Lucas’s vision blurred at the edges.
The cold steel walls of the chamber shimred faintly under the low ergency lights, casting long shadows that curved around the floor like creeping fingers. His breath ca slower now—ragged, shallow. He could feel the pressure in his head increase with every passing second. The oxygen in the chamber was thinning—intentionally so.
Above him, visible through the observation glass in the ceiling, Doctor Naehr watched.
"Humans always disappoint," Naehr said calmly, his voice echoing down from a speaker embedded in the wall. "Even you, Lucas. I had hoped your convictions would bring you to my side. I was wrong."
Lucas didn’t respond. He was too busy conserving air... and buying ti.
The chamber, about the size of a dical morgue, had no vents, no exits, no visible panel. It was a sealed unit—a tomb disguised as a holding cell. On one side, tal clamps secured his wrists and ankles. The chair he sat on was bolted to the ground. Naehr was being careful.
"I could have simply used a scalpel," the doctor continued. "But this is more elegant. Hypoxia—low oxygen—will lull you into sleep. You won’t even feel it when your organs begin to shut down. A peaceful end, for soone who refused peace."
Lucas let his head loll slightly, breathing through his nose. He could already feel the symptoms. Lightheadedness. Cold fingertips. Dry mouth. He coughed once, soft and shallow.
And then he bit down.
There was a small click.
Between his molars, cleverly implanted months ago by the covert operations team, was a polyr-encased micro-chip. It was fragile—designed to break cleanly between human teeth with pressure. The mont it cracked, a chemical reaction activated a burst signal to all nearby encrypted police scanners. A breadcrumb trail that would override masking frequencies. A scream in the void.
Doctor Naehr wouldn’t hear it. The signal bypassed internal sensors.
Lucas slumped slightly, acting dazed. But inside, he knew: soone would co.
He just had to survive long enough for them to reach him.
-
When Lucas had first been kidnapped, he’d played the role of the fragile, overwheld victim well. But he was always listening. Always watching.
He rembered the winding drive—not into the mountains, but toward the ocean. He rembered the sound of gulls once, faint and far. The faint sll of salt in the air. The cool humidity that didn’t match the dry heights of Apex Laboratory’s known location.
He’d ntally mapped every turn, every pause, every fragnt of conversation between the guards. This wasn’t Apex. That much was clear.
He was sowhere underground—yes—but under the coastline. Possibly beneath an old shipping port or naval station. The architecture here was different—more reinforced. More aged.
Lucas knew this place had always been the real base. Apex was just a front, a shell for investigators to waste ti on.
And now, with the signal sent, that secret would unravel.
Doctor Naehr paced.
He hadn’t yet received confirmation of Lucas’s death, but he wasn’t concerned. The low-oxygen chambers were used in older generations of containnt. Now obsolete—but still effective. The chamber was sealed. Nothing could get in. Nothing would co out.
Still... a part of him fidgeted.
He stared at the dical console.
Lucas’s vitals—heart rate, brain activity—were stabilizing. Not dropping. That was strange.
Naehr tapped the screen. Was the sensor off?
He leaned in. "Interesting," he murmured. "Still fighting."
For a mont, he almost respected Lucas for it.
But then a red dot blinked faintly in the corner of the display. A security flag.
Naehr narrowed his eyes.
[WARNING: Encrypted Burst Detected – Origin: Contained Subject]
"What is this?" he hissed, tapping to expand the alert. But before he could investigate further, the alert vanished from the system. Wiped clean.
That made Naehr stop.
That wasn’t just an error.
Soone had tampered with the base’s network—from inside.
He spun around.
"Zenya!" he shouted through his comm-link. "Check the external sensors. I want every outer tunnel locked down now."
"Yes, Doctor," ca Zenya’s tired voice, but she sounded wary. "Why?"
"We have a signal leak. And our guest is more trouble than I calculated."
-
Minutes passed like hours.
Lucas drifted between awareness and dark static. He forced himself to count. One hundred. One hundred twenty. One hundred sixty.
Every breath was like dragging air through a cloth.
He thought about Isaac.
He thought about Adrian.
He thought about the lives still waiting above—people who had no idea a madman planned to poison evolution itself.
A flicker of noise ca through the wall. He heard boots. Movent.
The walls hissed.
Lucas blinked blearily. A seam on the wall shifted. Soone was overriding the lock.
And then, it opened.
White lights. Tactical armor.
"Target acquired. He’s alive—move!"
Lucas smiled faintly.
See he has arrived before .
--
Rain fell heavily that afternoon, thick with the scent of storm and regret.
The ornate iron gates of Levistis Manor groaned open as a worn-out black car crawled up the circular driveway. Its wheels splashed across shallow puddles, the headlights flickering weakly under the clouded sky.
Augustin was the first to hear the sound.
He stood in the foyer, drying his hair from a shower, when the butler’s voice rang out in surprise:"Lady Sachel...?"
That na alone made Augustin freeze.
