Chapter 8 - Danielle’s Real Name
Ryan’s monitor screamed.
I grabbed Danielle’s wrist.
She shoved me into the wall.
“You should’ve stayed stupid, Claire.”
I hit her.
Hard.
I had never punched anyone in my life.
My knuckles exploded with pain.
Danielle stumbled.
I slapped the emergency button.
Nurses rushed toward the door.
Danielle unlocked it and ran.
I turned toward Ryan.
His eyes rolled backward.
“Ryan!”
Doctors flooded the room.
Someone pulled me away.
“What did she inject?”
“I don’t know!”
A nurse shouted for Narcan.
Another called security.
I stood in the hallway shaking.
Luka appeared less than three minutes later.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“I was downstairs.”
“You followed me?”
“Yes.”
Normally I would have been furious.
Instead, I grabbed his jacket.
“Ryan might die.”
Luka looked through the glass.
“He made terrible choices.”
“That doesn’t mean he deserves to die.”
“No.”
His expression softened.
“It doesn’t.”
Security footage showed Danielle leaving through the pharmacy wing.
She disappeared.
Again.
Ryan survived.
The drug had been intended to cause cardiac arrest, but the emergency team reacted quickly.
When he woke hours later, he was terrified.
“She tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you know too much now.”
He looked at Luka.
“Cold Harbor.”
Luka’s eyes narrowed.
“What about it?”
“Danielle mentioned it once.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
Ryan struggled to sit.
“She got drunk. She said her father built a place where ‘mistakes went to disappear.’”
I stared at Luka.
“Unit 317.”
Ryan looked confused.
“What?”
“My father left something there.”
Luka checked his watch.
“We go now.”
Ryan grabbed my arm.
“Claire.”
I looked down at him.
“I know I destroyed us.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“I know.”
His voice cracked.
“But whatever happens next, don’t let them use Sophie.”
My anger stayed.
But so did the memory of the man he had once been.
“I won’t.”
Cold Harbor Storage sat outside the city beside an abandoned industrial park.
Unit 317 was underground.
Luka opened it with a key hidden inside my father’s USB case.
The door rolled upward.
Inside were boxes.
Medical equipment.
Old computers.
And a freezer.
A small generator still powered it.
On the lid:
M-17 ORIGINAL SPECIMENS
My hands went cold.
Luka opened it.
Rows of sealed vials sat inside.
One carried my name.
Another carried Ryan’s.
Another carried Sophie’s date of birth.
I stared.
“How did they get a sample from Sophie?”
Luka’s expression darkened.
“Harlow.”
I remembered the heel prick after birth.
Routine newborn screening.
Except maybe it hadn’t all been routine.
Then I saw a fourth vial.
PATERNAL REFERENCE
No name.
Just a code.
M-17B.
I slowly turned toward Luka.
He looked as stunned as I felt.
“No.”
I picked up the vial.
“M-17B is you.”
“I know.”
My heartbeat became painful.
“Why would your DNA be listed as Sophie’s paternal reference?”
Luka stepped backward.
“Claire, I swear to you—”
A speaker inside the storage unit clicked on.
A woman’s voice filled the room.
Danielle.
“Because Sophie Carter was never supposed to belong to Ryan.”
The storage door slammed shut behind us.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then Danielle said:
May you like
“She was designed to belong to Luka.”
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