LOGINFive Years LaterThe morning at the Blackwood Foundation’s "Orchard" campus in the rolling hills of Vermont didn't start with a security briefing. It started with the sound of a school bell and the scent of wild strawberries.Clara Vance stood on the balcony of the main hall, her hair now cut into a sharp, efficient bob. Beside her, Silas—serving the final year of his community-mandated oversight—monitored a tablet. But he wasn't looking at stock prices. He was watching the GPS trackers on the school buses bringing the rescued heirs home from a field trip."All twelve are back," Silas said, his voice softer than it had been in the London basements. "Plus the three from the Virginia branch we found last spring. They’re all accounted for.""Good," Clara said. "The Directorate is satisfied?""The Directorate doesn't exist anymore, Clara. You saw to that. There’s just the Foundation now."A familiar silver sedan pulled up the gravel driveway. Dante stepped out first, followed by a blur of
The valley was no longer a place of hiding. As the SUV crested the final ridge, the stone cottage appeared below, nestled in the gold and amber hues of a late autumn afternoon. There were no black sedans idling at the gate, no men in earpieces patrolling the perimeter. The silence was absolute, save for the wind rushing through the tall grass and the distant, rhythmic clinking of a cowbell.Dante turned off the engine, but he didn't move. He sat with his hands resting on the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the smoke curling from the chimney. Beside him, Clara—his sister, his twin, his ghost—stared at the house with an expression that shifted between awe and a deep, quiet apprehension."It’s not a fortress," Clara said, her voice small."No," Dante replied, finally unbuckling his seatbelt. "It’s just a home. It leaks when it rains and the floors creak, but the sensors are all gone."They stepped out into the crisp air. The door to the cottage flew open, and the triplets spilled out l
The London fog had returned, thick and oily, clinging to the glass walls of the Blackwood Gallery like a shroud. Dante stood across the street, his breath hitching in the damp air. He didn't look like a CEO anymore. His coat was stained with Parisian rain, his eyes were bloodshot from thirty-six hours of sleeplessness, and his hand was steady only because it had to be.He looked at the video loop on his phone one last time. Silas. The man who had sat on the nursery floor. The man who had helped them flee to Italy. It hadn't been an act of redemption; it had been a tactical clearance of the board. By helping Dante remove Julian, Silas had simply eliminated the only other person who knew where the "Primary Source" was hidden.Dante crossed the street, avoiding the main entrance. He knew the building’s layout better than anyone alive. He slipped through the delivery bay, the same way he had in Milan, but this time the air felt different. It felt like a trap that had been set ten years ag
The air in the cabin of the private jet was pressurized and sterile, a sharp contrast to the cold, rosemary-scented wind of the Alps they had left behind. Dante sat across from Bella, the hum of the engines vibrating through the soles of his boots. On the table between them lay a tablet displaying the file for Subject 04: a seven-year-old girl named Elodie, currently living in a luxury apartment overlooking the Tuileries Garden."Rue de Rivoli," Bella murmured, her eyes scanning the surveillance photos of the child. Elodie had dark, curly hair and a way of holding her chin that was a mirror image of the way Bella looked when she was deep in thought. "She has no idea, Dante. She thinks she’s just a student at an international school. She doesn't know she’s a contingency plan.""She’s the first one we reach because she’s the most vulnerable," Dante said. "Julian’s leak hit the French wires twenty minutes ago. The paparazzi are already swarming the school gates. If we don't get her out b
The air in the Milan sub-basement felt like it had been replaced with liquid lead. Dante stared at the photo on his phone—the silver-haired figure of his mother standing by the lake where his children played. It wasn't a threat of violence; it was a threat of presence. Evelyn didn't need a gun to destroy a life; she just needed a secret."She’s there," Bella whispered, her voice trembling as she looked over his shoulder. "Dante, we left them with her. We left them with the woman who started the entire project.""We didn't leave them alone," Dante said, his voice a low, vibrating growl. "Sofia is there. And Silas’s team is on the perimeter. But my mother isn't there to hurt them. She’s there to reclaim them. She’s the 'Primary Source,' Bella. Everything we’ve fought—the clinic, Julian, the variables—it all started with her."Dante didn't wait for the elevator. He bolted for the stairs, Bella a frantic step behind him. They emerged into the cool night air of the Brera district, the city
The Alpine sun was too bright. It turned the turquoise water of the lake into a shimmering, fractured mirror that made Dante’s head throb. He stood on the gravel path, his mother’s words hanging in the air like a poisonous fog. Twelve children. Twelve heartbeats scattered across the globe, each one a "variable" in a master plan that didn't end with his own sons and daughter."Twelve?" Bella asked, her voice barely a whisper. She stepped closer to Evelyn, her hands clenched at her sides. "You’re telling me there are twelve other women who went through what I did? Twelve other nurseries with sensors and 'specialists'?""Not all of them reached the nursery stage," Evelyn said, her gaze fixed on the bell tower in the water. "Some were deemed 'non-viable' early on. Some are still in the care of the Geneva holding groups, being raised by professional surrogates under the guise of elite boarding schools. The trust calls them 'Reserve Heirs.' A insurance policy against your... independence, D







