Chapter 6 - The Child Grant Never Expected
The door opened.
Elena entered with two hospital security officers.
The message vanished.
Someone had hacked the internal system.
Within an hour, I was moved.
Not to another hospital room.
To a private residence owned by Elena's firm and protected by independent security.
Dominic wanted me at a Moretti property.
I refused.
I needed one place where nobody powerful controlled the locks.
He accepted that.
Grant did too.
That mattered more than either man realized.
Three days later, I learned what R-17 meant.
Not Rose.
Not me.
Lucia's files identified R-17 as the seventeenth reproductive profile entered into Evelyn Vale's research system.
The profile belonged to a woman.
My mother.
Margaret Bennett.
She had died when I was twelve.
Or so I had always believed.
According to Lucia's records, Margaret had participated in an early fertility study twenty-eight years ago.
Then disappeared.
"Are you saying I was part of this before I was born?" I asked.
Elena nodded carefully.
"Possibly."
My entire life suddenly felt contaminated by secrets.
Then Grant arrived carrying a box.
He had broken into Victor's private archive.
Inside were photographs.
My mother.
Victor.
Evelyn Vale.
All younger.
All together.
One photograph showed my mother holding me as a baby.
Victor stood beside her.
On the back:
CLAIRE — R-17 SECOND GENERATION.
I almost dropped it.
Grant looked sick.
"My father knew you before I did."
Dominic studied the image.
"That's why he wanted Grant to marry you."
I looked at Rose.
My daughter was third generation.
A child born from a line Northstar had tracked for decades.
Not because we were special.
Because we were data.
That realization filled me with rage.
Not fear.
Rage.
"They don't get her."
Nobody argued.
Grant sat opposite me.
"They won't."
I looked at him.
"You don't get to say that like we're a team."
His face tightened.
"I know."
"Do you?"
"Claire, I can't undo what I did."
"No."
"But I can stop making it worse."
That was the first mature thing I'd heard him say in years.
I nodded once.
That was all he got.
Later, Dominic found me in the kitchen warming a bottle.
"I owe you an answer."
"About?"
"Us."
I looked at him.
"There is no us right now."
"I know."
His acceptance hurt more than persuasion would have.
"I care about you," he said. "That started before I knew what to do with it. But I approached you carrying secrets. You have every right to walk away."
"Do you love me?"
The question surprised both of us.
He looked at me for a long time.
"Yes."
No speech.
No performance.
Just yes.
I looked down.
"I don't know what I feel."
"Then don't decide."
That was Dominic.
He never demanded an answer simply because he had given me one.
That night, Grant received a message from Victor.
COME HOME ALONE.
He showed us.
Elena said not to go.
Grant went anyway.
For three hours we heard nothing.
Then his phone called mine.
I answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then Victor.
"Claire."
"Where's Grant?"
"Learning."
"Learning what?"
"That fathers sometimes make cruel decisions for their sons."
"Where is he?"
"Kingsley House."
Dominic was already moving.
Victor continued.
"Bring the R-17 key."
"No."
"Then Grant learns the rest without you."
"I don't care what Grant learns."
Victor laughed softly.
"You will."
Then another voice came through.
A woman's voice.
"Claire?"
My entire body froze.
I knew that voice.
Impossible.
I had heard it only in old home videos.
Birthday tapes.
Christmas mornings.
Bedtime recordings.
My mother.
"Claire," the woman said again. "Please come."
I couldn't breathe.
Dominic took the phone.
"Who is this?"
The woman answered.
"Margaret Bennett."
The call ended.
I stared at Dominic.
My mother had been dead for eighteen years.
May you like
But somewhere inside Kingsley House, a woman with her voice was waiting.
And she had just said my name.
