Chapter 13 - The Son's Confession
Julian stood on the concrete landing, blocking the narrow staircase with his shoulders squared, though his entire body shook with exhaustion.
Clara stopped abruptly, her hand gripping the cold metal handrail. "Julian? What are you doing here? Security said you fled through the loading dock."
"I did," Julian replied, his voice a ragged whisper that bounced off the concrete walls. "And then I realized I couldn't run anymore. Arthur’s system... it’s designed to trap everyone who touches it. You, me, Chloe, and this baby."
Chloe pulled the newborn tighter to her chest, stepping back defensively. "Stay away from us, Julian. You lied to me about everything. You knew your father used his own genetic material for this child."
Julian flinched as if he had been physically struck. Tears spilled over his lower eyelids, tracking clean paths through the grime on his cheeks. "I didn't know until yesterday, Chloe. When the preliminary lab report crossed my desk at the foundation office, I thought it was a clerical error. But then I found the old medical logs in the safe."
Clara took a careful step down toward her son, her burgundy suit jacket rustling in the enclosed space. "What logs, Julian? Tell me what your father was doing."
Julian swallowed hard, holding out the white envelope in his trembling hand. "Arthur wasn't just building a medical legacy, Mom. He was running a generational cloning project using proprietary genetic sequences derived from your original DNA back in 1991. Every child born under the Vance trust... we're not regular descendants. We're iterative copies."
The words hung in the stairwell like lead weights, silencing the distant wail of the fire alarm and the pulsing red lights.
Sarah gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "That's impossible. Human reproductive cloning is banned internationally."
"Not when you own the private medical jurisdiction and bribe the oversight committees," Julian said bitterly. He looked directly at Chloe, his eyes full of a pathetic, desperate plea for forgiveness. "I wanted to stop it, Chloe. That's why I brought you to this hospital. I wanted my child to be born outside the estate's control."
"And instead, you handed her right to your father's ghost," Chloe said, her voice freezing the air between them.
Before Julian could answer, the heavy steel door at the top of the stairwell slammed open behind Clara, and Mr. Henderson’s voice echoed down the concrete shaft.
May you like
"It's over, Julian," Henderson called out, stepping onto the upper landing with a team of estate security guards behind him. "Hand over the envelope and step away from the child."
---
