Chapter 5 - The Second Child)
Clara moved first.
She placed Samuel flat on the sofa and checked his airway.
“No breathing.”
Amelia knelt beside her.
Caesar stood frozen.
Clara snapped, “Caesar, the emergency kit.”
He reacted.
Marcus tore open the medical cabinet.
Vanessa pushed past everyone and grabbed a small silver vial from inside her purse.
Clara saw it.
“What is that?”
“The stabilizer.”
“Give it to me.”
Vanessa hesitated.
Amelia screamed, “Now!”
Vanessa handed it over.
Clara checked the label.
There was none.
“What dosage?”
“Half.”
“You said you were giving him medicine upstairs.”
“It was diluted.”
Clara looked at Caesar.
“We do not know what this is.”
Vanessa’s face twisted.
“If you do nothing, he dies.”
Caesar stared at Samuel’s motionless body.
“Use it.”
Clara administered a small dose against the inside of Samuel’s cheek.
Then she continued infant CPR.
Seconds passed.
Nothing.
Evelyn buried her face against Amelia’s shoulder.
Caesar could hear each compression.
Each breath.
Each second.
Then Samuel coughed.
Clara rolled him carefully.
The baby gasped.
A cry escaped.
Caesar’s knees nearly gave way.
Vanessa reached for Samuel.
Clara pulled him away.
“No.”
“I saved him.”
“You also concealed whatever condition he has.”
Vanessa looked at Caesar.
“You would never have accepted the truth.”
“You did not give me the chance.”
“You think this began with me?”
Vanessa pointed toward Amelia.
“Ask her.”
Amelia looked stunned.
“Ask me what?”
“Why Orpheus had your embryos.”
Amelia’s face changed.
Caesar saw it.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Amelia.”
She stood.
“After Evelyn was born, I had complications.”
“I remember.”
“My doctor said there was a possibility I would need surgery. Before the procedure, he recommended preserving embryos.”
Caesar remembered signing papers.
He had barely read them.
He trusted Amelia.
He trusted the clinic.
He trusted people paid more in a month than most families earned in a year.
“How many?”
“Six.”
Vanessa said, “Nine.”
Amelia stared at her.
“That is impossible.”
“Three were created without your consent.”
Caesar felt sick.
“Where are the others?”
Vanessa looked toward the memory card.
“That is why she was killed.”
Amelia’s eyes sharpened.
“I was not killed.”
Vanessa laughed without humor.
“They tried.”
Amelia went quiet.
Caesar looked between them.
“Start talking. Both of you.”
Amelia sat beside Evelyn.
Four years earlier, she had discovered unusual withdrawals from a Moretti family foundation.
Millions of dollars were being sent to medical research companies that appeared legitimate but had no actual employees.
One name repeated across several shell corporations.
Orpheus.
She hired a private investigator.
Three weeks later, he disappeared.
Then Amelia found laboratory records inside Vittorio Moretti’s old study.
Records showing controlled fertilization experiments.
Genetic screening.
Embryonic selection.
Children marked with codes instead of names.
Evelyn’s code was E7.
Samuel’s was S9.
Amelia looked at Caesar.
“I confronted your father.”
“My father was dead.”
“That is what you believed.”
Caesar remembered the man at the gate.
“What did he tell you?”
“That he had built Orpheus before you were born.”
“Why?”
“He said the Moretti family had spent generations building an empire and leaving inheritance to chance.”
Caesar frowned.
“Inheritance?”
“He believed children could be designed.”
Marcus spoke from the security station.
“Intelligence. resistance to disease. physical traits.”
Amelia nodded.
“He wanted heirs who could not fail.”
Caesar laughed once.
It was an ugly sound.
“My father thought he could manufacture perfect grandchildren.”
“No,” Amelia said.
“He wanted to manufacture perfect successors.”
That distinction chilled him.
Vanessa sat slowly.
“I met Orpheus when I was twenty-three.”
Amelia stared at her.
“You worked for them.”
“No.”
Vanessa touched her abdomen unconsciously.
“They recruited me.”
“For what?”
“To carry children.”
The room went silent.
“I had debts. My father was dying. They offered more money than I had ever seen. They told me wealthy families needed discreet surrogates.”
Caesar looked at her with disgust.
“And Samuel?”
Vanessa met his eyes.
“I did not know he was yours until after I met you.”
“Convenient.”
“I am telling you the truth.”
Amelia stood.
“You knew who Caesar was.”
“Eventually.”
“And you married him anyway.”
“I loved him.”
Amelia laughed.
“You infiltrated my family.”
Vanessa suddenly shouted, “You abandoned it!”
The accusation hung in the room.
Amelia stepped toward her.
“I was imprisoned.”
“For four years?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A private medical facility in Vermont.”
Marcus looked up.
“We can verify that.”
Amelia shook her head.
“No. It burned down six weeks ago.”
Caesar’s eyes narrowed.
“Six weeks.”
“Yes.”
“When did you escape?”
“Six weeks ago.”
“Why did it take you until tonight to come here?”
Amelia looked toward Clara.
“Because I was trying to find the other children.”
Caesar felt the temperature drop.
“What other children?”
Amelia reached into her pocket.
She removed a folded photograph.
Nine children stood in front of an institutional building.
Different ages.
Different appearances.
Each wore a white bracelet with a number.
Amelia pointed to a girl near the center.
“She is Evelyn’s biological sister.”
Caesar stared.
Then Amelia pointed to a boy.
“And he is yours.”
Another.
“Also yours.”
Another.
Caesar stopped her.
“How many?”
Amelia looked him in the eyes.
“According to the records I found, Caesar, you have at least twelve children.”
Before he could respond, the safe room monitor flickered.
Vittorio appeared on every screen.
“Hello, son.”
Caesar looked up.
May you like
His father smiled.
“Now that the family is finally together, we can begin.”
