I couldn't move.
The photograph showed a newborn baby wrapped in a white blanket.
A handwritten label appeared beneath it.
E-ONE.
Date.
Hospital.
Mother: Unknown.
I stared at the last word.
“Unknown?”
Dr. Sloan wouldn't look at me.
“Who was my mother?”
“We don't know.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“You told me she was raised by her parents.”
“I told you what the records said.”
“They weren't her records?”
“No.”
My heart pounded.
I had spent my entire life believing I knew where I came from.
Now the first document I had ever seen about my birth called my mother unknown.
Morales took the photograph.
“We're preserving this.”
A gunshot sounded upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Then another.
Dr. Sloan moved toward the files.
“We need the archive.”
“What archive?”
“The original records.”
“Where?”
“Below this floor.”
Morales stared.
“There's another level?”
Dr. Sloan nodded.
“The real facility is underneath us.”
Sarah looked at Ethan.
“Can he move?”
“He shouldn't.”
“He has to.”
Ethan pushed himself upright.
“I can walk.”
Sarah helped him.
The green-banded girl took Emma's hand.
“Stay with me.”
We descended.
The staircase was older than everything above it.
Concrete walls.
Rusting pipes.
Water dripping from the ceiling.
At the bottom was a steel door.
No scanner.
No lock.
It opened when Dr. Sloan touched it.
Inside were rows of filing cabinets.
Paper.
Not computers.
Paper.
“Why?”
“Because digital records can be erased.”
Morales opened the first cabinet.
Files filled it.
Children.
Adults.
Families.
Dates.
Procedures.
Payments.
Everything.
Sarah found Mark's name.
Beneath it was another.
Daniel.
My husband.
Then another.
Mine.
I opened my file.
The first page contained one sentence.
Subject E-One transferred from neonatal unit under emergency authorization.
I stopped breathing.
“Transferred from where?”
Dr. Sloan answered.
“A private maternity facility.”
“Why?”
“Because your birth was complicated.”
“That doesn't explain why I was transferred.”
She looked at me.
“You weren't.”
“What?”
“Your mother was.”
I stared at her.
“Then who gave birth to me?”
Dr. Sloan swallowed.
“We believe you were born from a surrogate arrangement.”
Sarah whispered:
“You were adopted?”
“No.”
Dr. Sloan shook her head.
“Not legally.”
A noise came from the corridor.
Morales raised her weapon.
“We're out of time.”
I shoved the file into my coat.
“We need to leave.”
Dr. Sloan grabbed my arm.
“Not yet.”
She pulled out another document.
A consent form.
The signature belonged to someone I knew.
My father.
He had signed it before I was born.
The document authorized experimental genetic procedures.
I stared at his name.
“He sold me.”
Dr. Sloan shook her head.
“He believed he was saving you.”
“How?”
“You were dying before birth.”
“What happened?”
“You had a genetic defect.”
I looked at Emma.
“And then?”
“They corrected it.”
“That's why I survived.”
“Yes.”
The green-banded girl spoke.
“And that's why they copied you.”
Dr. Sloan nodded.
The program had been trying to reproduce the correction.
The children weren't copies in the simple sense.
They were attempts.
Each generation was modified.
Some survived.
Some didn't.
Lily had been targeted because she naturally inherited part of my corrected sequence.
Ethan had been treated because Lily's cells could temporarily compensate for his illness.
Emma was different.
She inherited the entire corrected sequence.
Naturally.
No procedure.
No laboratory.
Nothing artificial.
She was what Creston had spent decades trying to create.
A child who carried the trait without the intervention.
I understood why they wanted her.
And why they were terrified of her.
She proved they had been unnecessary.
A voice came over the speaker.
“Claire.”
Daniel.
I froze.
“Claire, listen to me.”
Morales looked toward the ceiling.
“Where are you?”
“Not far.”
“You're working with them.”
“No.”
“You married me because of them.”
“I was assigned to you.”
The words cut deeper than I expected.
“But I loved you.”
I almost laughed.
“Which part was real?”
“All of it.”
“Then help us.”
Silence.
“I am trying.”
“Where is Mark?”
“He's coming.”
“Where?”
“Downstairs.”
Morales motioned for everyone to move.
We reached another corridor.
Daniel continued speaking through the speaker.
“Claire, you need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Mark isn't the leader.”
“Then who is?”
Silence.
“Your father.”
I stopped.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then don't lie to me.”
“I'm not.”
Daniel's voice shook.
“Your father created the program.”
I looked at the file.
The signature.
The dates.
The photographs.
It fit.
But something still didn't.
“My father died eleven years ago.”
“Yes.”
“So who runs it now?”
Daniel whispered:
“You.”
I stared at the speaker.
“What?”
“You inherited the controlling trust.”
My father had left me his estate.
The house.
The accounts.
Everything.
I had thought it was ordinary.
Daniel explained that the program had been hidden inside a medical research trust.
I had unknowingly owned the facility.
For years.
The money.
The properties.
The contracts.
All in my name.
I felt sick.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because if you knew, they would kill you.”
“They already tried.”
“I know.”
A door opened behind us.
Mark stepped into the corridor.
He was holding a gun.
Sarah moved in front of Ethan.
Morales raised hers.
Mark smiled.
“You finally understand.”
I stared at him.
“Where is Daniel?”
“Not here.”
“Then why did he call?”
“Because he's a coward.”
Mark looked at Emma.
“She belongs with us.”
I stepped in front of her.
“No.”
He sighed.
“You still don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“You were created to survive.”
“I was born.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
I looked at the children around me.
“You created them because you were afraid of losing control.”
Mark's face hardened.
“You don't know what your father discovered.”
“What?”
“He found a way to stop death.”
Nobody moved.
Mark pointed toward the files.
“Not cure disease.”
“Stop death.”
Dr. Sloan whispered:
“That isn't true.”
Mark looked at her.
“You always were weak.”
He raised the gun.
Morales fired first.
The shot struck his arm.
Mark dropped the weapon.
Ethan screamed.
Sarah covered his ears.
Morales moved toward Mark.
But before she reached him, he smiled.
“You're too late.”
He pressed something hidden in his palm.
Every light went out.
The facility doors locked.
Then the building began to shake.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: The Facility Started Collapsing Around Us, and the Final File Revealed Why My Father Had Hidden the Truth From Everyone
The Small Detail My Daughter Noticed in the Locker Room Turned an Ordinary Weekend Into Something I Couldn’t Explain
Part 7 of 20
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