Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Wedding Dress
The photograph had been taken three weeks earlier.
Sienna was holding the little boy's hand outside a private preschool in Connecticut.
He looked about four.
Which made no sense.
The stolen eggs were supposedly retrieved less than two years ago.
Unless the dates were false too.
Dominic enlarged the image.
The boy had dark hair.
Grant's eyes.
And a familiar dimple.
Mine.
"No," I whispered.
Grant sat down.
For once, he looked as frightened as I felt.
Elena immediately began tracing the address.
The preschool refused to provide information without legal authority.
Dominic found another route.
Property records.
The house associated with the child's enrollment belonged to a trust controlled by Victor Kingsley.
Grant drove there with Elena.
I stayed with Rose.
Dominic stayed with me.
"I should go," I said.
"You gave birth yesterday."
"There's potentially another child."
"Which is why Elena is going."
I hated that he was right.
I hated even more that he didn't use being right to control me.
That night, Grant returned alone.
His face told me before he spoke.
"The house is empty."
"And the boy?"
"Gone."
"Sienna?"
"Gone."
He handed me something.
A toy dinosaur.
"Found in the driveway."
My fingers closed around it.
"What's his name?"
Grant swallowed.
"The school wouldn't tell us."
Dominic's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at me.
"Sienna's here."
Minutes later she entered the room.
No wedding dress now.
Jeans.
Sweater.
No makeup.
She looked younger.
And terrified.
Grant moved toward her.
"Where is the boy?"
"Safe."
"Who is he?"
Sienna looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
I stood despite the pain.
"Who is he?"
"His name is Noah."
The name hit me strangely.
A child had a name.
A life.
Favorite foods.
Nightmares.
A laugh.
He wasn't evidence.
He was a person.
"Is he mine?"
Sienna cried.
"I don't know how to answer that."
"Try."
She sat.
Four years earlier, Victor had funded an illegal embryo program using genetic material acquired through affiliated clinics.
But my involvement came later.
Noah wasn't biologically mine.
The resemblance was coincidence.
Grant exhaled.
Then Sienna continued.
"But Victor planned to use your embryos after Noah."
I stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because the Kingsley men carry a hereditary condition."
Grant frowned.
"What condition?"
"One your father never told you about."
Victor had discovered that Grant carried a rare mutation associated with male infertility and possible transmission risks.
Instead of telling his son, he built a private program.
He wanted control over the next Kingsley generation.
He selected women.
Manipulated records.
Stored embryos.
And when Grant married me, Victor saw an opportunity.
My medical history was clean.
My family genetics were favorable.
I wasn't infertile.
Grant was.
The room became silent.
Grant looked destroyed.
"You knew?"
Sienna nodded.
"Your father hired me to monitor Claire."
"And sleeping with me?"
Her face twisted.
"That wasn't part of the job."
"How comforting."
"I fell in love with you."
"No. You helped destroy my marriage."
"I know."
I watched them.
Once, seeing Grant betrayed would have satisfied something wounded inside me.
It didn't.
Pain wasn't justice.
It was only pain.
"Why did the suppression treatment fail?" Dominic asked.
Sienna looked at Rose.
"Because Dr. Reeves stopped cooperating."
"Why?"
"He realized Victor intended to keep Claire's embryos permanently."
"And?"
"He altered the dosage."
My daughter existed because one doctor had finally grown a conscience.
"Where is Reeves?"
Sienna shook her head.
"Missing."
Grant laughed bitterly.
"My father."
Sienna looked at him.
"You still don't understand."
"What?"
"Victor isn't running the program anymore."
Dominic's posture changed.
"Who is?"
Sienna looked at me.
"I don't know her real name."
"Her?"
"Everyone called her Director Vale."
Grant stared.
"Vale?"
Sienna nodded.
"My mother."
Another silence.
Sienna's mother had supposedly died when she was sixteen.
Apparently she had not.
"She recruited me," Sienna said. "Victor funded everything. My mother designed it."
"Why come here now?" I asked.
"Because she wants Rose."
Dominic stepped forward.
Sienna raised both hands.
"I came to warn you."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know?"
Sienna removed a phone.
A message waited on the screen.
THE KINGSLEY INFANT IS PRIORITY ONE.
Beneath it was a photograph taken through my hospital window.
Rose.
In my arms.
Someone had photographed us from another building.
Dominic immediately closed the blinds.
Grant called security.
Elena called the police.
Then Sienna's phone vibrated again.
A second photograph arrived.
This one showed Dominic entering the hospital earlier that morning.
Underneath:
MORETTI IS COMPROMISED.
Dominic's face changed.
Sienna stared at him.
"You know what that means, don't you?"
He said nothing.
I looked between them.
"Dominic?"
He reached into his jacket.
Slowly.
Then placed a key on the table.
A small brass key.
Stamped with the same code as my bracelet.
R-17.
My heart stopped.
"Where did you get that?"
May you like
Dominic looked at me.
"From my sister."
