Chapter 13 - ARTHUR BLAKEArthur did not deny his identity.
He had been presumed dead after a laboratory explosion thirty years earlier. Richard and Evelyn identified the remains through personal items because the body could not be visually confirmed.
Arthur staged the death after Naomi warned that criminal investigators were examining his early research.
Under the name Simon Vale, he continued developing controlled skin-injury compounds.
“You burned Leah,” Daniel said.
Arthur looked toward her through the police video link.
“I created the delivery system. Naomi selected the subjects.”
Leah’s voice remained steady.
“You watched.”
“Yes.”
“You documented how long I screamed.”
Arthur looked down.
“Yes.”
He claimed regret changed him after Ava’s case. He began helping Evelyn build a treatment capable of repairing the damage his research caused.
But he never stopped conducting experiments.
He simply changed the story surrounding them.
“Rose-3 could treat millions of burn patients,” he said.
Hannah looked toward Emma’s missing blood tube.
“Then ask for consent.”
“The protein exists only during acute injury.”
“Then you do not get it.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
“Medical progress has always required someone to suffer first.”
“That sentence is why you should never touch another patient.”
Police ordered him away from the machine.
Arthur activated a laboratory lockdown.
Steel doors sealed.
He demanded legal protection and control of the patent in exchange for releasing the blood sample and every surviving research record.
Naomi joined the laboratory feed remotely.
“You were supposed to destroy the sample.”
“You were supposed to deliver a controlled reaction,” Arthur replied. “You nearly killed the subject.”
“You altered my capsules.”
Arthur had added the delayed second compound without Naomi’s knowledge. He needed a stronger immune response than her original dosage would produce.
Emma’s first burn belonged to both of them.
Naomi created the attack.
Arthur escalated it.
Each believed the other had crossed the acceptable line.
Neither recognized that intentionally harming the child had already crossed it.
Richard offered Arthur his remaining Bellrose shares.
Daniel interrupted.
“You don’t bargain with Emma’s body.”
Arthur threatened to destroy the reversal formula for future Rose exposures.
Leah revealed she had copied it from Evelyn’s drive.
The leverage disappeared.
Ava used an old clinic code to release one laboratory door.
Police entered.
Arthur fled through a secure corridor carrying the sample.
No final arrest occurred.
He reached the Bellrose executive floor, where the family trust server waited for Emma’s birthday activation.
Naomi’s screen displayed a warning.
“If Arthur connects the blood profile, he can register Emma as a continuing research subject.”
“What does that mean?” Hannah asked.
“It means Bellrose, not her parents, could claim authority over future samples under the old consent structure.”
Daniel stared at his father.
“Can he do that?”
Richard answered quietly.
“Only if one of Emma’s legal guardians signed the original family research agreement.”
Hannah looked toward Daniel.
He shook his head.
Then Richard opened the archived document.
The signature belonged to Hannah.
Dated when she was eight years old.
Her mother had signed on her behalf.
The agreement applied not only to Hannah.
It claimed rights over any future biological descendants carrying the regenerative trait.
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Emma had been contractually targeted before she was born.
👉 Arthur was attempting to enforce a childhood agreement against Hannah’s daughter decades later.
