Chapter 9 - What Rose Hid in the Blood
Gabriel's statement made no immediate sense. Clara's son had not been born. No one could have hidden anything in his blood.
Dr. Reyes provided the first possible explanation. During early pregnancy, Clara had undergone genetic screening at Dr. Cole's clinic. The test analyzed fetal DNA circulating in her bloodstream. If Bellweather controlled the laboratory, someone could have encoded or attached information to the digital genetic file associated with the fetus.
Lydia believed Rose used the screening system to hide the ledger inside encrypted genomic data. Bellweather laboratories stored raw sequences on private servers because DNA profiles were central to proving or concealing parentage. A ledger hidden there could travel unnoticed beneath the name of Clara's unborn child.
The access key might be biological: a combination derived from Sebastian's DNA, Clara's DNA, and the baby's unique markers.
That meant Eleanor could not retrieve the ledger until after birth unless she possessed a fresh fetal sample.
The sedatives, the planned induction, the obsession with medical control, and the date on the bottle all pointed to the same objective.
They needed the child alive, but they also needed his blood.
Gabriel woke after surgery. He confirmed that Rose had infiltrated Cole's laboratory months earlier. She copied the Bellweather ledger into a genetic archive and locked it behind a verification system requiring three samples. Rose believed no Keeper would risk harming the child because the archive would erase itself if the biological markers showed death or contamination.
She underestimated Eleanor.
"Where is Rose?" Sebastian asked.
Gabriel closed his eyes. "She let them take her so I could escape with the first key."
He had carried that key inside the hollow compartment of his signet ring. Eleanor recovered the ring at the orchard, but Gabriel had already removed the inner wafer and hidden it beneath his dental bridge.
The wafer contained one-third of the decryption sequence.
The second third was held by Lydia.
The final third, Gabriel said, had been sent to Clara's father before his death.
Clara's missing letter.
Her father, Daniel Hart, had worked as an auditor for a shipping firm that unknowingly transported Bellweather medical equipment. He discovered irregular payments and contacted Rose. Before he could expose them, he died in a warehouse fire ruled accidental. The letter he left Clara contained numbers she thought were meaningless condolences and account references.
Eleanor stole it from the nursery safe because she knew what it contained.
Clara remembered reading the letter only once. Her father wrote, When the house turns against you, remember the stars do not move, even when the ceiling does.
The phrase pointed to the painted constellations on the ceiling of Clara's childhood bedroom.
Agents searched the Hart family home, vacant since Daniel's death. Behind a glow-in-the-dark star, they found a tiny metal cylinder. Inside was the third wafer and a note addressed to Clara.
Do not trust the family that calls possession love.
With all three keys, federal cyber specialists located the genetic archive. It was scheduled to unlock automatically when a registered birth record and newborn blood panel were uploaded.
They could not access it early without risking deletion.
The safest plan was to control the birth, collect the sample securely, and unlock the ledger under federal supervision.
Eleanor knew that too.
Two days later, Clara went into premature labor.
Dr. Reyes confirmed the contractions were real. Someone had administered a hormone through a transdermal patch hidden beneath the adhesive of Clara's monitoring sensor.
The patch had been placed during an ultrasound.
Only Dr. Reyes and one technician had touched the sensor.
The technician was found unconscious in a supply room. Her badge was missing.
A woman wearing her uniform had entered Clara's room twenty minutes earlier.
By the time security reviewed the footage, Clara's contractions were three minutes apart.
The protected residence lacked surgical facilities for a complicated delivery. She had to be transferred.
Every hospital route could be ambushed. Every ambulance crew could be compromised.
Sebastian stood beside Clara as the pain bent her body.
"Where do you feel safe?" he asked.
She gripped his hand and answered through clenched teeth.
"Nowhere they expect us to go."
Gabriel, pale in his hospital bed, gave them the location of a hidden medical suite beneath Vale Meridian headquarters, built years ago for disaster continuity.
No one except Gabriel, Sebastian, and Eleanor knew it existed.
As the convoy prepared to leave, Quinn received a live video call.
Rose Mercer appeared on the screen, bound to a chair.
Behind her stood Eleanor.
The digital archive was more than a database. It contained recorded interviews in which frightened mothers were coached to surrender children, private letters used for blackmail, and genetic maps connecting families across continents. Rose had designed the lock so no single government or corporation could quietly seize it. Opening the ledger would create evidence, but it would also release truths capable of injuring people who had never chosen the circumstances of their birth.
"Bring Clara to the Vale tower," Eleanor said. "I have prepared the delivery room myself."
May you like
Then she smiled.
"And Sebastian, this time, do not come home early."
