THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER GABRIEL

The bleeding was severe.

I pressed a towel against Julian’s chest, my hands slick with his blood.

“Keep pressure here, Daniel!” I ordered.

Daniel fell to his knees, taking over. He was weeping, pressing down on the man who wasn't his father, but who was the only father he had ever known.

I turned to the doorway.

The little girl stood frozen.

She had dark eyes. A serious mouth.

She looked exactly like the silver-framed photograph on the mantel.

Evelyn was hyperventilating in her chair. “Sofia…”

“I’m not Sofia,” the little girl said quietly. “I’m Lily.”

I slowly walked toward her.

“Hi, Lily,” I said, keeping my voice soft. “Who brought you here?”

“My mommy.”

“And who is your mommy?”

Lily pointed down the hallway.

A woman stepped out of the shadows.

She was in her mid-twenties. Dark hair. Pale, exhausted skin.

The woman from the laboratory photograph.

Sofia Moretti.

Alive.

Evelyn gasped, clutching her chest. “My beautiful girl.”

But Sofia didn't look at her grandmother. She didn't look at Daniel.

She walked straight to the man bleeding on the floor.

She knelt beside Julian.

“Hold on,” she whispered, stroking his hair. “I came back for you.”

Julian’s eyes fluttered. “Sofia? You're… you're safe?”

“I’m safe,” she cried. “Because of what you did.”

I stared at her. “What did he do?”

Sofia looked up at me.

Her eyes were hard, entirely devoid of the innocence in the old photograph.

“Pierce took me after the crash,” Sofia said rapidly. “He kept me in the basement of North Shore Biological. He drained my blood for years to keep his twisted experiments alive. To keep Julian’s memory transfer stable.”

Answer one. Open two.

“But Julian didn't know,” Sofia continued, her voice breaking. “Whenever he came to the lab for his treatments, he thought he was Gabriel. But three weeks ago, his dosage dropped. The memories faded. And he remembered who he really was.”

Julian coughed, a thin line of blood escaping his lips.

“He found me in the basement,” Sofia sobbed. “He unchained me. He told me to run. To take my daughter and hide.”

I looked at the blue coat in Lily’s hands.

“Who is Lily’s father?” Daniel asked, his voice trembling as he held pressure on Julian’s chest.

Sofia closed her eyes. A tear slipped down her cheek.

“One of the guards at the clinic,” she whispered. “He helped us escape. But Pierce killed him.”

The stakes were higher now. Pierce wasn't just a corrupt doctor. He was a monster building an empire on stolen blood and stolen lives.

“We need an ambulance,” I said, pulling out my phone.

“No!” Sofia grabbed my wrist. Her grip was startlingly strong. “If he goes to a hospital, Pierce’s people will intercept the ambulance. They own the medical board.”

“He’s dying, Sofia!”

“There’s a safehouse,” she said desperately. “Catherine is waiting there. She has a surgical suite.”

Catherine. The mysterious caller. The secret twin.

“Can we trust her?” Daniel asked.

Before Sofia could answer, Thomas groaned on the floor behind us.

He was waking up.

I looked at the heavy gold pocket watch that had fallen from Julian’s vest.

It had popped open.

Inside the lid wasn't a picture of Gabriel’s wife.

It was a picture of Catherine.

And written beneath it in fading ink:

To my beloved Julian. We will take it all back.