Chapter 15 - The Heartbeat Beneath the HeartbeatThe second heartbeat filled the laboratory.
Fast.
Steady.
Impossible.
I stared at the monitor.
“No.”
Samuel looked almost triumphant.
“The embryo was dormant.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“That isn't possible.”
“It wasn't supposed to be.”
Kara stood frozen.
My mother started crying.
Marcus moved toward me.
“Khloe.”
I couldn't hear him.
All I could hear was the heartbeat.
Two.
One belonging to my unborn child.
The other hidden beneath it.
Samuel explained that the genetic sequence had activated something buried inside my body, a remnant of the original twin embryo created decades ago.
Not a fully developed second baby.
Not yet.
But a living cellular structure.
A genetic echo.
The thing Adrian and Samuel had spent decades trying to create artificially.
My pregnancy had triggered it naturally.
“That’s why they never killed you,” Samuel said.
“They needed your pregnancy to reach this stage.”
Marcus stared at him.
“And Isabella?”
“She was expendable.”
Isabella's eyes hardened.
“And Evelyn?”
“Useful until she wasn't.”
“What about the seven babies?”
Samuel looked away.
“Experiments.”
Kara stepped forward.
“You destroyed my life.”
Samuel studied her.
“You were the first success.”
Kara raised her hand.
For a moment, I thought she would strike him.
Instead, she lowered it.
“You're wrong.”
Samuel frowned.
“What?”
“You thought survival meant success.”
She looked at me.
“It doesn't.”
Then she reached for the emergency switch.
The entire laboratory exploded into darkness.
Sprinklers activated.
Alarms screamed.
Marcus grabbed me.
“Run!”
We raced through the corridor.
Behind us, Samuel shouted orders.
Police stormed the building from another entrance.
Daniel led us toward the main exit.
My mother stayed behind.
I turned.
“Mom!”
She looked at me.
She smiled.
“Go.”
“Come with us!”
She shook her head.
“I have to finish what I started.”
She turned toward the servers.
Then she pulled a fire suppression lever.
The entire room filled with white gas.
The files were destroyed.
But one server remained.
Kara grabbed it.
“This one still has power.”
We escaped the building.
Dawn was breaking.
Marcus held me as paramedics checked the baby's heartbeat.
Strong.
Steady.
Alive.
The police arrested Samuel.
Evelyn disappeared before they could find her.
Isabella agreed to testify.
Daniel surrendered every file he had.
And the seven babies were placed under protective care.
For the first time in months, I thought it was over.
Then Marcus looked at me.
“Khloe.”
“What?”
He pointed toward the monitor.
The second heartbeat was still there.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
I stared.
The doctor frowned.
“It wasn't there yesterday.”
Marcus took my hand.
“What does it mean?”
The doctor shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
YOU SAVED THE BABY.
A second message arrived.
BUT YOU DIDN'T SAVE THE MOTHER.
My blood turned cold.
The screen displayed a photograph.
My mother.
Alive.
Standing inside a train station.
She was holding a newborn baby.
Not one of the seven.
Not the child I was carrying.
A different baby.
Under the photograph was a single sentence.
SHE HAD ONE MORE SECRET.
Then a video arrived.
My mother looked directly into the camera.
Her voice was trembling.
“Khloe, when you see this, don't trust Marcus.”
I stared at my husband.
Marcus stared back.
Neither of us spoke.
Then the video continued.
“The man you married is not the man you think he is.”
The screen went black.
And beneath the silence, from the medical monitor beside my bed, came two distinct heartbeats.
One belonged to my unborn child.
May you like
The other...
had just started getting faster.
