Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF A FATHER’S LIFE
Victor’s video ended after twelve seconds.
The hospital room number appeared in the corner.
Ethan called Graham’s security detail.
No one answered.
Detective Reed contacted local police.
Officers were already moving through the hospital, but the building contained six hundred rooms, dozens of exits, and hundreds of people wearing medical clothing.
Victor had chosen the perfect place to disappear.
Ethan watched the video again.
Graham remained unconscious.
A white bandage covered his chest.
Victor held the syringe above an intravenous line.
“Is the room number real?” Claire asked.
“Yes.”
“Then he wants us to find him.”
“He wants the ledger.”
Vivian emerged from the greenhouse tunnel carrying the steel case.
Claire had never been more relieved or more uncertain to see someone.
Her mother crossed the burning lawn without looking at Eleanor.
“The original ledger stays with me.”
Ethan stepped toward her.
“My father will die.”
“Graham helped create the system that killed Daniel.”
“He also tried to expose it.”
“After he became rich.”
Claire looked at Vivian.
“This is not about forgiving him.”
“It is about stopping Victor from killing another person.”
Vivian’s expression did not change.
“Victor will kill Graham whether we bring the ledger or not.”
“Then we give him something else.”
“What?”
“A copy.”
“The ledger includes security fibers and handwritten signatures.”
“He may not examine it immediately.”
“He will.”
Ethan looked at the steel case.
“What does it contain?”
Vivian opened it on the hood of a police vehicle.
Inside lay several thick black books.
The oldest bore Vivian’s name.
The newest contained payment records from less than three months earlier.
Victor’s network had remained active.
“He has judges, doctors, executives, and police officers listed here,” Vivian said.
“If he obtains this case, everyone connected to him will help him disappear.”
Reed looked at the books.
“If we secure them as evidence, he loses leverage.”
“He also kills Graham.”
Claire examined the newest ledger.
Several pages near the back had been marked with red tabs.
One listed payments to a private security company.
Another listed a medical facility called Northbridge Recovery Center.
A third contained a name Claire recognized.
Naomi Cole.
The journalist who recorded Eleanor pushing her.
Naomi had received three payments from a shell company controlled by Victor.
Claire showed Reed.
“Naomi is working for him.”
Reed studied the entry.
“Or he is trying to make us believe she is.”
“Where is she now?”
“Police placed her in a hotel as a protected witness.”
“Which hotel?”
“I am not telling anyone until I verify the security team.”
Eleanor approached the vehicle.
Smoke darkened the shoulder of her silver gown.
She looked at the ledger.
“You found it.”
Vivian closed the book.
“You do not get to touch this.”
Eleanor met her eyes.
“I know.”
The two women stood face-to-face for the first time in decades.
Claire expected rage.
Instead, she saw exhaustion.
Eleanor looked at the scar near Vivian’s temple.
“I thought Victor had killed you.”
“You knew I survived.”
“I knew for three years.”
“Twenty-three.”
“I knew someone had survived the fire.”
“You paid the first clinic.”
“Graham arranged the payments.”
“You signed them.”
“I did not know your identity.”
Vivian laughed softly.
“You always lied best when you used part of the truth.”
Ethan interrupted.
“My father is running out of time.”
They created a plan.
Vivian removed the oldest ledger and replaced it with financial reports from an unrelated company.
The outer book remained genuine.
The signatures on the first pages remained visible.
A tracking device was hidden beneath the spine.
Reed contacted a tactical unit at the hospital.
They would stay outside the room until Ethan confirmed Graham was alive.
Claire insisted on going.
Ethan refused.
Claire ignored him.
Vivian also insisted.
Eleanor remained under police supervision.
Evelyn was transported to a separate hospital under guard.
Adrian disappeared before anyone noticed.
Ethan called him twice.
The number went directly to voicemail.
They reached St. Matthew’s Medical Center twenty-eight minutes after Victor’s message.
The lobby was crowded.
Reporters had already begun gathering outside after news of the manor fire spread online.
Images of Eleanor pushing Claire had leaked from multiple guests.
The Ashford name was becoming a public scandal.
Ethan carried the false ledger inside a black medical case.
Claire walked beside him.
Vivian remained in the surveillance vehicle with Reed.
Victor sent instructions through the hidden phone.
East elevator.
Seventh floor.
No police.
Claire and Ethan entered the elevator alone.
“You should stay outside the room,” Ethan said.
“You already tried that argument.”
“You are injured.”
“You are emotionally compromised.”
“My father is being held hostage.”
“Exactly.”
The elevator doors opened.
The seventh-floor corridor appeared empty.
A wheelchair stood beside the nurses’ station.
No nurses were present.
Every patient door had been closed.
Claire noticed a red emergency light above the ventilation system.
“Something is wrong.”
Ethan smelled it seconds later.
“Gas.”
They covered their mouths and moved toward Graham’s room.
The door stood open.
Graham lay in the bed.
Victor was gone.
A syringe rested on the floor.
Ethan rushed to the intravenous line and disconnected it.
Graham’s monitor showed a weak but steady heartbeat.
Claire checked the bathroom.
Empty.
A phone rang beneath the pillow.
Ethan answered.
Victor spoke through the speaker.
“You brought Claire.”
“You asked for the ledger.”
