Daniel drove back in silence, the hum of his car’s engine the only sound cutting through the thick cloud of thoughts in his mind. Caroline’s revelation about Robert and the loss of Lily sat heavy in his chest. The deeper he went, the more he realized the sheer weight of what he’d taken on. This wasn’t just about uncovering a hidden truth; it was about giving back the dignity stolen from the dead.

As he reached his apartment, the building seemed colder than usual, its creaks and groans amplified in the quiet night. The mirror in his living room loomed as though waiting for him. He hesitated before stepping inside, locking the door behind him.

The air felt charged, as if the room itself was holding its breath. He sat on the edge of his couch, staring at the mirror, half-expecting another apparition to emerge. When none came, he exhaled and pulled out his notebook.

Robert’s story was clearer now, but it wasn’t complete. If he’d been silenced for speaking out against unethical operations, then there had to be a trail, someone who stood to benefit from his death. Daniel jotted down a list of leads:

* Look into Robert’s superiors from the time of his deployment.

* Search for reports of unethical operations in the years before his disappearance.

* Find any whistleblowers who might have corroborating information.

He set the notebook aside and leaned back, letting his eyes close. The weight of the day pressed against him like a lead blanket.

--------------------------------------------------------------

He awoke to the sound of faint footsteps, his eyes snapping open. The room was dimly lit by the pale glow of a street lamp filtering through the blinds. For a moment, he thought he’d imagined it, but then he saw her, a young woman standing by the mirror, her reflection faintly visible.

Maria.

Her presence was different this time, less desperate, more resolute. Her hair was neatly tied back, and her eyes held a quiet strength beneath their sorrow.

“Maria?” Daniel said, his voice hoarse from sleep.

She turned to him, her expression softening. “Thank you for listening,” she said. “For trying.”

“I haven’t done anything yet” he admitted.

“You listened,” she said. “That’s more than most have done.”

Daniel sat up straighter, pulling his notebook closer. “Maria, I need to know more about what happened to your daughter. You said men promised to help but only brought pain. Who were they? What did they do?”

Maria hesitated, her form flickering slightly. It was as though the weight of her story made it difficult for her to remain. “My Daughter, her name is Sofia,” she began. “She was fifteen. Beautiful. Smart. Too trusting for this world.”

Daniel’s pen hovered over the paper, waiting.

“She got sick..” Maria continued, her voice trembling. “A rare condition...one that would take her life without the right treatment. We didn’t have the money, but then… they came. A group posing as a charity. They promised us help. They said they could get Sofia into a trial for a new treatment.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Her voice broke, and Daniel’s grip tightened on the pen.

“I believed them,” she said. “They took her to a clinic. They said it was for initial tests, but since then she never came home. They insist that more time is needed to find the causes and cure.”

Daniel’s stomach twisted. “So then...What happened?”

“After back and forth attempts of trying to see my daughter, one day they told me she’d died during the testing,” Maria said, her tone laced with bitterness. “But they wouldn’t let me see her body. No funeral, no closure. Just an apology and a promise that her death had contributed to science.”

Daniel’s pen scratched furiously across the page, documenting every detail. “Did you ever find out who they really were?”

Maria nodded faintly. “No..not until it was too late. They weren’t a charity..they were a front for an illegal research group. They preyed on desperate families like mine, using our children as test subjects for unapproved treatments. Sofia wasn’t the only one.”

The words hit Daniel like a punch to the gut. He’d heard of such atrocities before, stories buried in obscure news articles or whispered among investigative journalists. But hearing it from Maria, seeing the raw pain in her eyes, made it unbearable.

“Do you remember their name? Any clue so that I can help you?” he asked.

Maria’s form flickered again, her voice growing faint. “Corvin Research Institute” she whispered.

Daniel wrote it down, his hand trembling. “I’ll find them” he promised.

Maria’s gaze met his, a glimmer of hope breaking through her sorrow. “Thank you,” she said. “For Sofia..for every victims.."

Her form dissolved, leaving the room colder than before. Daniel sat there in the silence, the weight of her story pressing down on him.

-----------------------------------------------------------The next day, Daniel submerged himself into researches, scouring the internet for any mention of Corvin Research Institute. It didn’t take long to uncover a web of controversy. The institute that had been shut down years ago after a whistleblower revealed its illegal human trials, but no one had been held accountable. The executives had vanished, and the story had faded into obscurity. As if it had never existed.

As he read through the articles, Daniel’s anger grew. This wasn’t just about Maria and Sofia, it was about every family that had been exploited, every life that had been stolen in the name of profit.

He found the name of the whistleblower, a former lab technician named Grace Holloway. She’d disappeared shortly after exposing the institute, but her testimony was still available in one of the well hidden archived interviews.

Daniel watched one of the videos, his jaw tightening as Grace described the horrors she’d witnessed: children taken from their families, subjected to experimental treatments without consent, and discarded like garbage when things went wrong.

He jotted down her last known address, knowing it was a long shot. If Grace was still alive, she might hold the key to uncovering the full truth.

As he closed his notebook, Daniel felt the familiar weight of exhaustion, but this time it was tempered by determination. Maria’s story wasn’t just a tragedy, it was a call to action and he wouldn’t stop until Sofia’s voice was heard.

Daniel leaned back in his chair, the grim details of Maria’s story spinning in his mind. The name Corvin Research Institute stuck out like a jagged thorn. The articles he had uncovered painted a picture of unchecked greed and ruthless ambition, an organization that once thrived by exploiting the vulnerable. It wasn’t just the pain of Maria and Sofia; it was an entire thread of suffering, woven into a tapestry of lies and cover-ups.

He pushed the laptop aside and reached for his phone. He needed to find Grace Holloway, the whistleblower. The chances of her being alive or willing to talk were slim, but she was his best lead. A quick search of public records revealed that her last known address was in a rural area outside the city.

(To Be Continued)