Chapter 12 - Sylvia’s Offer
Agent Grant was not alone.
Four armed officers entered through the rear.
Lena overturned a cabinet to block the hall. Camille grabbed the files. Dr. Reed guided Anna toward an emergency exit.
Grant’s voice came through the building speakers.
“Anna Vale, no one intends to harm you.”
Anna kept moving.
“Your mother believed that too,” Camille muttered.
The emergency exit opened into an alley.
A black car waited there.
Sylvia sat in the back seat.
She lowered the window.
“Get in.”
Anna stopped.
Dr. Reed raised her weapon.
Sylvia appeared unconcerned.
“You can shoot me, Evelyn, but Grant will take Anna before you reach the street.”
“Why are you helping us?” Anna asked.
“I’m helping myself.”
Camille moved beside Anna.
“Where is Julian?”
Sylvia’s gaze settled on her.
“You still ask the wrong question.”
“Where is my son?”
“Alive, last I knew.”
Camille stumbled against the wall.
Dr. Reed stared at Sylvia.
“You told Malcolm he died.”
“I told Malcolm what he needed to believe.”
“Where is he?” Anna demanded.
“Get in the car.”
They had no better option.
Lena drove while Sylvia directed them through service roads.
Grant’s vehicles followed for several miles before Sylvia activated a device beneath the dashboard. Every traffic light behind them turned red. Steel barriers rose from the road near a railway crossing.
“You control the city system?” Lena asked.
“I funded it.”
They reached a private airfield.
Inside an empty hangar, Sylvia finally explained.
“Malcolm Kessler no longer works for me.”
Camille laughed.
“You expect us to believe you have limits?”
“I have interests. Malcolm’s interests changed.”
“What does he want?”
“Your child.”
“You wanted the same thing.”
“I wanted a genetic heir who could stabilize the Vale line.”
Anna stared at her.
“People are not bloodlines.”
“People become bloodlines when enough money depends on inheritance.”
She explained that the Vale Foundation controlled medical patents, property and private research accounts worth billions. The original trust required a direct biological successor from Julian’s registered line.
“But Julian wasn’t your biological child,” Anna said.
“He was legally registered as mine.”
“So this was about money.”
“It began with grief.”
Sylvia’s voice weakened for the first time.
“I loved Julian.”
“You drugged him,” Camille said.
“I tried to save him.”
“You stole him.”
“I gave him a life you could not.”
Camille struck her.
Sylvia’s lip split.
No one intervened.
After wiping away the blood, Sylvia continued.
“Malcolm preserved Julian’s cells after his illness. He told me he could restore what we lost. Aaron was supposed to marry a compatible maternal descendant.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“You controlled my life since childhood.”
“I protected the investment.”
Anna almost laughed.
“Protection again.”
Sylvia looked toward her stomach.
“The embryo implanted in you contains more than Julian’s genetic material.”
“What else?”
“Malcolm altered it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. He stopped sharing his research two years ago.”
“Then why did you allow the procedure?”
“I believed I remained in control.”
Camille’s expression was merciless.
“You never were.”
Sylvia removed a small data drive from her coat.
“This contains the location of Nursery C, financial records and a list of surviving children.”
“Why give it to us?”
“Because Malcolm has Aaron.”
Anna’s breath caught.
“You know he’s alive.”
“The body in the church was one of Grant’s men. Aaron escaped, but Malcolm found him afterward.”
“Where is he?”
“Below the Vale estate.”
Anna remembered the hidden level on the map.
Nursery C.
Sylvia continued.
“Malcolm will exchange Aaron for you.”
“No.”
“I expected that answer.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Because Aaron discovered the identity of your child’s complete genetic source.”
“We already know it’s Julian.”
“Partial source,” Sylvia corrected. “The other part does not belong to you.”
Anna instinctively covered her stomach.
“The laboratory said I was the mother.”
“You are the gestational mother.”
Dr. Reed went pale.
“Sylvia, whose egg did Malcolm use?”
May you like
Sylvia placed the data drive in Anna’s hand.
“Your mother’s.”
