Chapter 7 - The Unraveling Truth
Maya didn't wait for morning. She immediately called Detective Sarah Miller and demanded an emergency face-to-face meeting at the precinct.
Sitting in a dimly lit interrogation room, Miller listened as Maya recounted her encounter with Julian Thorne. As Miller reviewed a federal intelligence database, her face grew progressively paler.
"Julian Thorne isn't an investor," Miller said, turning her monitor toward Maya. "He’s a high-level fixer for an international corporate espionage ring that operated out of Seattle ten years ago. They were the ones funding Marcus Harper’s shell companies."
"What did Thorne mean about 'stolen research'?" Maya demanded. "Why would he care about a rare genetic disease like Mason-Keller syndrome?"
Miller typed rapidly on her keyboard, pulling up classified court transcripts from Marcus Harper's trial before his death.
"Look at this," Miller pointed at the screen. "Marcus wasn't just laundering money. He worked as a chief lab technician for a biotech firm owned by Thorne's parent company. Ten years ago, that firm was secretly developing a gene-editing delivery system designed to cure metabolic disorders. The project was shut down by the FDA for illegal human trials."
Maya read through the technical documents, her eyes widening in horror as a terrifying realization dawned on her.
"Oh my God..." Maya whispered.
"What is it?" Miller asked.
"Mason-Keller syndrome is an extraordinarily rare hereditary disease—less than one in three million births," Maya explained, her hands shaking. "The odds of two identical twins inheriting it naturally are microscopic. But if Marcus Harper had access to an experimental gene-editing vector... and if he illegally tested it on his newborn nieces fifteen years ago..."
"He didn't just owe them money," Miller finished the sentence, horrified. "He used his brother's twin babies as unapproved human test subjects for Thorne's firm!"
"That's why Lucy and Lily have the disease!" Maya stood up, her mind racing with clinical horror. "It wasn't a natural genetic defect! It was an induced genetic mutation caused by an illegal trial fifteen years ago! That's why Daniel and Rachel noticed the symptoms early! And that's why Thorne wants the girls—they aren't just children to him; they are living, breathing evidence of an illegal bio-weapons experiment that could destroy his entire corporate empire!"
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Miller grabbed her coat and service weapon from her desk. "We need to move those girls out of Mercy General right now."
"It's too late," Maya said, a cold wave of terror washing over her. "Thorne was already inside the hospital two hours ago!"
