Chapter 14 - THE FINAL ENVELOPE
The hospital evacuation began at 11:19 p.m.
Someone had reported a gas leak.
There was no gas leak.
It was Victor's cleanup crew.
Luka and I reached the underground archive with Detective Price.
Rows of refrigerated storage units stretched into darkness.
Evelyn gave us the code.
M17-SB-01.
We found the box.
Inside were three vials.
My sample.
Luka's.
And a third labeled EMBRYONIC CONTROL.
I stared at it.
“What is that?”
Evelyn examined the number over video.
Then her face changed.
“Don't touch it.”
“Why?”
“That isn't Samuel's handwriting.”
Luka looked at the vial.
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
The fire alarm sounded.
Smoke entered beneath the door.
We had minutes.
Price found another envelope beneath the vials.
FINAL PATERNITY VALIDATION.
My name.
Luka's name.
Emma's name.
Daniel had begged me not to open the final DNA envelope.
Now I understood why.
The earlier DNA test proved Luka was Emma's biological father.
This one explained how.
I tore it open.
There were surgical records.
Consent forms.
Except my signature had been forged.
Daniel had signed as spouse and medical representative while I was sedated after my miscarriage.
The clinic had harvested my eggs.
Victor's doctors fertilized one using genetic material taken from Luka years earlier.
Months later, during what I believed was another routine fertility procedure, they implanted the embryo.
Daniel had known.
He had let me spend the entire pregnancy believing Emma was conceived naturally.
Luka leaned against the wall.
“They stole from both of us.”
“Yes.”
Price found the final page.
A payment authorization.
Two million dollars.
Recipient: DANIEL WALKER.
Daniel hadn't simply allowed it.
He had negotiated the price himself.
I folded the paper.
For the first time, I felt nothing for him.
No love.
No grief.
Not even hatred.
He had become a stranger.
The ceiling shook.
“Move!” Price shouted.
We ran.
Behind us, flames reached the archive.
Luka grabbed the evidence case.
I stumbled.
He caught me.
“Go!”
“Not without you.”
A burning beam crashed between us.
“Luka!”
Smoke swallowed him.
For three horrible seconds, I couldn't see anything.
Then he emerged through the flames.
His jacket was burning.
Price knocked the flames out.
We reached the stairwell.
Outside, federal agents were waiting.
Victor's empire was collapsing.
Hospital executives were arrested before dawn.
Two doctors fled and were caught at O'Hare.
Three politicians resigned within forty-eight hours.
Moretti Biomedical's hidden accounts were frozen.
And Daniel?
Daniel was charged with conspiracy, fraud, unlawful medical consent, bribery, and trafficking in stolen genetic material.
Two weeks later, I saw him one final time.
He was wearing a jail uniform.
There was glass between us.
He looked twenty years older.
“Why did you come?”
I placed a copy of the DNA report against the glass.
Daniel stared at it.
Then he started crying.
“Claire, please.”
“You begged me not to open this.”
“I was scared.”
“You should have been.”
He pressed his hand against the glass.
“I loved you.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You loved having access to me.”
“Please.”
“You sold my trust.”
“Claire.”
“You sold my body.”
His knees weakened.
“And you almost sold my daughter.”
Daniel sank to the floor.
Actually sank.
On his knees.
Exactly where men like him always ended up when there was nowhere left to hide.
“Please don't let her grow up hating me.”
I looked down at him through the glass.
“She won't.”
Hope flashed across his face.
“Because she won't grow up knowing you.”
Then I walked away.
But the biggest surprise was still waiting outside.
Luka stood beside the car.
Emma was asleep in his arms.
And in his hand was the original birth certificate.
The one he had signed the day we met.
“I need to fix something,” he said.
I looked at the paper.
“What?”
“I signed this without asking you.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I was trying to protect Emma.”
“I know.”
“But protection isn't permission.”
He handed me a pen.
“If you want my name removed, I'll do it.”
I looked at Emma.
Then at him.
For the first time, Luka Moretti wasn't deciding anything for me.
May you like
He was asking.
And that changed everything.
