Chapter 9 - Aaron’s First Betrayal
Aaron found them before sunset.
He entered the church alone, unarmed, soaked from the rain.
Lena pointed a pistol at him.
“Take another step and I call the police.”
“They already think you abducted psychiatric patients.”
“Then calling them should not worry you.”
Aaron looked at Anna.
“I need to speak to you.”
“You drugged me.”
“I didn’t know what was in the cup.”
“You held me down while your mother made me drink it.”
“I thought it was medicine.”
“You watched her control every part of my life.”
“I was trying to protect the baby.”
“You knew about the baby before I did.”
Aaron’s face twisted.
“I knew there was a procedure.”
The church became silent.
Anna’s voice dropped.
“What procedure?”
He looked at the floor.
“My mother told me you needed treatment to become pregnant.”
“I never agreed.”
“She said you had agreed before the wedding.”
“You believed that?”
“I wanted to.”
The honesty hurt more than another lie.
“What did they do to me?”
“I don’t know exactly. They sedated you at the imaging center. Malcolm performed an implantation.”
“Using whose embryo?”
Aaron began to cry.
“I thought it was mine.”
Anna slapped him.
The sound echoed across the empty pews.
He did not defend himself.
“You let them violate me.”
“I was afraid you would leave.”
“So you made sure I couldn’t.”
“I loved you.”
“No. You wanted ownership.”
Aaron looked toward Dr. Reed.
“My mother said Julian’s genetic material had been preserved.”
Camille stood.
“You knew?”
“Not until last year.”
“You knew he was my son?”
Aaron’s face drained of color.
“My mother said you were a surrogate.”
“She stole him from me.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Camille walked toward him slowly.
“What happened to Julian?”
Aaron stepped back.
“I was four when he disappeared. I remember an ambulance. My mother said he died.”
“Did you see a body?”
“No.”
“Was there a funeral?”
“A private one.”
“Was the coffin open?”
Aaron’s silence answered her.
Anna showed him the genetic result.
“The baby is a partial match to Julian.”
Aaron stared at the screen.
“That was the plan.”
“What plan?”
“To create a child from preserved tissue and a compatible maternal line.”
“Why me?”
“Your mother and Camille shared an unusual mitochondrial marker. Malcolm believed combining your genetic material with Julian’s could produce a healthy male heir.”
Camille sank onto a pew.
“They turned my child into stored material.”
Aaron moved toward her.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked up with hatred.
“You are sorry because you finally understand that you were never their son either.”
He froze.
“What?”
Camille pulled out the photograph from room 314.
On the back, beneath Julian’s information, another line had been written.
Secondary placement approved: infant A-12 to Sylvia Vale.
Aaron read it.
His hands began shaking.
“Infant A-12?”
Dr. Reed opened a database.
“Aaron, what is your birth date?”
He gave it.
She searched the files.
A record appeared.
A-12.
Birth mother: Helen Mercer.
Placement family: Sylvia Vale.
Aaron stared at the screen as though it had split his life in half.
“My mother adopted me?”
“She purchased you,” Camille said.
Aaron turned toward the church doors.
“No.”
“Where are you going?” Anna asked.
“To get the original records.”
“From the estate?”
“My mother has a vault beneath the house.”
“You’ll lead them here.”
“They already know you’re here.”
Everyone looked at him.
Aaron wiped his face.
“There’s a tracker inside the silver cup.”
Dr. Reed turned toward the cabinet.
May you like
The black stone at the base of the seventh cup began blinking.
Outside, engines approached.
