CHAPTER 7 â Lily Was Never the Target⊠Ethan Was
The steel vault door slammed shut with a deafening boom.
Darkness swallowed the underground chamber.
Then...
One by one...
Large monitors flickered to life.
Every screen showed the same image.
Ethan.
From the day he was born...
His first steps...
His first day of school...
His graduation...
Every moment of his life had been secretly recorded.
Lily's voice trembled.
"Someone has been watching you your entire life..."
A distorted laugh echoed through hidden speakers.
"Not someone..."
"Everyone."
Suddenly, the lights came back on.
Standing on the balcony above them were dozens of people dressed in black suits.
Board members.
Lawyers.
Executives.
Politicians.
Some of the most powerful people in the country.
None of them looked surprised.
Instead...
They applauded.
A tall man stepped forward.
His face had never appeared in any family photograph.
"My name is Victor Ashford."
"For thirty years..."
"I've been the invisible owner of everything the Harrington family believed they controlled."
Ethan stared at him.
"My grandmother said James wasn't the mastermind."
Victor smiled.
"James worked for me."
"So did Richard."
"So did half the people sitting in Congress."
The room fell silent.
Margaret lowered her head.
"I tried to stop him..."
"But I failed."
Victor slowly descended the staircase.
"You've spent months searching for your family's inheritance."
"But the Harrington fortune was never my goal."
He stopped directly in front of Ethan.
"It was you."
Ethan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Victor reached into his pocket and placed an old hospital bracelet in Ethan's hand.
The date printed on it...
Matched Ethan's birthday.
"But the name wasn't Ethan."
It read:
BABY NO. 27
Lily looked at Margaret.
"What is this?"
Margaret burst into tears.
"The fire..."
"The hospital..."
"It wasn't an accident."
Victor nodded.
"Twenty-five newborn babies disappeared that night."
"Twenty-four of them died."
"You..."
He pointed at Ethan.
"...were the only survivor."
The room became deathly quiet.
"You were never born into the Harrington family."
"You were selected."
Ethan's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"Selected... for what?"
Victor smiled for the first time.
"For an experiment."
He pressed a remote.
Another screen descended from the ceiling.
It displayed hundreds of classified files.
Each one labeled with a child's photograph.
Every file except one...
Had a giant red stamp across it.
DECEASED
Only Ethan's file remained open.
Its status read:
PROJECT PHOENIX â SUCCESSFUL SUBJECT
Lily stepped in front of Ethan.
"Stay away from him!"
Victor laughed softly.
"I've waited twenty-five years for this moment."
"You think tonight is about money."
"It never was."
"It's about reclaiming what belongs to me."
Before anyone could react...
The chamber began shaking violently.
Alarms screamed through the bunker.
A computerized voice echoed overhead.
"SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED."
Victor's smile disappeared.
"What?"
Someone else had activated the system.
Margaret looked toward the far end of the chamber...
Where an old man slowly emerged from the shadows.
He carried a silver cane engraved with the original Harrington crest.
Victor's face turned pale.
"No..."
"You're supposed to be dead."
The old man smiled calmly.
"That's exactly what I wanted you to believe."
Ethan's eyes widened.
The man looked exactly like the portraits hanging in every Harrington mansion.
He spoke only four wordsâ
May you like
"Welcome home, grandson."
TO BE CONTINUEDâŠ
