Chapter 10 - The doctor's words had always been clear.The baby was Richard's.
We had undergone the usual tests.
Everything looked normal.
But now Sofia was telling me the impossible.
Richard wasn't the father.
I demanded the full medical records.
Claire obtained them within hours.
One page had been altered.
The DNA comparison had never been completed.
The hospital had used presumed paternity.
Presumed.
I stared at the word.
Richard had known.
He had known from the beginning.
Our marriage.
The pregnancy.
The trust.
Everything.
“Who is the father?” I asked.
Sofia shook her head.
“I don't know his name.”
“But you know who he is.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“He was one of Dad's researchers.”
That made no sense.
“My father died years before I met Richard.”
“He wasn't dead when the research ended.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
Sofia explained that my father had secretly continued Project Orion from an underground facility.
One researcher discovered the biological key.
Then he vanished.
Months later, I met Richard.
But the researcher had left behind genetic records.
One particular subject matched me.
The father of my child.
I felt sick.
“What does my baby have to do with some researcher?”
Sofia looked at me.
“He wasn't just a researcher.”
“Then who?”
“He was the last person your father trusted.”
She handed me a photograph.
A young man stood beside my father.
I knew the face.
My father had shown me that photograph when I was seventeen.
He had called the man a brilliant scientist.
His name was Ethan Cross.
He had supposedly died in a laboratory explosion.
Except he hadn't.
The photograph showed him alive.
And beside him stood Nora.
“This was taken six months after the explosion,” Sofia said.
I looked at the date.
The year was 2011.
My father was still alive.
That meant the official story was false.
“Where is Ethan now?”
Sofia whispered:
“That's what Richard has been trying to find.”
The room changed.
Richard wasn't simply chasing Orion.
He was afraid of Ethan.
Why?
Because Ethan possessed the other half of the genetic key.
We found records from a private fertility clinic.
A donor code had been used six years ago.
The code matched Ethan's genetic profile.
I stared at the report.
“No.”
Sofia's voice was quiet.
“You didn't know because Richard arranged the procedure.”
“What procedure?”
“Your pregnancy.”
I couldn't breathe.
“He…”
“Your husband manipulated your fertility treatment.”
I remembered.
The year before our marriage, Richard had convinced me to freeze embryos.
He said it would give us options later.
He had handled the clinic.
He had chosen the doctor.
I had trusted him.
Now I understood.
He had engineered the pregnancy.
He wasn't simply the father by law.
He had selected the biological father for genetic compatibility.
My stomach turned.
“He created our baby.”
Sofia nodded.
“For Orion.”
The truth was unbearable.
My child wasn't conceived from love.
It was part of a plan.
A plan my husband had been building for years.
Then Ethan contacted us.
Not by phone.
Through a courier.
He sent a single message.
MEET ME WHERE YOUR FATHER DIED.
We drove to the mountain road where my father supposedly had his accident.
The road was empty.
Fog covered the trees.
At the edge of the cliff stood a man.
Older now.
Gray hair.
Scar across one cheek.
Ethan Cross.
I stepped out.
He looked at me.
Then at my stomach.
His eyes filled with tears.
“You're alive.”
“You're my baby's father.”
He nodded.
“I never knew.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
I stepped closer.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was told you would die if I did.”
“By whom?”
He pointed toward the trees.
A rifle cracked.
Ethan shoved me down.
A bullet hit the vehicle behind us.
Claire shouted.
We ran.
Another shot.
Then another.
Ethan grabbed my arm.
“We have to go.”
“Who is shooting?”
He looked back.
“Richard.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I taught him how to use that rifle.”
My blood froze.
“You trained Richard?”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I trained his father.”
Then another shot rang out.
Ethan pushed me behind a tree.
“I need to tell you something before they find us.”
“What?”
He stared at me.
“Richard isn't trying to unlock Orion.”
“Then what?”
“He already has the first key.”
I froze.
“From where?”
Ethan looked at my wedding ring.
“Your father gave it to Richard six years ago.”
I touched the ring.
“But why?”
Ethan whispered:
“Because Richard isn't the only person who survived the helicopter.”
May you like
He paused.
“There was a second passenger.”
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