reached into her bag.
She placed an old photograph on the table.
Rachel picked it up.
Her heart stopped.
The woman in the picture was young.
Beautiful.
Standing beside Adrian Hayes.
But Rachel didn't recognize her.
Until she saw the note written on the back.
Catherine Carter — First Genetic Donor Partner
Rachel looked up.
"Catherine?"
Emily nodded.
"Your biological mother."
Rachel froze.
"My mother?"
Emily whispered:
"Yes."
The name meant nothing.
Because Rachel had grown up knowing only one mother.
Her mother who raised her.
The woman who loved her.
The woman who had died believing she had protected her daughter.
But now another woman existed.
A woman connected to Hayes.
A woman who had been erased.
"Is she alive?"
Emily looked down.
"I don't know."
Rachel felt a strange sadness.
Not because she wanted another mother.
Because she realized someone else had been erased from history.
That evening, they searched old records.
With Emily's information, Michael found something hidden.
A private medical report.
Date:
Thirty years earlier.
The title:
CARTER-HAYES GENETIC COMPATIBILITY STUDY
Rachel stared.
"The experiment started with my mother."
Michael nodded.
Emily looked terrified.
"No."
Rachel looked at her.
"What?"
Emily pointed to the document.
"Look at the date."
Rachel did.
Then she understood.
The experiment had not started with Grant.
It had not started with her.
It had started before either of them existed.
Then they found the final page.
A handwritten note from Adrian Hayes.
Rachel read it aloud.
"The first generation produced unexpected emotional attachment."
"The subjects developed independent identities."
"The second generation must be controlled earlier."
Her hands shook.
Emily whispered:
"Second generation."
Rachel looked at her.
"Meaning us."
Michael nodded.
"But there's more."
He pointed to the bottom.
Another sentence.
"The third generation will determine whether the genetic pattern can survive naturally."
Rachel's eyes moved.
To the final line.
A name.
A child.
MADDIE BENNETT
Nobody spoke.
Because suddenly they understood.
Maddie was not just part of the second generation.
She was the beginning of the third.
That night, Rachel received one final message.
From Adrian Hayes.
Only one sentence.
"Now you understand why I needed Maddie."
Rachel stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
A photograph.
A recent photograph.
Taken from inside their home.
Maddie sleeping.
Rachel's blood turned cold.
Below it were four words.
"The final phase begins."
Rachel dropped the phone.
Because Adrian Hayes was not finished.
He had never intended to stop.
May you like
And now he wasn't hiding anymore.
He was coming for Maddie.
