Chapter 11 - The Underground Ward
The loading dock was not empty.
A black medical van waited beside the exit.
Its engine was running.
Ruth stopped.
“That isn’t ours.”
The rear doors opened.
Two nurses in blue uniforms jumped out.
Ashley moved in front of Emily.
One nurse raised both hands.
“We’re with Daniel Monroe.”
Ruth stared at her.
“Prove it.”
The woman removed a silver pendant from beneath her collar.
It was shaped like a small bird.
Ruth touched an identical pendant beneath her own uniform.
“Where did you get that?”
“Daniel gave it to me the night he disappeared.”
“Where is he?”
“Not here.”
Emily bent forward as another contraction began.
The second nurse opened the van wider.
“She needs a hospital.”
“No Carter facility,” Ashley said.
“This vehicle goes to St. Matthew’s.”
Ruth looked inside.
The van held emergency equipment and a portable incubator.
“Who prepared this?”
“Dr. Monroe.”
Emily gripped Ruth’s arm.
“You said you didn’t know if he was alive.”
“I didn’t.”
The loading-dock door began lowering.
A security alarm sounded.
The nurse climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Decide now.”
Ashley helped Emily into the back.
Ruth followed.
Sarah remained outside.
Emily looked at her.
“Come with us.”
Sarah stared toward the building.
“My father is still inside.”
“He tried to have you taken.”
“He’s still my father.”
The door lowered another foot.
Sarah looked at the van.
Then at the yellow blanket in Emily’s arms.
“Michael?”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“The elevator fell.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
For one moment, all the cruelty disappeared from her face.
She looked like a sister who had just lost her brother.
Then she climbed into the van.
The nurse accelerated before the rear doors fully closed.
They escaped beneath the descending barrier with inches to spare.
Outside, rain hammered the windshield.
Ashley held Emily’s hand.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m not dying.”
“You’re not allowed to.”
Ruth checked the baby’s heartbeat using a portable monitor.
The rapid rhythm filled the van.
“It’s strong,” she said.
Emily looked at the yellow blanket.
“Open the flash drive.”
Ashley removed a small laptop from his backpack.
“Now?”
“If Richard reaches the hospital first, we may lose everything.”
Ruth nodded.
“Do it.”
Ashley inserted the drive.
A password request appeared.
Emily tried her mother’s name.
Denied.
She tried her birthday.
Denied.
Sarah leaned forward.
“Try A-17.”
The drive unlocked.
Folders filled the screen.
SUBJECT A-17.
HEIR PROJECT.
MATERNAL DUPLICATION.
TRANSFER LOGS.
Ashley opened the first folder.
Scanned documents appeared.
Most were medical charts from twenty-nine years earlier.
Anna Vale’s name appeared repeatedly.
Emily read as quickly as she could.
The program had collected Anna’s eggs without her permission.
One embryo had been created using Richard Carter’s genetic material.
But it had never been implanted.
It had remained frozen for decades.
The embryo Emily now carried had been created from Richard and Anna.
Emily stared at the screen.
“My baby’s biological mother is my mother.”
Ashley looked sick.
“That makes Richard…”
“The biological father,” Ruth finished.
Sarah covered her mouth.
Emily felt the van tilt beneath her, though the road was straight.
The child inside her was genetically her half-sibling.
Richard had implanted an embryo created with her mother’s stolen eggs.
She pressed both hands over her stomach.
“No.”
Ruth moved closer.
“Emily, listen to me. None of this changes the fact that you are carrying and protecting this child.”
“He used my mother.”
“Yes.”
“He used me.”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at the monitor.
The heartbeat continued.
Fast.
Alive.
Innocent.
Another file opened automatically.
A video appeared.
Dr. Daniel Monroe sat in a dim room.
His hair was uncombed. A bruise covered one cheek.
“If you are watching this,” he said, “Richard has discovered the transfer.”
Emily leaned toward the screen.
“Emily, your pregnancy was not the original plan.”
The van fell silent.
Daniel continued.
“Richard intended the embryo for Sarah.”
Sarah’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“But she was medically incompatible. Michael was instructed to find a carrier with a direct mitochondrial connection to Anna Vale.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
“That is why he chose you,” Daniel said.
“However, there is something Richard does not know.”
Daniel looked away from the camera, as though hearing a noise nearby.
“The embryo labeled A-17-B was switched before implantation.”
Ashley paused the video.
“Switched with what?”
Emily looked at the file list.
A new folder appeared at the bottom.
It had not been there before.
LIVE CONNECTION ESTABLISHED.
Someone was accessing the drive remotely.
The laptop screen went black.
Then a sentence appeared.
May you like
DO NOT GO TO ST. MATTHEW’S.
The nurse driving the van locked the rear doors.
