Chapter 10 - What Evelyn Sold
I ran for the stairs. Cora followed, with 0C and June behind us. Jonah stayed to keep the pumps from starting early.
"We'll meet at the tower," he said.
"Don't disappear again," I told him.
He looked at me as if he'd been waiting twenty-two years to hear exactly that.
"I won't."
We found Evelyn on the landing beside an injured guard. A bullet had torn through her shoulder. Marcus crouched over her, trying to stop the bleeding with his jacket.
I shoved him aside. "Tell me what you did."
Evelyn's face crumpled. "Victoria found me when you were six. She said she had Cora. She showed me pictures. I gave her your blood in exchange for proof your sister was alive."
Cora went still. "You knew about me?"
"I tried to bring you home. Victoria threatened both of you."
"So you left me there," Cora said.
There was no cruel answer Evelyn could have given that would have hurt more than the truth.
"Yes," Evelyn whispered. "I was afraid. And I am sorry."
Marcus stood up. "Her blood samples also kept Elena's life-support treatment matched. Victoria made everyone responsible for someone else's survival. It was how she held us."
"And what did she hold over you?" I asked.
He looked at his bloody sleeve. "The truth about what I helped do."
An elevator opened above us. Victoria stepped out holding a silver case and a pistol.
"Very moving," she said. "Clara, hand me your mother's key."
"No."
She aimed at Evelyn.
"Then I suppose you'll watch your second mother die."
Cora took one step forward, her blue-veined neck starting to swell again.
"Touch her," Cora said, "and I'll tell them what you put inside me."
Victoria's smile vanished. "You don't even know what the serum is carrying."
May you like
Cora looked at us in sudden terror.
"Then why," she whispered, "can I hear the machines calling my name?"
