Chapter 14 - My Mother Was Alive
For twenty-five years, I had imagined my mother as a photograph.
A woman frozen at twenty-three.
Someone I could never meet.
Now she was standing on a screen.
Alive.
Older.
Terrified.
“Mom?”
The word felt impossible.
Her face collapsed.
“Clara.”
I began shaking.
Thomas stood behind her.
The baby in Elena’s arms started crying.
I stared at the child.
“Is that Eve?”
Thomas smiled.
“We call her Grace.”
Luka moved toward the camera.
“You created her?”
“We perfected her.”
“You stole from us.”
Thomas shrugged.
“Ownership is complicated in scientific development.”
Luka looked ready to tear through the screen.
I forced myself to speak.
“What do you want?”
“Emma.”
“No.”
“Then Elena and Grace remain with us.”
My mother shook her head violently.
“Don’t do it, Clara.”
Thomas grabbed her shoulder.
I stepped toward the laptop.
“If you hurt her—”
“You’ll do what?”
He smiled.
“You have no idea where we are.”
Mara quietly started tracing the call.
Thomas continued.
“Emma represents something Grace does not.”
“What?”
“Natural inheritance.”
He looked almost reverent.
“Grace was engineered.”
“Emma occurred naturally.”
“She proves M-17 can stabilize without laboratory intervention.”
“And you want her blood.”
“Initially.”
My entire body went cold.
“Initially?”
Thomas smiled.
“Long-term observation requires more.”
Luka leaned toward the camera.
“You’re never touching her.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Still pretending this is about protecting Clara?”
Luka’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas laughed.
“Oh.”
“Daniel never told you.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“Told him what?”
Thomas looked directly at me.
“Ask Luka why your father chose him.”
I turned.
Luka shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Thomas enjoyed the confusion.
“Daniel didn’t simply save Luka because he felt guilty about Meridian.”
“He studied him.”
“Compared him.”
“Prepared him.”
“For what?”
I whispered.
Thomas leaned closer.
“To protect the M-17 line.”
“By fathering the next generation if necessary.”
I stared at Luka.
He looked furious.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
Thomas opened a file.
My father’s signature appeared at the bottom.
CONTINGENCY PAIRING.
CARTER / MORETTI.
My stomach twisted.
Even my father had reduced us to genetic compatibility.
Thomas laughed softly.
“Everyone had a plan for you, Clara.”
“Your father.”
“My organization.”
“Your husband.”
“Even your tattooed guardian.”
Luka slammed his fist onto the table.
“I never knew.”
I believed him.
I didn’t know why.
But I did.
Mara raised two fingers.
Trace complete.
She wrote an address on paper.
A private medical compound near Lake Haven.
I looked back at the screen.
“What do you want us to do?”
Thomas smiled.
“Bring Emma tomorrow at midnight.”
“Come alone.”
I almost laughed.
“You people keep asking me to do that.”
Thomas’s smile faded.
“Tomorrow.”
“Or you lose your mother again.”
The screen went black.
I looked at Luka.
Then Ethan.
Then Mara.
“I’m going.”
Ethan immediately spoke.
“So are we.”
May you like
For the first time since the hospital, Luka and Ethan agreed on something.
And tomorrow night, we were going to bring Meridian down.
