Chapter 5 - THE CLINIC WITH NO RECORDS“YOU TOLD ME EMILY WAS A MIRACLE.”
Michael stood across from Claire in the silent kitchen.
Claire looked devastated.
“She was.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Emily had been moved into the living room with Agent Sloan.
For the first time since the nightmare began, Michael and Claire were alone.
Claire sat down.
“After we tried for two years, I went to a fertility specialist.”
“Without me?”
“I wanted answers before I scared you.”
Michael closed his eyes.
Another secret.
Claire continued quickly.
“They told me my chances of conceiving naturally were extremely low.”
“And then?”
“My father contacted me.”
Michael stared.
“The supposedly dead one.”
“Yes.”
“He said he knew a doctor.”
“What doctor?”
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
Michael frowned.
“I’ve never heard that name.”
“Neither had I.”
“Where was the clinic?”
“Outside Evanston.”
“What was it called?”
“Genesis Family Center.”
Agent Sloan entered from the doorway.
“There is no Genesis Family Center registered in Illinois.”
Claire stared.
“There was.”
Sloan held up her tablet.
“The address you gave us belonged to a private laboratory.”
Michael felt cold.
“What kind?”
“It closed eight years ago.”
“Convenient.”
Sloan nodded.
“The corporate owner was North Lake Holdings.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Michael stepped away.
Everything led back to North Lake.
Money.
The hospital.
Claire’s father.
His mother.
His father.
And now the conception of his daughter.
Claire whispered:
“I didn’t know.”
Michael looked at her.
For once, he believed her completely.
She had been manipulated too.
“What did they do?”
“One procedure.”
“IVF?”
“They told me it was experimental assisted fertilization.”
Michael’s expression changed.
“Whose genetic material?”
“Mine and yours.”
“You’re sure?”
Claire hesitated.
That hesitation answered him.
“They showed me paperwork.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“Paperwork from the people who forged four million dollars in property transfers using my signature.”
Claire began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Michael crouched before her.
“I’m angry.”
She nodded.
“But not because you wanted a child.”
Claire looked at him.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid you’d think I’d betrayed you.”
“You were manipulated.”
Michael took her hand.
“But from now on, no secrets.”
Claire nodded.
“No secrets.”
Agent Sloan’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Michael.
“We found the clinic archives.”
“Where?”
“Federal storage.”
Michael frowned.
“How?”
“They were seized during an unrelated fraud investigation seven years ago.”
“Can we access them?”
“We already are.”
Twenty minutes later, Sloan opened a scanned patient file.
CLAIRE CARTER.
Treatment date.
Embryo records.
Michael leaned closer.
Two embryos had been implanted.
Claire whispered:
“Twins.”
Sloan nodded.
Then Michael saw the donor field.
Not Michael Carter.
DONOR ID 417.
His heart sank.
“I’m not their biological father.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“Michael—”
He stared at the screen.
Eight years of bedtime stories.
School mornings.
Bandaged knees.
Christmas mornings.
Emily sleeping against his chest during thunderstorms.
A number on a laboratory file could not erase any of it.
But it could change everything else.
“Who is 417?”
Sloan searched.
The database returned:
RESTRICTED.
Then another file opened.
Donor 417 had produced multiple embryos.
Not two.
Fourteen.
Michael stared.
“What the hell?”
Sloan’s face tightened.
“This wasn’t fertility treatment.”
“What was it?”
“A program.”
Claire whispered:
“What program?”
Sloan opened the project header.
PROJECT LEGACY.
Michael laughed once.
No humor.
“Of course it has a name.”
The records showed embryo transfers into seven women.
Different states.
Different years.
Claire was Patient Six.
“Where are the children?”
Sloan continued searching.
Several pregnancies failed.
Three children were born.
Emily.
Lily.
And one boy.
Born six years earlier.
Michael looked at her.
“Who?”
Sloan opened the file.
Her face changed.
“What?”
“The mother was Vanessa Carter.”
Michael stopped breathing.
“My sister?”
Claire stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Sloan turned the screen.
Vanessa had undergone treatment at the same laboratory.
Six years before Claire.
Outcome:
LIVE MALE BIRTH.
Michael immediately called the detention center.
Vanessa answered.
“What happened?”
“Did you have a son?”
Silence.
Michael’s stomach dropped.
“Vanessa.”
She began crying.
“I was nineteen.”
Michael stared.
“You told us you were studying abroad.”
“I was pregnant.”
“What happened to him?”
Vanessa’s breathing broke.
“Dad took him.”
Michael felt rage flood through him.
“What?”
“He told me the baby died.”
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
Michael looked at Sloan.
Another stolen child.
“Who was the father?”
Vanessa whispered:
“I don’t know.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Did you go to Genesis?”
A long silence.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Dad made me.”
Michael’s blood ran cold.
Robert Carter had been involved directly.
Vanessa continued.
“He said I was helping the family.”
“What family?”
“I didn’t understand.”
Michael stared at the Project Legacy records.
Three living children.
Same donor.
Vanessa’s son.
Emily.
Lily.
Half siblings.
But why?
“What did Dad want?”
Vanessa whispered:
“He kept saying one of the children would be compatible.”
Michael froze.
“Compatible with what?”
“I don’t know.”
Agent Sloan suddenly stood.
She had opened another medical file.
“Michael.”
He turned.
“What?”
She looked disturbed.
“Project Legacy wasn’t studying fertility.”
“Then what?”
“Stem-cell compatibility.”
Claire stared.
“For whom?”
Sloan opened the recipient file.
The name was encrypted.
But a photograph remained.
Michael recognized the man immediately.
His father.
Robert Carter.
The man had supposedly died seven years earlier.
Michael whispered:
“No.”
Project Legacy had created children to find a biological match for Robert Carter.
Vanessa’s child.
Emily.
Lily.
Michael felt physically sick.
“What disease did he have?”
Sloan searched.
“No disease listed.”
Then another field appeared.
PROTOCOL: REGENERATIVE LONGEVITY.
Claire stepped backward.
“He created children…”
Michael finished:
“…to experiment on them.”
His phone vibrated.
A video message.
Franklin.
Michael opened it.
Claire’s father appeared beside a teenage boy.
Approximately fourteen.
Dark hair.
Carter eyes.
Vanessa’s eyes.
Franklin smiled.
“Michael, meet your nephew.”
Vanessa screamed through the speaker phone.
Michael stared at the boy.
Alive.
Then Franklin placed a hand on his shoulder.
“This is Noah.”
The boy looked directly into the camera.
No fear.
Only anger.
Franklin continued:
“And unlike Emily…”
May you like
His smile vanished.
“Noah knows exactly what your family did to him.”
