Chapter 3 - THE HUSBAND WHO WAS PAID TO LOVE ME
I called Derek back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Luka took my phone.
“Enough.”
“You knew he would call.”
“I expected it.”
“You expect everything except explaining anything.”
I stepped toward him.
“What did Derek mean?”
Luka stared at the dead fireplace.
“Twenty-five years ago, the M-17 laboratory caught fire.”
“My father told me my mother died in a car accident.”
“She didn't.”
My stomach turned.
“She died in that fire.”
Luka's voice was barely audible.
“I carried you out.”
I stared at him.
“You were seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“You saved me?”
“Your father handed you to me.”
The photograph suddenly made sense.
Young Luka.
My parents.
The research center.
“He told me to run.”
“What happened to him?”
“He went back for your mother.”
“But my father lived another eleven years.”
“He survived.”
Luka looked away.
“Your mother didn't.”
I sank into a chair.
Grace slept peacefully against my chest while my entire history burned around me.
“Why would the Calloways want me?”
“Because M-17 worked.”
“What did it do?”
Luka hesitated.
Then he opened another folder.
Inside were blood tests.
Chromosome diagrams.
Words I barely understood.
“Your mother's research corrected a rare genetic mutation before birth.”
“So?”
“So the correction didn't stop with you.”
He tapped a page.
“It became inheritable.”
I looked at Grace.
“You mean she inherited it?”
“We don't know.”
“Then why are people trying to take her?”
“Because they want to find out.”
My stomach twisted.
The front door suddenly opened.
I jumped.
Luka drew a gun.
A familiar voice shouted.
“Emma!”
Derek.
He stumbled into the room.
His shirt was torn.
Blood ran from his eyebrow.
Luka aimed the gun.
“Stop.”
Derek froze.
“Get that thing away from me.”
“You came uninvited.”
“I came for my wife.”
I almost laughed.
“Your wife?”
Derek looked at me.
“Emma, I can explain.”
“Start with Brittany.”
His face tightened.
“She isn't my mistress.”
“What?”
“She works for my father.”
The room went silent.
“Your father?”
Derek nodded.
“Brittany was assigned to watch me.”
“Assigned?”
“My family has been watching you since college.”
Every word hurt worse than the last.
“You knew?”
“At first.”
My heart shattered.
“At first?”
“My father sent me to meet you.”
Luka lowered the gun slightly.
Derek continued.
“I was twenty-two.”
“My father showed me your photograph.”
“He told me to get close.”
I could barely speak.
“So our first date?”
“Planned.”
“Our engagement?”
Derek closed his eyes.
“Emma—”
“Our marriage?”
“Not all of it.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
He accepted it.
“Was any of it real?”
“Yes.”
“Which part?”
“My feelings.”
I laughed through tears.
“You were paid to marry me.”
“No.”
“Three hundred thousand dollars.”
Derek looked at Luka.
“You showed her?”
“Of course.”
Derek wiped blood from his face.
“That money wasn't payment for leaving.”
“What was it?”
“Payment for Grace.”
I stopped breathing.
“My father wanted me to bring her to him.”
Luka raised the gun again.
Derek held up both hands.
“I didn't do it.”
“You walked away.”
“Because Brittany was carrying a weapon.”
He looked at me desperately.
“She told me if I didn't leave with her, men would come into your room.”
“The security guards.”
Derek nodded.
“I thought leaving would pull them away from you.”
“It didn't.”
“I know.”
His voice cracked.
“I screwed up.”
“I should've told you everything years ago.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because my father told me what would happen if I did.”
“What?”
Derek looked toward Grace.
“He'd kill you.”
Silence filled the room.
Then Luka's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed immediately.
“What?”
He walked toward the window.
“When?”
A pause.
“Send it.”
His phone buzzed.
Luka stared at the screen.
Then he turned it toward us.
A photograph showed an older man standing beside a private jet.
Charles Calloway.
Derek's father.
Beside him stood Brittany.
And in Brittany's hand was a silver medical case.
Across its side was printed:
M-17 / SUBJECT G
Derek went pale.
“Subject G.”
I looked at Grace.
May you like
Luka's jaw tightened.
“They already have her DNA.”
