Chapter 9 - The Hospital BasementThey took us underground.
Not to a hospital.
To an old research facility hidden beneath one.
The walls smelled of bleach and metal.
Maya clung to me.
Luca slept.
Alessandro walked beside us.
Victor led the way.
“You want answers,” Victor said.
Alessandro replied:
“I want my son.”
Victor looked over his shoulder.
“You're still assuming Luca is your son.”
The words cut deeper every time.
We entered a large room.
Rows of computers lined the walls.
Medical files covered shelves.
Birth photographs.
DNA reports.
Hospital bracelets.
I saw names.
Hundreds of them.
Then I saw mine.
EMMA CARTER.
My heart stopped.
The file was dated six years before Maya's birth.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph of me.
At a hospital orientation.
I had never seen the picture.
Below it:
Candidate accepted.
I looked at Victor.
“What is this?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“You had a rare biological profile.”
“What does that mean?”
“It meant your body produced unusually compatible antibodies for neonatal infants.”
I stared.
“So you chose me?”
“We chose your daughter.”
My hands shook.
“What about my husband?”
“He was assigned.”
I nearly dropped the file.
“What?”
“Your marriage was not entirely accidental.”
Alessandro turned toward Victor.
“You arranged her marriage?”
Victor nodded.
“Years before you met her.”
Alessandro looked at me.
I couldn't read his face.
Victor continued.
“Your husband was tasked with monitoring your family.”
I remembered the tiny cameras.
The strange questions.
The way my husband sometimes asked Maya about dreams.
I had thought he was being controlling.
He had been collecting information.
“Why hurt Maya?” I whispered.
Victor's answer was quiet.
“Because he needed to know whether she remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
“The transfer.”
He pressed a key.
A video appeared.
A hospital nursery.
Six years earlier.
A woman holding a newborn.
Isabella.
Then another woman.
Me.
I was standing beside an incubator.
But I couldn't remember this.
The video showed me lifting a baby.
A tiny boy.
Then another nurse entered.
“Emma, hurry.”
I watched myself carry the baby toward another room.
My breathing stopped.
“I don't remember this.”
Victor nodded.
“Because we erased it.”
Alessandro's eyes hardened.
“Why would you erase her memory?”
Victor looked at him.
“Because she volunteered.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I would never.”
Victor smiled.
“You did.”
He switched the screen.
A document appeared.
My signature.
Consent form.
My hand covered my mouth.
The date was the day Maya was born.
And beneath my signature were six words:
I agree to protect both children.
I felt dizzy.
“I don't remember signing this.”
Victor leaned toward me.
“You weren't supposed to.”
A door slammed.
One of Victor's guards rushed inside.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“Someone breached the lower level.”
Victor frowned.
“Who?”
The guard looked terrified.
“A woman.”
“Who?”
The guard swallowed.
“She says she's Emma Carter.”
I stared at him.
“That's impossible.”
May you like
He shook his head.
“She has your face.”