“Place it beside the window.”
“Release the floor staff.”
“Most are sleeping.”
“What did you give them?”
“A mild sedative in the ventilation system.”
“You could kill someone.”
“Collateral damage is only shocking when poor people cause it.”
Claire looked through the window.
A maintenance platform hung outside the building.
Victor planned to retrieve the case from the exterior.
Ethan placed it near the glass.
“Now what?”
“Break the window.”
“It does not open.”
“There is a fire ax in the corridor.”
Claire saw movement reflected in the dark television screen.
Someone stood behind the door.
She turned.
Adrian entered wearing a surgical mask.
Ethan raised his weapon.
Adrian lifted both hands.
“I’m here to help.”
“Where did you go?”
“To find Victor’s exit route.”
“Did you?”
“He has a helicopter on the hospital roof.”
Claire looked toward the window.
“The maintenance platform is a distraction.”
Adrian nodded.
“He wants us focused outside.”
Victor’s voice remained on the phone.
“Ethan, I am losing patience.”
Adrian pointed toward the ceiling.
A small camera watched the room.
Ethan carried the case toward the window.
Claire quietly handed Adrian the tracking receiver.
The signal moved upward.
Victor was directly above them.
Adrian left through the bathroom, which connected to the neighboring room through a maintenance access panel.
Ethan struck the window with the fire ax.
The first blow cracked the glass.
The second opened a hole.
Cold wind rushed inside.
Claire placed the case on the exterior platform.
A motor pulled it upward.
Victor laughed.
“You always were obedient when Graham’s life was involved.”
The line ended.
Ethan moved to Graham.
His father’s eyes opened.
“Ethan.”
“I’m here.”
“Ledger.”
“It’s safe.”
Graham’s face tightened.
“No.”
“What?”
“Do not let him open it.”
“It is fake.”
Graham grabbed Ethan’s wrist.
“Victor knows.”
Claire approached.
“How?”
“He created the ledgers.”
A gunshot sounded from the roof.
Then another.
Adrian’s voice shouted through Ethan’s phone.
“He has Naomi.”
Claire stared at the ceiling.
The journalist was not safely inside a hotel.
Victor had brought her to the hospital.
The tactical unit entered the seventh floor.
Reed arrived wearing a protective mask.
“Ventilation is being cleared.”
“Victor is on the roof,” Ethan said.
“He has Naomi.”
They ran toward the emergency stairs.
Claire remained behind long enough to look at Graham.
“Did Evelyn order my father’s death?”
Graham closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Daniel discovered Adrian existed.”
Claire froze.
“What did that have to do with my father?”
“Adrian was not supposed to survive.”
“Why?”
Graham struggled to speak.
“Because Victor used him in the first Helix pediatric trial.”
The truth struck Claire with sickening force.
Ethan’s twin brother had not been hidden merely to manipulate the Ashford inheritance.
He had been used as a child test subject.
“Did Eleanor know?”
“No.”
“Did Evelyn?”
Graham opened his eyes.
“She volunteered him.”
Claire turned toward the stairs.
On the roof, helicopter blades began spinning.
Ethan, Reed, and the tactical officers burst through the upper door.
Victor stood beside the aircraft.
Naomi knelt near him with her hands bound.
Adrian stood across the landing pad.
Blood covered one sleeve.
Victor held the false ledger in one hand and a gun in the other.
“You brought me garbage,” he shouted.
Ethan aimed at him.
“Step away from the helicopter.”
Victor pressed the weapon against Naomi’s neck.
“She has spent three years publishing exactly what I allowed her to find.”
Naomi looked at Reed.
“He threatened my daughter.”
Victor smiled.
“Everyone has a price.”
Adrian moved closer.
“Let her go.”
Victor looked at him.
“My finest failure.”
“You experimented on me.”
“I saved you.”
“You poisoned me.”
“You were born with a weak heart.”
“You gave me Helix before it had a name.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“You lived.”
“Thirty-one other children did not.”
Ethan looked at Adrian.
“How do you know that?”
Adrian removed a flash drive from his pocket.
“I found the trial records.”
Victor fired.
Adrian fell.
Ethan returned fire.
The bullet struck the helicopter door.
Naomi threw herself sideways.
Reed dragged her behind the stairwell wall.
Victor climbed into the aircraft.
The pilot lifted from the roof.
Ethan ran toward Adrian.
Claire reached the landing pad seconds later.
Adrian remained conscious.
The bullet had passed through his upper arm.
He handed Ethan the flash drive.
“Do not let Graham destroy this.”
“Why would he?”
Adrian looked toward Claire.
“Because Graham signed every child’s consent form.”
The helicopter banked above the hospital.
Then its engine stuttered.
Smoke poured from the rear compartment.
Victor’s false ledger had contained more than a tracking device.
Vivian had hidden a signal jammer inside the spine.
The helicopter descended toward the river.
Police vehicles raced along the roads below.
For one hopeful second, Claire believed Victor would finally be caught.
Then Graham’s hospital monitor alarm sounded through her phone.
A nurse shouted in the background.
Claire looked at the screen.
Graham had disappeared from his bed.
On the pillow, he had left a handwritten message.
The handwriting matched the letter Claire received.
May you like
Do not believe Vivian.
She started Helix.
