Chapter 11 - Two HeartbeatsIsabella stared at the monitor.
Two heartbeats.
Fast.
Strong.
One slightly slower than the other.
“No.”
The doctor smiled.
“You've been told you're carrying one child.”
“Yes.”
“That wasn't the complete truth.”
Isabella shook her head.
“You're lying.”
He opened the medical file.
An ultrasound from three years ago appeared.
Not the current pregnancy.
A scan showing a small embryo.
Timestamp:
Three years earlier.
Isabella's breath caught.
“That isn't possible.”
The doctor nodded.
“That is exactly what Eclipse wants you to believe.”
He showed her another file.
A genetic report.
Then another.
Then a surgical record.
Isabella's mind raced.
“I had surgery?”
“You don't remember.”
“What did you do to me?”
“We didn't do anything.”
He smiled.
“You did.”
“You agreed.”
“No.”
“You signed.”
Isabella stared at the signature.
It looked like hers.
The doctor continued.
“You were desperate.”
“You were told you couldn't have children.”
“So you underwent an experimental fertility procedure.”
Her stomach twisted.
“You implanted something.”
He smiled.
“Two embryos.”
Isabella looked at the monitor.
“Twins.”
“Yes.”
“One was removed.”
Her eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Because one carried the genetic marker.”
“The other didn't.”
He leaned close.
“The one that remained is the heir.”
“The other?”
He smiled.
“Was transferred.”
“To whom?”
The door opened.
Nathan entered.
Bloodied.
Bruised.
Alive.
Isabella stared.
He looked at the doctor.
“Leave us.”
The doctor smiled.
“You always thought you were protecting her.”
Nathan answered,
“I was.”
The doctor left.
Isabella looked at Nathan.
“Did you know?”
Nathan's face was shattered.
“Yes.”
Her heart sank.
“You knew I had twins?”
“I knew about the procedure.”
“When?”
“Before our wedding.”
Isabella cried.
“And you still married me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was trying to find the missing child.”
She stared.
“What?”
Nathan explained.
The second embryo had been implanted into another woman.
The Blackwoods had arranged it.
They wanted a backup heir.
Someone they could control.
Someone whose identity could be hidden.
Isabella couldn't breathe.
“Who?”
Nathan looked away.
“We found out three months ago.”
“Who?”
He finally answered.
“Victoria.”
Isabella's blood chilled.
“Victoria is pregnant?”
“No.”
Nathan handed her a photograph.
A teenage girl.
About twelve years old.
Isabella stared.
She didn't recognize her.
Nathan whispered,
“That is your daughter.”
The room disappeared around her.
“No.”
“Her name is Ava.”
“My daughter is twelve?”
“Yes.”
Isabella remembered fragments.
The missing hour.
The hospital.
The strange feeling that something had been taken from her.
Nathan explained.
The fertility procedure had happened after Isabella fainted.
Eclipse transferred one embryo into a surrogate.
Then the surrogate disappeared.
Ava had been raised under another identity.
She had never been told her real mother existed.
Isabella's hands shook.
“Where is she?”
Nathan didn't answer.
“Where is my daughter?”
“They took her.”
“Who?”
Nathan looked toward the door.
“The same people holding you now.”
Isabella's breathing became frantic.
“We have to find her.”
“We will.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was afraid you'd become reckless.”
“She is my daughter.”
“I know.”
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
He fell silent.
Then he pulled out the flash drive.
“The reason I gave you this.”
Isabella looked at it.
“There's one file I couldn't open.”
He connected it.
A folder appeared.
AVA
Isabella's hands flew to her mouth.
The file contained a recent photograph.
Ava was sitting in a room.
Alive.
Scared.
Looking toward the camera.
Then a message appeared.
MOM, IF YOU SEE THIS, PLEASE DON'T TRUST DAD.
Isabella froze.
Nathan looked at her.
“I didn't know she had this message.”
The video began.
Ava looked directly into the camera.
“My name isn't Ava.”
“My real name is—”
The screen suddenly went black.
A warning flashed.
FILE CORRUPTED.
Nathan stared.
“No.”
Isabella grabbed his arm.
“What was her name?”
Nathan didn't know.
Then another audio file opened.
A child's voice whispered:
“Mom... I'm sorry.”
A second voice appeared in the background.
Adult.
Male.
The voice said:
“Erase it.”
Isabella recognized the voice.
She knew it.
Everyone knew it.
It belonged to Julian Voss.
Then the child whispered one final sentence.
“They told me my father was dead.”
Isabella looked at Nathan.
“But my father is alive.”
The room fell silent.
Nathan slowly said,
“They didn't mean me.”
He opened another file.
A photograph appeared.
Ava standing beside a man.
Isabella recognized the man instantly.
Her father's brother.
Her uncle.
The man who had disappeared twenty years ago.
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And beside the photograph was one line:
HE IS THE REAL HEAD OF ECLIPSE.
