PART 6 — The Disease Inside Me
The room went completely silent.
I stared at the screen.
“What did you just say?”
Eleanor didn't blink.
“You heard me, Marcus.”
My father stepped forward.
“Eleanor, that's enough.”
“No.”
Her voice was cold.
“He deserves to know why you abandoned him.”
I turned toward my father.
“Abandoned me?”
He looked away.
My chest tightened.
“You said you disappeared to protect me.”
“I did.”
“Then why does she say I was dying?”
My father finally looked at me.
“Because you were.”
I felt the floor disappear beneath my feet.
“How long?”
He hesitated.
“Fifteen years ago, doctors discovered abnormal cellular degeneration in your blood.”
I remembered the exhaustion.
The unexplained fevers.
The headaches I'd suffered in my twenties.
I had always blamed stress.
My father continued.
“They told me you might have less than ten years.”
My voice cracked.
“And you knew?”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you were dead while I was dying?”
“I was trying to find a way to save you.”
Eleanor smiled.
“And he failed.”
My father glared at the screen.
“I didn't fail.”
“You found the mutation.”
He went silent.
I looked between them.
“What mutation?”
My father whispered,
“The same one Ethan and Noah inherited.”
My stomach turned.
“So I'm sick because of my own DNA?”
“Not exactly.”
He took a breath.
“Your body repairs damaged cells unusually fast.”
“That sounds like a good thing.”
“It isn't.”
He looked at me.
“Your cells don't always know when to stop.”
I froze.
“They regenerate…”
“Too aggressively.”
My hands began trembling.
“Then why am I still alive?”
My father looked at Ethan and Noah.
“Because your sons inherited the corrected version.”
Eleanor interrupted.
“Not corrected.”
She smiled.
“Improved.”
Thomas stepped toward the monitor.
“You're going to kill them.”
Eleanor's expression hardened.
“Without the boys, Marcus dies.”
I stared at her.
“What are you saying?”
“Their cells could stabilize yours.”
My heart stopped.
“You want to use my sons to cure me?”
“No.”
She paused.
“I want to use your entire family to finish the treatment.”
I looked at Ethan.
Then Noah.
They were frightened.
They had no idea what any of this meant.
I stepped between them and the laboratory glass.
“You're not touching my children.”
Eleanor smiled.
“You still don't understand.”
The monitor suddenly changed.
A medical scan appeared.
It was mine.
My name was written across the top.
And beneath it was a date.
Sixteen years ago.
I stared at the image.
Then I noticed something impossible.
There was another patient's name beside mine.
Evelyn Carter.
I turned slowly toward Evelyn.
She was crying.
“What is this?”
She couldn't answer.
My father closed his eyes.
Eleanor spoke softly.
“Ask Evelyn why your mother chose her.”
I looked at Evelyn.
“Tell me.”
She wiped her tears.
“I was pregnant before, Marcus.”
My heart sank.
“What?”
She looked toward Ethan and Noah.
“I lost the baby.”
The room became silent.
“Your mother came to me afterward.”
“What did she offer?”
Evelyn whispered,
“A second chance.”
I stared at her.
“And what did she take?”
She looked at the twins.
“Everything.”
Suddenly, alarms began screaming throughout the facility.
Red lights flashed.
Thomas pulled out his weapon.
My father looked toward the corridor.
“They've breached the outer doors.”
Eleanor smiled from the monitor.
“You have five minutes.”
“Five minutes for what?”
Her smile disappeared.
“For Northbridge to take back what belongs to them.”
The screen went black.
I grabbed Ethan's hand.
Noah grabbed my other hand.
My father opened a hidden door behind the laboratory wall.
“There is another exit.”
Thomas shouted,
“Then move!”
We ran.
But before I entered the tunnel, I looked back at my father.
“Dad.”
He stopped.
“If I'm dying…”
He turned.
“Why do you look afraid?”
His face went pale.
“Because, Marcus…”
He swallowed.
“You're not the only person who carries the mutation.”
A gunshot echoed through the facility.
And from somewhere in the darkness, a woman's voice whispered:
“Neither am I.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
