Chapter 13 - what Franklin remembered
The device was examined only as evidence.
No one activated its medical functions.
A forensic technician isolated the storage module and copied its data.
Thousands of files appeared.
Trial records.
Financial ledgers.
Audio logs.
Video.
Franklin sat beside Nathan as Detective Cole opened the oldest folder.
A video began.
Young Franklin faced the camera.
Evelyn sat beside him.
They looked terrified.
Franklin watched himself speak.
“If this recording survives, Northstar has moved beyond research.”
He listed unauthorized trials.
Suppressed injuries.
Payments to silence families.
Then Evelyn said:
“We copied everything onto the portable unit. We are taking it to federal investigators tonight.”
Franklin whispered:
“The night my parents died.”
The video continued.
Young Franklin looked directly into the camera.
“If something happens to us, Samuel Keene is responsible for the containment protocol.”
Arthur leaned forward.
Not his father.
Samuel.
Then Evelyn added:
“But Samuel does not control Northstar.”
Everyone went silent.
“He reports to Marjorie Mercer.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
His mother.
The true operational founder.
The woman officially dead before many of Northstar’s worst acts occurred.
The video ended.
Another file began automatically.
This one was recorded after Franklin’s crash.
Franklin appeared disoriented in a hospital gown.
Samuel stood beside the bed.
“Tell me your name.”
“Franklin Hale.”
“What happened last night?”
Franklin struggled.
“My parents…”
Samuel glanced off camera.
A woman’s voice instructed:
“Reset him.”
Arthur froze.
He knew the voice.
His mother.
Marjorie Mercer.
Nathan looked at him.
Arthur whispered:
“That’s her.”
Another recording.
Franklin recovering.
Again.
Another.
Memory tests.
Contextual questions.
The program had manipulated his recollection repeatedly until the crash, Evelyn, and Northstar were fragmented.
Then came a recording marked FINAL INTEGRATION.
Evelyn entered the room alone.
Young Franklin looked at her without recognition.
She began crying.
He asked:
“Do I know you?”
Evelyn smiled through tears.
“No.”
The older Franklin covered his face.
Nathan looked away.
It was unbearable.
The woman who later became his mother had watched Franklin forget their entire first life together.
Yet she had returned years later.
Not because of a plan.
Because she could not stay away.
The final data file contained a list of people Marjorie designated for continuity.
MARJORIE MERCER — FOUNDER.
SAMUEL KEENE — MEDICAL SUCCESSOR.
EVELYN ROSS — ETHICS ADMINISTRATOR.
FRANKLIN HALE — RIGHTS HOLDER.
Arthur read the structure.
Marjorie had designed a system in which no single heir could restart Northstar.
It required convergence.
Medical successor.
Administrative successor.
Rights holder.
Mercer capital.
The marriage clause reunited financial rights—but full activation required more.
Samuel needed Evelyn.
And Franklin.
Nathan asked:
“Then why manipulate Victoria and me?”
Richard answered.
“Your marriage consolidates the money and patents.”
Arthur continued.
“Samuel still needs the human authority signatures.”
Detective Cole looked at Franklin.
“And perhaps that’s why nobody has simply killed you.”
Franklin felt no comfort.
Then an encrypted file unlocked.
A recent entry.
Added only six months earlier.
EVELYN ROSS — ACTIVE.
AUDIO TRANSMISSION.
Evelyn’s voice played.
“If Samuel attempts reunification through Nathan and Victoria, I will terminate my authority.”
Samuel answered.
Alive.
Clear.
“You can’t. Marjorie made your authority hereditary.”
Evelyn said:
“I have no daughter.”
Samuel laughed softly.
“You do.”
Nathan’s head snapped up.
Franklin stared at the speaker.
Evelyn had given birth only once.
Or so Franklin believed.
Samuel continued.
“You just never raised her.”
The recording ended.
Franklin stood.
“No.”
Nathan whispered:
“I have a sister?”
Nobody knew.
Detective Cole checked the corresponding file.
Female child.
Born 1998.
Mother: Evelyn Ross.
Father field sealed.
Current identity: unknown.
Franklin’s voice became rough.
“Open the father field.”
They obtained emergency authorization.
The file unlocked.
The father was Franklin Hale.
Franklin stared at the screen.
A daughter.
Born two years before Nathan.
A child neither Franklin nor Nathan had ever known existed.
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And Samuel Keene apparently knew exactly where she was.
👉 Franklin discovers he and Evelyn had a hidden daughter before Nathan was born, creating another Northstar heir whose identity could determine who controls the entire program.
