Chapter 6 - The Wife Inside the Coffin
Damian forgot how to move.
Sofia stood thirty feet away.
Alive.
Thinner.
Paler.
A scar crossed one side of her neck.
But alive.
Grace looked from Damian to the woman and understood that whatever she had imagined grief looked like, this was worse.
Because grief had rules.
The dead stayed dead.
This did not.
Damian walked toward Sofia.
Victor grabbed his arm.
“Boss.”
Damian pulled free.
Sofia stepped forward.
“It's me.”
He stopped ten feet away.
“You're dead.”
Her eyes filled.
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“I watched them close the coffin.”
“I know.”
His voice broke for the first time.
“No, you don't.”
Sofia flinched.
Damian looked like he wanted to touch her and strike the entire world at the same time.
“Where are my sons?”
Sofia's expression changed.
“Elias is inside.”
“Emma?”
“Also inside.”
Grace moved forward.
Marcus blocked her.
Damian's gaze snapped to him.
“Move.”
Marcus obeyed.
That frightened Grace more than resistance would have.
Sofia looked at Damian.
“Your father has both babies.”
“Why are you with him?”
“I’m not.”
“You walked out of his warehouse.”
“I escaped ten minutes ago.”
Damian stared.
“Explain.”
“There isn't time.”
“Make time.”
Sofia looked toward the roof.
“He has the archive equipment running. Once he gets enough blood from Elias and Emma, he won't need them.”
Grace ran toward the door.
Damian caught her.
“Deal.”
She struggled.
“My daughter is inside.”
“You wait until I say it’s safe.”
“You think I care about a deal right now?”
“No.”
He looked at Victor.
“Take Grace around the east side.”
Victor nodded.
Damian looked at Sofia.
“You're coming with me.”
Inside the warehouse, machines hummed beneath industrial lights.
Medical equipment had been arranged beside shipping crates.
Damian's stomach turned.
This wasn't improvised.
His father had prepared for this.
They moved through a narrow corridor.
Sofia whispered as they walked.
“Dominic used Marcus for years.”
Marcus, following behind, looked furious.
“You used me too.”
Sofia turned.
“To survive.”
“You let Damian believe you were dead.”
“I was unconscious when they staged my death.”
Damian stopped.
Sofia continued.
“After delivery, they drugged me. Keller thought I died because they falsified my records. A body was placed in the coffin before the funeral.”
Damian's face became cold.
“Whose body?”
“A woman from an unclaimed remains program.”
Grace looked sick.
Damian kept walking.
“What happened after?”
“I woke up in a Halcyon facility.”
“For six weeks?”
“Six weeks and two days.”
“And you couldn't contact me?”
“I tried.”
She showed him scars around one wrist.
“I wasn't exactly a guest.”
Damian looked away.
For the first time, Grace saw guilt on his face.
Sofia saw it too.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
“This wasn't your fault.”
“I should have found you.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have questioned it.”
“You had three newborn sons.”
He said nothing.
Sofia softened.
“I knew you would protect them.”
Damian's eyes moved toward Grace.
“She did.”
Sofia followed his gaze.
Something passed across her face.
Not jealousy.
Recognition.
Understanding.
Then a baby's cry echoed through the warehouse.
Grace froze.
“Emma.”
Victor held her back for one second.
She glared.
He released her.
They followed the sound into a laboratory room.
Two bassinets sat beneath lights.
Elias.
Emma.
Both alive.
Grace ran toward her daughter.
A man stepped from behind the equipment.
Silver hair.
Tall.
Broad shoulders despite his age.
Damian stopped.
Dominic Vale smiled.
“My son.”
Damian raised his weapon.
Dominic looked almost proud.
“You've grown into me.”
“No.”
“You built what I started.”
“No.”
“You took control of the ports.”
“I made them legitimate.”
Dominic laughed.
“Mostly.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“Step away from the babies.”
Dominic looked at Sofia.
“You brought everyone.”
“I’m done helping you.”
“You never helped me voluntarily.”
“Exactly.”
Grace watched Emma.
Her daughter was awake.
Tiny fists moving.
Alive.
She took one step.
Dominic raised a remote.
“Another step triggers the locks.”
Damian looked around.
Steel shutters could seal the room.
Victor whispered, “Signal jammer.”
Dominic nodded.
“I designed half your security habits, Damian. Did you think you invented paranoia?”
Damian kept his weapon steady.
“You killed Elaine Harper.”
“Yes.”
Grace stopped breathing.
Dominic looked at her without remorse.
