Chapter 3 - THE THIRD EMBRYO“WHOSE DNA IS IN MY SON?”
Maria didn’t answer.
Adrian moved closer.
“Maria.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Please understand—”
“WHOSE DNA?”
“Yours.”
Adrian stared at her.
“And Claire’s?”
Maria closed her eyes.
That hesitation was enough.
Adrian stepped backward as if she had struck him.
“No.”
“Mr. Cole—”
“No.”
“Please let me explain.”
“You told me Oliver was mine.”
“He is.”
“That isn’t what I asked!”
Maria lowered her voice.
“The embryo used for Oliver was listed under Claire’s patient file.”
“Listed?”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the genetic material may not match the records.”
Adrian stared at the medical documents covering the hidden room.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“Since before Oliver was born.”
“And you said nothing?”
“Claire made me promise.”
“Claire was dead!”
“She was trying to protect him!”
“From what?”
Maria looked toward the computer.
“From whoever altered the embryo records.”
Adrian’s anger collapsed into horror.
Someone had changed the biological identity of his child.
And somehow Claire had known.
Maria approached the desk.
“There’s something else.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Of course there is.”
“Claire left a code.”
“For Archive 17?”
“I think so.”
Maria removed the silver necklace.
She turned it over.
Tiny numbers were engraved along the back.
031419.
Adrian stared.
“Our wedding date.”
Maria entered the numbers.
ACCESS DENIED.
She frowned.
Adrian looked at the necklace again.
“Try Oliver’s embryo transfer date.”
Maria entered another sequence.
ACCESS DENIED.
Then Adrian noticed something.
Inside the locket was a photograph.
Not of Adrian.
Not of Claire.
A newborn baby.
He frowned.
“Who is that?”
Maria went pale.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian removed the photograph.
Behind it were six handwritten digits.
Maria entered them.
The screen unlocked.
Archive 17 opened.
The timestamp was from the night Claire died.
Adrian pressed play.
Claire appeared in their old bedroom.
Evelyn stood near the window.
A doctor Adrian recognized was beside her.
Dr. Samuel Mercer.
Their fertility specialist.
Adrian’s stomach twisted.
Claire was furious.
“You altered the records.”
Mercer looked terrified.
“Claire—”
“You used someone else’s egg.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Maria covered her mouth.
On the video, Evelyn remained eerily calm.
Claire continued.
“Whose was it?”
Mercer said nothing.
Claire stepped toward him.
“WHOSE EGG?”
Evelyn answered.
“Mine.”
Adrian stared at the screen.
Impossible.
Evelyn had been far beyond reproductive age when Oliver was conceived.
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“You’re insane.”
“Not mine directly,” Evelyn said.
“Then whose?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“My daughter’s.”
Adrian’s eyes widened.
Evelyn didn’t have a daughter.
At least…
not one Adrian had ever known existed.
Claire seemed equally stunned.
“You don’t have a daughter.”
Evelyn smiled.
“That’s what the family believes.”
The recording continued.
“My daughter was born thirty-four years ago. Your father forced me to give her away.”
Claire whispered:
“Why?”
“Because her father wasn’t acceptable to the Cole family.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked for the first time.
“They erased her.”
Adrian stared at the screen.
His father had done that?
Evelyn continued.
“I spent thirty years looking for her.”
Claire’s anger softened slightly.
“And you found her.”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
Evelyn said nothing.
Claire suddenly understood something.
Her face changed.
“No.”
Evelyn smiled.
Claire whispered:
“Vanessa.”
Adrian turned toward Maria.
Maria looked equally stunned.
On the screen Claire stepped backward.
“Vanessa is your daughter?”
“Yes.”
Everything inside Adrian went cold.
Vanessa.
His fiancée.
Evelyn’s secret daughter.
Evelyn continued.
“Vanessa donated eggs years ago when she needed money. She never knew where they went.”
Claire looked horrified.
“You stole one?”
“I reclaimed what belonged to my family.”
“You created Oliver using Adrian’s sperm and Vanessa’s egg?”
Adrian staggered backward.
Maria caught him.
“No.”
The word barely escaped his mouth.
If the recording was true…
Vanessa was Oliver’s biological mother.
And Vanessa had been engaged to Oliver’s biological father.
Without knowing.
Adrian felt sick.
Claire shouted from the screen:
“You destroyed our embryo!”
“No,” Mercer interrupted.
Claire turned.
“What?”
Mercer’s voice trembled.
“The original embryo still exists.”
Evelyn spun toward him.
“Samuel.”
“You said it had been destroyed,” Claire whispered.
Mercer looked down.
“I couldn’t do it.”
Claire stared at him.
“Where is it?”
Mercer swallowed.
