Chapter 11 - EvaThe name Eva appeared nowhere in our family records.
Not legally.
Not medically.
Not financially.
Yet Lila remembered her.
Hale refused to speak.
We locked him in a secure room while Rafael searched his files.
Camilla sat beside Lila.
Sofia watched from across the room.
Nina remained silent.
I could feel the weight of a thousand questions pressing into the walls.
Finally Rafael returned.
He placed a file on the table.
“Found her.”
I opened it.
A photograph.
A newborn baby.
Dark hair.
A birthmark near the eye.
Eva Moretti.
Born twelve minutes before Lila.
The record listed:
Status: transferred.
Not dead.
Not missing.
Transferred.
“Where?”
Rafael shook his head.
“No destination.”
I looked at Hale.
“You lied.”
He remained silent.
“Where is Eva?”
He smiled faintly.
“She isn't where you think.”
“Meaning?”
“She was the first successful subject.”
My stomach twisted.
“Successful for what?”
“Memory retention.”
I stared.
“Hale, answer me.”
He finally looked at Lila.
“She was given the earliest version.”
“What happened?”
“She remembered everything.”
“Everything?”
“From infancy, almost.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Her brain developed differently.”
“And where is she?”
Hale smiled.
“Closer.”
Before we could question him, the lights cut out.
Again.
Security alarms screamed.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Rafael pushed me down.
Men stormed the hallway.
I heard Camilla scream.
Then silence.
Emergency lights came on.
Hale was gone.
The locked room stood empty.
A bullet had cut through the wall beside the door.
Someone had extracted him.
We searched the hospital.
Nothing.
But one of the guards had been left alive.
He was barely conscious.
“Who attacked you?”
He whispered:
“Men with the serpent.”
Marco's men.
I called Marco.
He answered.
“You're getting closer.”
“Where is Eva?”
Silence.
Then:
“She was mine.”
“You took her.”
“I saved her.”
“You created this.”
“No.”
His voice became bitter.
“Voss created it.”
“Why are you fighting him?”
“Because he wants to erase the bloodline.”
I stared at the phone.
“What?”
“Voss doesn't want the Moretti name.”
“Then what does he want?”
“Control of the sequence.”
“For what?”
Marco laughed quietly.
“For whoever pays most.”
I understood.
This was bigger than our family.
Someone wanted to own a biological advantage.
A patent.
A treatment.
A weapon.
Maybe all three.
Marco continued.
“Vincent, listen carefully.”
“I'm listening.”
“You need to get the girls out of Atlanta.”
“Why?”
“Because Voss has activated the final protocol.”
“What protocol?”
“Your death.”
The line went dead.
Rafael checked his phone.
His face changed.
“What?”
“Three Moretti businesses just transferred ownership.”
I stared.
“Which ones?”
“Bellmont.”
“What's left?”
“Several warehouses.”
“Check all accounts.”
He did.
More transfers.
One after another.
My empire was being stripped piece by piece.
But I had never signed anything.
Then my phone vibrated.
A notification.
Face ID required.
I looked at the screen.
It unlocked.
Not because I had looked at it.
Because someone else had my face.
Rafael stared.
“Boss…”
I felt cold.
“They cloned your biometric profile.”
I understood.
The hospital footage.
The fingerprints.
The forged signatures.
The medical procedures.
They hadn't just copied my identity.
They had built a version of me capable of legally taking my empire.
A digital Vincent.
A financial ghost.
Then another notification appeared.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
All major assets were now controlled by a new holding company.
Named:
Eva Holdings.
I stared at the screen.
My dead sister's name.
No.
My supposedly dead daughter.
Eva.
Rafael whispered:
“Boss…”
I looked at him.
“Who controls it?”
He opened the corporate registry.
My eyes moved to the name.
Eva Moretti.
I froze.
Then the office television turned on.
A camera feed appeared.
A woman sat in a chair.
Maybe nineteen.
Maybe twenty.
Dark hair.
Pale skin.
A faint birthmark above her left eye.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Hello, Daddy.”
The girls screamed.
Sofia whispered:
“That's Eva.”
The woman smiled.
“But I'm not your daughter anymore.”
May you like
She leaned toward the camera.
“I am the one who owns everything.”
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