“She was brilliant. Unfortunately, brilliant people often become moral.”
Grace's eyes filled with rage.
“You killed my mother.”
“She tried to destroy twenty years of research.”
“You murdered her.”
“I protected an asset.”
Grace lunged.
Damian caught her.
“Grace.”
“Let me go.”
“No.”
Dominic smiled.
“Interesting.”
Damian looked at him.
“What?”
“The way you protect her.”
Sofia watched Damian too.
He ignored everyone.
“Release the babies.”
Dominic pointed toward the equipment.
“First, we unlock Trinity.”
“You already have blood.”
“Not enough.”
Grace's face paled.
“How much do you need?”
“More than you're willing to give.”
Damian's weapon lifted.
Dominic smiled.
“You shoot me, the shutters lock and oxygen drops.”
Victor's eyes moved toward ventilation ducts.
Bluff?
Maybe.
Not worth risking infants.
Sofia stepped forward.
“Take mine.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Your sequence is incomplete.”
“Then mine and Grace's.”
Grace turned.
Sofia continued.
“Adults. No babies.”
Dominic considered it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Elias and Emma are perfect-expression carriers.”
Damian's grip tightened.
“Speak about my son like a laboratory specimen again.”
Dominic smiled.
“And what? You'll kill your father?”
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly.
Dominic's smile faded.
Sofia looked at Damian.
He meant it.
Grace did too.
Then Marcus spoke from behind them.
“You won't have to.”
Dominic turned.
Marcus shot the control panel.
Sparks exploded.
Victor tackled Grace behind a steel table.
Damian fired.
Dominic disappeared behind machinery.
Alarms screamed.
The shutters began descending.
Sofia ran for Elias.
Grace ran for Emma.
Damian covered them.
Victor shot a second control unit.
One shutter stopped halfway.
Marcus fell.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Go!”
Grace grabbed Emma.
Sofia lifted Elias.
They crawled beneath the half-closed shutter.
Victor followed.
Damian remained.
“Damian!” Sofia screamed.
Dominic appeared behind him.
Father and son faced each other.
Dominic held a gun.
“You can't leave me alive.”
Damian looked at him.
“You left me eighteen years ago.”
“I made you strong.”
“You made me afraid of becoming you.”
Dominic smiled.
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Damian lowered his weapon slightly.
Dominic's eyes sharpened.
“You won't shoot.”
Damian looked toward the shutter.
Grace was holding Emma.
Sofia held Elias.
Victor was dragging Marcus.
His family.
His choice.
“No,” Damian said.
Dominic smiled.
“Soft.”
Damian stepped backward.
“I’m not killing you.”
“Why?”
“Because my sons deserve a father who knows when to stop.”
Dominic raised his weapon.
Victor fired from beneath the shutter.
The shot struck Dominic's arm.
His gun fell.
Damian crossed the room and slammed him against the table.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Dominic laughed through the pain.
“You called police?”
“No.”
Sofia said from the doorway, “I did.”
Federal agents flooded the warehouse.
Halcyon files had been sent anonymously to three agencies before Sofia escaped.
Dominic was arrested.
Marcus survived.
Elias and Emma were examined and declared stable.
At dawn, Damian stood outside an ambulance holding Elias.
Sofia sat nearby.
Grace rocked Emma.
For the first time, all four babies were safe.
But nothing was simple.
Damian looked at Sofia.
“You're coming home.”
Sofia's face changed.
“Damian.”
“What?”
“I can't.”
He stared.
“You're my wife.”
“I was your wife.”
“You are.”
She looked toward Grace.
Then back at Damian.
“The woman you married disappeared before they put me in that facility.”
“No.”
“I spent weeks planning how to escape. Months hiding evidence. Every day I told myself I was doing it for you and the boys.”
“Then come home.”
Tears filled Sofia's eyes.
“There is something you don't know.”
Damian went still.
“What?”
She removed her wedding ring from a chain beneath her shirt.
“I didn't escape Halcyon tonight.”
He stared.
“I escaped nine days ago.”
Damian's face changed.
“Where have you been?”
Sofia looked toward Victor.
Then Grace.
Then Marcus being loaded into another ambulance.
“I was trying to find the last person involved.”
“Who?”
Sofia whispered:
“The person who ordered my death wasn't Dominic.”
Damian's eyes narrowed.
“Then who was it?”
Sofia looked toward the ambulance holding Dr. Keller.
But she wasn't looking at Keller.
May you like
She was looking at the nanny standing beside him.
And the nanny smiled.
