Chapter 23 - The Confession of Evelyn Vance
Ethan did not stop walking until he was ten feet from the barrel of Evelyn’s gun. He lowered the crowbar to his side, his eyes shifting from the weapon to the trembling boy hiding behind her legs.
"Julian," Ethan whispered softly.
The boy peeked out from behind Evelyn’s tactical pants. His wide blue eyes were filled with tears, but he looked at Ethan with an instinctive, bewildered recognition.
"Is that my daddy?" Julian asked Evelyn, tugging at her sleeve. "Auntie Evelyn, you said Daddy lived in the castle above the sky."
"Be quiet, Julian," Evelyn commanded softly, her eyes never leaving Ethan’s face.
"Put the gun down, Evelyn," Ethan said, keeping his voice impossibly calm. "Clara is gone. The board of Saint Jude Logistics was dissolved by federal regulators six months ago. There is no one hunting the trust. There is no one coming for this boy."
A bitter, humorless laugh escaped Evelyn’s lips. "You think Saint Jude was just a corporate board, Ethan? You really are as blind as Clara said you were."
"What are you talking about?"
"Saint Jude wasn't an investment syndicate," Evelyn hissed, her hand steady on the trigger. "It was a private genetic consortium funded by our father. Clara didn't have a natural disease, Ethan. She was the subject of an experimental gene-therapy trial twenty-five years ago that broke down her cellular structure. And she passed that genetic anomaly into both of her embryos."
Ethan felt the tunnel spin around him. "What anomaly?"
"The reason Julian was kept below ground isn't because of the money," Evelyn revealed, her voice cracking with suppressed grief. "Julian was born with the defect fully active. For the first three years of his life, his immune system couldn't survive natural sunlight or atmospheric pollutants. I spent four years down here in a pressurized sterile box, pumping him with synthetic antibodies, keeping him alive with equipment stolen from Mercer’s clinic!"
Ethan looked at Julian. The boy’s skin was porcelain pale, almost translucent beneath the emergency lights, but his eyes were bright, his breathing clear.
"He's healed," Ethan realized aloud. "You cured him."
"Mercer developed the stabilizer before he died," Evelyn said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Julian's blood reached full genetic homeostasis three weeks ago. He's safe now. He can live in the sun. But Leo..."
Evelyn stopped, her lower lip trembling.
Ethan felt an icy dread grip his spine, far colder than anything he had felt in the vault. "What about Leo? Leo is healthy. He had his eighteen-month checkup last week. The pediatrician said his development is perfect."
Evelyn looked at Ethan with profound, agonizing pity.
"Leo isn't eighteen months old, Ethan," she whispered. "Leo was taken out of stasis eighteen months ago, but his stabilizer treatment failed. The pediatric records you have are forged. The nanny you hired, Mrs. Gable—who do you think recommended her to your household agency?"
May you like
Ethan’s heart stopped. "Mrs. Gable was hired through Clara’s family firm."
"Mrs. Gable works for the remaining researchers from Saint Jude," Evelyn said, lowering the pistol slightly as terror crept into her voice. "I didn't send you that yellow envelope today, Ethan. Saint Jude sent it to draw you into the basement so the nursery would be left completely unguarded."
