Chapter 6 - M-17A and M-17B
We spent the night in a secure apartment owned by Luka.
Ryan went into surgery.
Harlow went into custody.
And I sat at a kitchen table at two in the morning staring at a computer screen that contained the truth about my entire life.
Luka inserted my father’s USB drive.
One folder appeared.
PROJECT M-17
Inside were hundreds of files.
Clinical reports.
Names.
Dates.
Pregnancy records.
Photographs.
Luka opened a document.
My name appeared first.
BENNETT, CLAIRE - M-17A
Below it:
MORETTI, LUKA - M-17B
I stared at him.
“You’re ten years older than me.”
“Eleven.”
“How were we part of the same study?”
“Different phases.”
Another file contained genetic profiles.
I didn’t understand most of the science.
But one sentence was highlighted.
Projected compatibility between A and B lines: 99.72%.
I felt sick.
“They wanted us to have a child?”
“No.”
Luka’s jaw tightened.
“They wanted people with our markers to reproduce eventually.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Yes.”
“Did my father know?”
“He discovered it.”
I looked at Luka.
“You said you loved him.”
Luka sat across from me.
“When I was fourteen, my mother died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“My father blamed the neurological disease that ran in her family. He became obsessed with beating it.”
“Your father funded the project.”
“Yes.”
“Did he experiment on you?”
Luka nodded.
I felt my anger shift.
Not disappear.
But shift.
“I was tested from childhood,” he said. “Daniel found my file when I was nineteen.”
“He helped you?”
“He told me I wasn’t property.”
Luka smiled faintly.
“No adult had ever said that to me.”
“He tried to expose your father?”
“He tried to expose everyone.”
“What happened the night he disappeared?”
Luka looked away.
“We were supposed to meet a federal investigator.”
“And?”
“Daniel never arrived.”
My throat tightened.
“You said you were there.”
“At the building.”
“Did you see him die?”
“No.”
I froze.
“What?”
“I found his car burned outside Albany.”
“Then my father might be alive.”
“Claire—”
“Might he?”
Luka’s silence told me enough.
I stood.
“You knew there was a chance?”
“I searched for seventeen years.”
“And never told me.”
“You were a kid.”
“I’m twenty-five now.”
“And I didn’t know whether reaching out would put a target on you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That worked out well.”
The laptop chimed.
A hidden encrypted folder had unlocked.
D.B. FINAL MESSAGE
My hands began trembling.
Luka clicked it.
A video opened.
My father appeared on the screen.
Older than I remembered.
Exhausted.
Alive.
At least when the video had been recorded.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Claire, if you’re watching this, then they found Sophie.”
I stopped breathing.
Dad continued.
“You probably have a thousand questions. Start with this: Luka Moretti did not betray me.”
Luka closed his eyes.
“He saved my life.”
My knees weakened.
Then Dad said something that made both of us stare at the screen.
“And Claire, whatever Ryan Carter has told you about Sophie’s paternity…”
Dad leaned closer.
“Do not believe the first DNA test.”
The video abruptly ended.
On the screen appeared a location.
Cold Harbor Storage Facility - Unit 317.
And underneath it:
May you like
THE ORIGINAL DNA SAMPLE IS HERE.
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