“Cryogenic storage.”
Evelyn stepped toward him.
“You idiot.”
Claire suddenly moved toward the door.
“I’m calling Adrian.”
Evelyn blocked her.
“No.”
“Move.”
“You’re emotional.”
“MOVE!”
Claire pushed past her.
The video shook.
Then Claire suddenly grabbed her chest.
Adrian froze.
He remembered that night.
The phone call.
The ambulance.
The doctors saying Claire had suffered a catastrophic cardiac event.
But on the video…
Claire looked toward a glass of water beside the bed.
Then toward Mercer.
“What did you give me?”
Mercer’s face went white.
“Nothing.”
Claire collapsed.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Maria whispered:
“Oh God.”
The video continued.
Mercer rushed toward Claire.
“We need an ambulance!”
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“She’s dying!”
“Then let her.”
Adrian’s entire body went rigid.
Maria stared at him.
“Mr. Cole…”
He couldn’t speak.
On the screen, Claire struggled to breathe.
Mercer reached for his phone.
Evelyn knocked it from his hand.
“She knows everything.”
“She needs help!”
“If she survives, we lose Oliver.”
Claire looked directly toward the hidden camera.
Her eyes were terrified.
Then the recording ended.
Adrian stood in silence.
The world around him disappeared.
His wife had not simply died.
She had been denied help.
Perhaps poisoned.
And Evelyn had watched.
Adrian whispered:
“She killed Claire.”
Maria shook her head.
“We don’t know what caused the medical event.”
“She stopped Mercer from calling an ambulance.”
“Yes.”
“That’s enough.”
Adrian grabbed his phone.
He called the police.
Then another realization struck him.
“Vanessa.”
Maria looked up.
“If she’s Evelyn’s daughter…”
“She may be in danger.”
Adrian called Vanessa.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Vanessa’s phone—the one she had supposedly left behind—began ringing.
Adrian looked at the screen.
EVELYN.
He answered.
Vanessa was crying.
“Adrian?”
“Vanessa!”
“Listen to me.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
A sound came through the phone.
A car engine.
“Evelyn told me everything.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“About Oliver?”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
“Oh God, Adrian.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I swear.”
“I know.”
“I would never…”
“I know.”
She sobbed.
“I thought I was hurting Claire’s child.”
Adrian froze.
Vanessa stopped speaking.
“What did you say?”
Silence.
“Vanessa?”
“I…”
“You thought you were hurting Claire’s child?”
Her breathing became ragged.
“Adrian, I’m sorry.”
“What did you do to Oliver?”
“I never meant to seriously hurt him.”
Adrian’s hand tightened around the phone.
Maria looked at him.
Vanessa continued.
“Evelyn kept telling me Claire had ruined her life. She told me you would never love me while Claire’s memory was in that house.”
“That’s why you hurt him?”
“I was angry.”
“He’s a BABY!”
“I know!”
Adrian’s face twisted.
“No. You don’t get to say that.”
“Adrian—”
“You put my son on the floor.”
“I lost control.”
“You grabbed him.”
“Yes.”
“You blamed Maria.”
Vanessa cried harder.
“Yes.”
Adrian’s voice became ice.
“Whatever Evelyn did to you, whatever she told you, you made those choices.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Then another voice entered the call.
Evelyn.
“Very noble.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“Where are you?”
“You watched the recording?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know the truth.”
“I know you let Claire die.”
“She was going to destroy everything.”
“You killed my wife.”
“I saved your son.”
“You created this nightmare.”
“No, Adrian.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“Your father did.”
Adrian stared at the floor.
“What does he have to do with this?”
“He stole my daughter.”
“He’s dead.”
“And death does not erase what people do.”
“You used Vanessa.”
“I gave her back the life she should have had.”
“You paid her to manipulate me.”
“I brought my family together.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“You call this family?”
“Blood is family.”
“No.”
Adrian looked toward Maria.
“People who protect children are family.”
Maria’s eyes filled with tears.
“People who use them aren’t.”
Evelyn went silent.
Then Adrian heard Vanessa scream.
“NO!”
The call disconnected.
Adrian stared at the phone.
“Vanessa!”
Nothing.
Maria whispered:
“What happened?”
Adrian was already moving.
“We find her.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
But before Adrian reached the stairs, Maria’s phone buzzed.
A message.
She looked down.
Her face went white.
“What?”
Maria showed him.
A photograph.
Vanessa standing inside an abandoned medical facility.
Behind her was a sign:
WELLINGTON REPRODUCTIVE CENTER — ARCHIVE WING.
Below it was a message.
COME ALONE OR THE LAST EMBRYO DISAPPEARS FOREVER.
Adrian stared at the screen.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
AND BRING OLIVER.
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