Marcus stared at the bracelet.
**ADRIAN VALE JR.**
“No.”
David was losing blood quickly, but his eyes remained fixed on Marcus.
“That bracelet was yours.”
“My mother named me Marcus.”
“The woman you knew as your mother protected you,” David whispered. “But she didn’t give birth to you.”
Marcus felt the floor disappear beneath him.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
The vault doors opened.
Paramedics rushed inside.
Before they pulled David away, he grabbed Marcus’s sleeve.
“Find Daniel.”
“I intend to.”
“No.” David tightened his grip. “Find him before Vale does.”
Marcus frowned.
“Adrian Vale is alive?”
David’s eyes widened.
Then the paramedics separated them.
Marcus looked again at the bracelet.
If David was telling the truth, his entire life had been constructed around someone else’s name.
---
At the hospital, Daniel placed the old photograph in Khloe’s hands.
“Dr. Adrian Vale founded Project 417 with your grandfather.”
“What was the project really for?”
“Officially? Protecting children whose identities had to disappear.”
“Witness protection?”
“At first.”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Then Vale realized identity itself could become a commodity.”
Khloe stared at him.
“Children could disappear from one family and appear in another?”
“Yes.”
“That’s monstrous.”
“That’s why Jonathan Thorne tried to expose it.”
“And David killed him?”
Daniel looked away.
“It’s more complicated.”
“Murder usually isn’t.”
“David was trying to stop something worse.”
Khloe laughed bitterly.
“You all keep saying that.”
A sound came from the corridor.
Daniel immediately turned.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Approaching.
He switched off the room light.
“What are you doing?”
“Stay behind me.”
The door opened.
Isabella entered.
Daniel grabbed her and slammed her against the wall.
Khloe gasped.
“Dad!”
“Where is Vale?” Daniel demanded.
“I don’t know!”
“You’ve been working for him.”
“I’ve been working against him.”
Daniel tightened his grip.
“Lie again.”
Isabella looked toward Khloe.
“Ask your daughter why I grabbed her tonight.”
Daniel froze.
Isabella continued.
“I saw the needle.”
Khloe touched the mark on her neck.
“Who injected me?”
“I never saw his face.”
“But you know who sent him.”
Isabella looked at Daniel.
“Vale.”
Silence.
Then Isabella said something that changed Daniel’s expression completely.
“He knows Marcus opened Box 417.”
---
Marcus returned to the hospital just before two in the morning.
Ethan was waiting downstairs.
“I found something.”
Marcus kept walking.
“Tell me.”
“Adrian Vale died twenty-eight years ago.”
Marcus stopped.
“That’s impossible.”
“Officially.”
Ethan handed him a tablet.
The death certificate appeared legitimate.
Marcus scrolled downward.
Cause of death: cardiac arrest.
Then he saw the physician who had certified it.
**Daniel R. Sterling, M.D.**
Marcus looked up.
“Daniel declared Vale dead.”
“Exactly.”
Ethan opened another file.
“But six months later, someone using Vale’s medical license accessed Project 417.”
Marcus stared at the screen.
“So either Vale survived…”
“Or someone inherited his identity.”
The elevator opened.
Marcus stepped inside.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Khloe’s hospital room.
Taken from inside.
Marcus’s blood turned cold.
Then a message:
**YOUR WIFE IS WITH DANIEL. COME ALONE.**
He ran.
---
When Marcus reached the room, the door was open.
Khloe was gone.
Daniel was gone.
Isabella lay unconscious beside the bed.
On the wall, written in black marker, were four words:
**ASK WHO YOUR MOTHER WAS.**
Marcus heard movement behind him.
He turned.
Isabella was waking.
“Where’s Khloe?”
She struggled to focus.
“He took her.”
“Daniel?”
“No.”
Marcus knelt beside her.
“Then who?”
Isabella grabbed his wrist.
“The man from the photograph.”
“Vale?”
She shook her head.
“Not Adrian.”
Marcus felt his heart pounding.
“Who?”
Isabella whispered:
“Adrian Vale Jr.”
Marcus stared at her.
“That’s me.”
Isabella’s terrified eyes met his.
“No, Marcus.”
She swallowed.
“You weren’t the only Adrian Vale Jr.”