Within monts, Leclair was descending the stairs, his sharp eyes narrowing at the na he hadn’t heard in nearly months. Adrian, holding little Seraphina, turned instinctively to glance toward the door, while Isaac, who had been playing with Aurelius in the sitting room, rose to his feet slowly.
The manor, which monts ago had been warm with family energy, fell into a chilling hush.
The grand front doors opened.
And there she stood.
Lady Sachel.
No longer the pristine, ice-tempered matron of the Levistis household. Her coat clung to her in damp folds, her once-perfect hair in a ss of soaked tangles. Her eyes were bloodshot and hollow. And beside her, tightly gripping her arm with one hand, stood a young man—Anshi—his features bearing an uncanny resemblance to both Sachel and soone else entirely.
"I’m sorry," Sachel said, her voice breaking like thin glass. "I had nowhere else to go."
Leclair took one step forward, arms folding. His tone was low, cold.
"You have a lot of nerve coming here."
Sachel flinched.
"I deserve that," she whispered. "All of it. I deserve worse. But I need to tell the truth... not just to you, Leclair—but to Ethan."
Adrian looked toward the hallway where Ethan’s footsteps were approaching. Within seconds, Ethan himself entered, towel over his shoulders. He stopped short as he saw her, and in that frozen mont, even his breath halted.
"...Mother?"
It was subconsiouns reaction, this was the person who had raised him for 20 years...
The word fell like a curse.
But she looked up, and a sad smile tugged at her lips. "My son," she whispered. "My beautiful, brilliant son. I failed you so badly."
They gathered in the sitting room, an atmosphere soaked in disbelief and tension.
Sachel sat on the edge of the couch like she didn’t deserve to touch the velvet. Anshi stood behind her silently, a wall of wariness.
Sachel finally began, her fingers trembling in her lap.
"Your father," she started, eyes on Ethan, "was the most complicated man I ever knew. When he brought you and Leclair to —after adopting Leclair—I thought our family would be complete. I... I wanted to believe that I was what he needed. A wife, a mother to his children. But..."
Her voice cracked.
"He never loved . Not truly. In his eyes... there was soone else. A man. Soone he could never speak about publicly. I never knew his na, but I saw it in his eyes every ti he looked past ."
Ethan’s brows furrowed, but he remained still.
"I tried to be the wife he wanted," she went on. "But in my loneliness, I made the greatest mistake of my life. I t soone—an utterly selfish, evil man. And I—"
She looked over her shoulder at Anshi.
"He was born from that night."
Leclair stood slowly, voice like ice.
"You had an affair with a criminal, birthed his child, and we were the ones punished for it?"
He had searched everything about Anshi when Adrian was hard...But to know such complicated thing...
"Yes!" she gasped. "Yes, I was wrong. But that man took my child—took Anshi—and fled the country before I even held him in my arms. I only found him again 10 years ago. But your father... he forgave . He asked , before he died, to protect you both. And I—"
She broke off, shaking her head violently.
"I didn’t protect you. I hurt you. I was bitter. Jealous. I saw Ethan growing into soone magnificent, even after the coma, and I knew he would never look at like a mother again. I saw Leclair marry a man and thought—how dare you both find happiness while I was cast aside?"
Augustin’s fists clenched, but he didn’t speak.
Adrian held Ethan’s hand quietly.
"I was cruel," Sachel whispered. "I manipulated the Elders into choosing your marriage partner. I spread lies. I wanted Ethan to marry Anshi—to tie you both together. But the Elders... they wanted revenge on your father’s legacy. So they found soone worse. Soone they thought would make Ethan’s life hell."
Her eyes turned to Adrian.
"But you... weren’t what they expected."
Adrian looked down, jaw tight.
"I thought you’d break," Sachel admitted. "But instead... you made him stronger. You had children. A family. And I—was left behind. I lashed out. Hurt Leclair’s company. Undermined Ethan’s allies. I beca... everything I once hated."
At that mont, Anshi stepped forward, his voice low but clear.
"I didn’t ask for any of this," he said, looking toward Ethan. "I only t my mother recently. I don’t hold a grudge... not toward you. You didn’t even know I existed. But when I heard the truth... I wanted to et the brother I never had."
He hated Ethan and when he saw how beautiful Adrian was, he hated them both...
Leclair scoffed. "Don’t romanticize it."
"I’m not," Anshi said flatly. "But I’m also not going to pretend I’m not angry. This family abandoned . But the man who raised —he’s the real monster."
Sachel bowed her head.
"I’ll leave," she whispered. "If you never want to see again... I understand. I had to say the truth. I had to tell you... I’m sorry."
Ethan was quiet for a long ti.
Then he stood up and said, "You can stay the night. But tomorrow... we’ll decide what to do."
Sachel broke down in tears, her head in her hands.
Ethan lowered his head and glanced at Adrian, What to do with mo--Lady Sachel is up to his lovely partner, cause he has not the one hurt the most.
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