Chapter 12 - My Daughter in My Arms
Sophie was cold but breathing.
I held her beneath my coat while Marcus searched the dark water for Lena.
Daniel dragged Noah behind a concrete barrier. Blood covered the side of his face, but the bullet had only grazed him.
The burning boat drifted away from the dock.
One gunman lay unconscious on the boards. The other had vanished with Evelyn.
“Lena!” Marcus shouted.
No answer came.
Then Cole appeared from the trees wearing a tactical vest.
He ran toward the dock.
“Where is she?”
“In the water,” I said.
Without hesitation, he jumped in.
For almost a minute, we saw nothing.
Then Cole surfaced with Lena beneath one arm.
Marcus and Daniel pulled them onto the dock.
Lena was unconscious.
Cole performed chest compressions until she coughed water and began breathing.
When her eyes opened, she looked immediately for Sophie.
“She’s safe,” I said.
Lena’s expression broke.
“I’m sorry.”
I wanted to hate her.
She had taken my child, participated in the switch and left Grace in my home without explanation.
But she had also protected Sophie from Arden.
“Why didn’t you come to me?” I asked.
“Because Daniel was being watched. So were you.”
“You could have left a message.”
“They would have intercepted it.”
“You terrified my son.”
Her gaze moved toward Noah.
“I know.”
Noah stood behind Daniel.
Lena whispered, “I needed him to remember.”
“Why?”
“Because children notice details adults dismiss. I knew Arden would alter records, replace bracelets and manipulate video. Noah saw the original transfer.”
“You used a five-year-old as evidence.”
“I had no one else.”
Cole knelt beside his sister.
“You had me.”
Lena stared at him.
“I called you twelve years ago.”
His face twisted with regret.
“I know.”
“And you didn’t believe me.”
“I was wrong.”
The words hung between them.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Cole stood.
“I called a federal contact outside the state bureau. We have minutes.”
Marcus held up the metal case.
“We need to release the archive.”
Lena shook her head.
“Not from the cabin. Evelyn will have placed a signal trap.”
“Where?”
“The submerged vault.”
Daniel stared at the black lake.
“You said Sebastian has all three keys.”
“He does. But the archive’s physical trigger still requires founder-line blood.”
Everyone looked toward Sophie.
“No,” I said.
“Only a drop,” Lena replied.
“No.”
“Without it, Evelyn controls the evidence.”
“I will not use my child in one of their machines.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“Emily, releasing the archive could expose every person involved and locate the other missing infants.”
“Could it hurt Sophie?”
“No,” Lena said. “The system requires only genetic confirmation.”
I looked at the daughter I had spent days fearing I might never hold again.
Her crescent birthmark rested above her heart.
Grace began crying from the cabin.
Two babies.
Two families.
And perhaps dozens of children whose names had been erased.
“I go with you,” I said.
Daniel protested.
I silenced him.
“You don’t decide for me again.”
Lena, Marcus and I entered the underground tunnel. It descended beneath the lake through reinforced concrete passages.
At the final chamber, we found the vault door already open.
Inside, computer screens glowed.
The archive drive had been removed from Marcus’s case.
He checked his coat in disbelief.
“It was there.”
Lena looked toward the tunnel.
“Someone took it during the exchange.”
A speaker above us crackled.
Evelyn’s voice filled the chamber.
May you like
“Thank you for bringing Sophie to the activation point.”
The vault door slammed shut behind us.
