Chapter 3 - The Dark Investigation
The chilling words whispered by the six-year-old boy sent a violent shiver down my spine.
I tried to tell the judge what Leo had said, but Arthur's expensive lawyers immediately objected.
They accused me of coaching the traumatized child to make false allegations out of pure jealousy.
Judge Miller warned me that making baseless accusations against a respected citizen would result in a contempt charge.
I was forced to watch helplessly as heavily armed court bailiffs escorted the crying children into Arthur's luxurious limousine.
The image of their small, terrified faces pressed against the tinted glass burned itself permanently into my memory.
I drove back to my empty, newly renovated house feeling completely shattered and defeated.
The bunk beds I had built by hand sat empty in the quiet, lonely bedroom.
I knew that waiting for the corrupt legal system to process a DNA test would be a fatal mistake.
I had to find out the truth about Arthur Sterling before he disappeared with the children forever.
I spent the next two days digging through public records, old newspaper clippings, and deep web archives.
I discovered that Arthur had an extensive history of funding illegal offshore medical research facilities.
My investigation led me to a defunct charity organization that the children's late mother had worked for.
I tracked down an old coworker of hers who agreed to meet me in a dark, secluded diner on the edge of town.
The coworker was terrified, constantly checking over her shoulder as she handed me a locked diary.
She explained that the children's mother had stolen this diary from Arthur's private office before she died.
I smashed the tiny brass lock with a rock in the diner parking lot and began reading the frantic handwriting inside.
The diary detailed a horrifying genetic experiment conducted by Arthur's medical shell companies.
Arthur was not their biological father at all.
The children had been genetically engineered in a lab to produce a highly rare, life-saving enzyme in their blood.
Arthur was suffering from a terminal cellular disease, and he needed their bone marrow to cure himself.
I realized with absolute horror that he was going to harvest their organs to save his own life.
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Before I could start my car to go to the police, the passenger door was violently ripped open.
A man wearing a black ski mask pressed a cold, heavy gun barrel directly against my temple.
