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Back 3 a.m.
Chapters (67)
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  67. 3:46 a.m.

“Certainly, I would simply need to take a quick blood sample and run it through the computer.”

I nod my approval and he moves to a metal drawer filled with medical equipment. He returns with rubber gloves, a tourniquet, and a small vial.

Thirty seconds later, the vial is full of my blood.

“This will take about ten minutes,” he says.

I look down at my watch.

It is 3:32 a.m.

I need to be back in the car by 3:55 a.m. so I can drive a mile or two away before I fall asleep.

Ewen takes my vial to some fancy machine and turns it on. It begins spinning.

He returns and I say, “What I don’t understand is, if you had the flash drive, why did my mother think I had it?”

He smirks.

“You were the one who told her I had it.”

“When I received the flash drive from David, I was a bit confused, but then I pieced it together. He had Elena record the video just in case he was ever connected to Jennifer Nubers’ murder, which he was an accomplice in through the affair and possibly the disposal of the body. When David died, he’d set up a system whereby the flash drive was sent to me automatically, meaning he feared something might happen to him. He must have feared your mom would attempt to get the flash drive from him. Maybe even kill him.

“Your mother knew about all my skeletons. If she came forward at any point, decided to trade her secrets for my secrets, I would spend the rest of my days behind bars. So I kept the video, knowing I could use it against your mother if need be.

“A few months after I received the flash drive, I contacted Elena and told her I watched it, but that I didn’t feel it rightfully belonged to me. I told her that I gave it to David’s son.”

“Conner Sullivan?”

“Correct.”

I am starting to see how this played out. “You never gave it to him, did you?”

“I did not.”

“How does that benefit you? For her to think President Sullivan had it?”

“He wasn’t president at the time; he was the Governor of Virginia. But that’s beside the point. I merely wanted your mother to think there were two copies of her confession out there so she’d be less likely to cut any deals.”

“Cut any deals? My mom was wanted by every agency in North America. What could she possibly possess that would make you think she could cut a deal?”

“The files.”

Right, the MK-Ultra files that were all supposedly destroyed.

“She had a copy of the files?”

He nods.

“And let me guess, they proved that MK-Ultra did far worse things than anyone ever could have imagined.”

“I would have spent the rest of my life behind bars. That is, if I didn’t receive the death penalty.”