Chapter 9 - The Baby They Planned Before I Was Born
Emergency lights came on.
Red.
Dim.
Terrifying.
Luka immediately examined the locked door.
I stood beside the freezer.
“Designed?”
Danielle’s voice came through the speaker.
“You really do know nothing.”
“Come down here and explain it to my face.”
She laughed.
“I see Daniel’s temper survived.”
Luka found a security camera near the ceiling.
“Danielle, open the door.”
“No.”
“Then the police will.”
“Police?”
She sounded amused.
“The Mercer Foundation has donated more money to this county than its entire law enforcement budget.”
I shouted, “What did you do to my daughter?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why is Luka’s DNA here?”
“Because he was the preferred genetic match.”
My stomach twisted.
Danielle continued.
“The original M-17 team modeled pairings. Luka and Claire produced the strongest projected resistance combination.”
Luka punched the metal wall.
“That study was shut down.”
“The public study was.”
Silence.
Then she added, “The private one became much more ambitious.”
My hand moved protectively toward my abdomen even though Sophie wasn’t with me.
“Did you change Ryan’s sperm?”
Luka looked at me.
Danielle laughed softly.
“Finally.”
I nearly dropped the vial.
“No.”
“During Claire’s fertility treatment—”
“I never had fertility treatment.”
“Not officially.”
My mind raced.
A year before Sophie, Ryan and I had struggled to conceive.
Dr. Harlow had prescribed hormone injections.
He told me they would “help regulate ovulation.”
Danielle said, “One of your procedures included intrauterine insemination.”
“No. I would remember that.”
“Would you remember it if you were sedated for what you were told was an ovarian cyst examination?”
I grabbed the freezer.
The room spun.
Luka whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
I stared at him.
“Was it your sample?”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I never donated anything.”
“They collected from you when you were young,” Danielle said.
Luka went still.
I understood before he spoke.
“The childhood study.”
Danielle almost sounded proud.
“Exactly.”
I felt nauseated.
Sophie had been conceived using genetic material stolen from Luka years ago.
And I had never consented.
Neither had he.
Luka looked sick.
Not angry.
Not intimidating.
Sick.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at him.
“You didn’t do it.”
“No, but—”
“You didn’t do it.”
I needed to say it for both of us.
Danielle interrupted.
“How touching.”
I looked at the camera.
“Where is my father?”
Silence.
Then Danielle said, “Ask Luka.”
My eyes shifted.
Luka shook his head.
“She’s playing with you.”
“Am I?”
Danielle continued.
“Who do you think helped Daniel disappear?”
Luka clenched his jaw.
“I did.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“He was alive after the car fire.”
“Where did you take him?”
“I don’t know where he is now.”
“Where did you take him then?”
“A safe house in Maine.”
“And then?”
“He vanished.”
Danielle laughed.
“Still lying.”
Luka shouted at the camera.
“Where is Daniel?”
“I’ll give you a hint.”
A monitor against the wall suddenly powered on.
Security footage appeared.
Live footage.
An older man sat tied to a chair in a white room.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
A familiar scar near his left temple.
I stopped breathing.
“Dad?”
The man raised his head.
Even after eight years of believing he was dead, I knew his eyes.
My father looked directly into the camera.
“Claire?”
My knees buckled.
Danielle’s voice returned.
“Bring me Sophie.”
The screen zoomed in on my father.
May you like
“Or this time, Daniel Bennett really does die.”
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