Chapter 10 - Three DaughtersThe call lasted forty-two seconds.
I replayed it eleven times.
Nina's voice was young.
Maybe seven.
Maybe eight.
The same age range as Lila.
The possibility of three girls born to Camilla at different times should have been impossible.
But after everything I'd seen, impossible had become a word I no longer trusted.
Camilla sat in my study, shaking.
“How many children did you give birth to?”
“One.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are there three?”
“I don't know.”
“You knew about Sofia.”
“Marco told me she was dead.”
“And Nina?”
“I never heard that name.”
Rafael entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We traced the call.”
I stood.
“Where?”
“St. Gabriel's.”
My stomach tightened.
“But the hospital was evacuated.”
“Not the upper floors.”
We drove back.
This time we entered through the roof.
The building was dark.
Too dark.
We found Hale's operating theater on the seventh floor.
It was empty.
But the monitors were still running.
Three heart-rate lines.
Three patients.
Lila.
Sofia.
Nina.
I stared.
“They're here.”
Rafael scanned the room.
“Not physically.”
“What?”
“The feeds are remote.”
A note sat beside the monitors.
You have one hour.
Then another note.
Bring Camilla.
We followed the instructions to the basement.
A door opened automatically.
Inside was a chamber with three glass walls.
Three beds.
Lila in the middle.
Sofia on the left.
Nina on the right.
All alive.
All awake.
I rushed toward Lila.
“Daddy!”
A glass wall blocked me.
Lila pressed her hand against it.
I pressed mine against hers.
“I'm getting you out.”
Hale appeared behind the girls.
White coat.
No weapon.
Calm.
“You don't understand what you've inherited.”
“Open the doors.”
“The Moretti blood marker is extremely rare.”
“I don't care.”
“You should.”
He walked toward Nina.
“This child has it.”
Then Sofia.
“This one has it.”
Then Lila.
“And so does she.”
“Why three?”
Hale smiled.
“Because three generations of the Moretti family were breeding toward a specific genetic profile.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Your grandfather began the project.”
I felt sick.
“My grandfather?”
“He believed the family could survive every degenerative disease if the right children were produced.”
“This is insane.”
“He wasn't insane.”
Hale looked toward the girls.
“He was patient.”
I stepped closer.
“What do you want from them?”
“Their blood.”
“For Marco?”
“For research.”
I laughed.
“You expect me to believe this is medicine?”
“I expect you to believe what you see.”
He pointed to three screens.
Each displayed a graph.
Lila's pattern.
Sofia's.
Nina's.
Then mine.
The lines converged.
Hale's voice lowered.
“Your body contains the missing sequence.”
I stared.
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
“The children carry fragments.”
“And you?”
“The original.”
Silence.
“So that's why you needed me alive.”
“Exactly.”
He smiled.
“Your brain contains something called the M-7 sequence.”
I shook my head.
“You are talking nonsense.”
“No.”
Hale tapped the screen.
“It affects neural regeneration.”
“Then cure them.”
“We can.”
“Do it.”
“Not without you.”
“What do you need?”
“Your marrow.”
My expression hardened.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“To kill me.”
“Yes.”
The word echoed.
I looked at Lila.
She was crying.
Hale turned away.
“Your family created the disease-resistant lineage. Your daughters inherited unstable copies. Marco discovered the pattern. Voss wanted ownership. I wanted the scientific breakthrough.”
“And Camilla?”
Hale's gaze shifted toward her.
“She was leverage.”
Camilla looked at me.
“Vincent…”
I finally understood the full cruelty.
Every lie.
Every injection.
Every hospital visit.
Every disappearance.
They had turned my family into a laboratory.
Hale pressed a button.
The glass doors opened.
I stepped toward Lila.
She ran into my arms.
I held her so tightly she laughed through her tears.
“Daddy.”
“I've got you.”
She touched my face.
Then froze.
“Daddy?”
“What?”
“You're bleeding.”
I looked down.
There was a small cut on my wrist.
Nothing serious.
But Lila stared at it.
“I can see it.”
I stopped.
“What?”
She blinked.
“I can see your blood.”
Hale watched from across the room.
And for the first time, his calm expression disappeared.
Lila whispered:
“I can see everything.”
Hale stepped backward.
“No.”
Lila looked at him.
“I remember you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You were the man who told Mommy to poison my juice.”
Hale's face went white.
I stared at him.
“How do you remember?”
Lila touched her temple.
“Because the medicine didn't erase everything.”
“What did it leave?”
She looked toward Sofia.
Then Nina.
Then me.
“The dreams.”
“What dreams?”
She whispered:
“I remember the first night.”
I waited.
“There were three babies.”
She pointed at Sofia.
“Me.”
Then Nina.
“Her.”
Then she looked at the floor.
“And another.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
Lila's voice became a whisper.
“Mommy cried when they took her.”
“Who did they take?”
“The third baby.”
“Nina?”
Lila shook her head.
“No.”
She looked directly into my eyes.
“The third baby was taken before Nina.”
The room went silent.
Hale backed toward the door.
Rafael grabbed him.
“Who was the first child?”
Lila whispered:
“Her name was Eva.”
Hale's face changed.
And I knew that name.
My mother had whispered it once.
Years ago.
A name I had always thought belonged to a dead aunt.
May you like
Then Hale said one sentence.
“She was never supposed to survive.”
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