Chapter 10 - The Mother I Buried
I had buried my mother seventeen years earlier.
At least, I buried a closed casket bearing her name.
Dr. Miriam Carter was a respected geneticist.
She taught me that medicine existed to protect the vulnerable.
Then a laboratory explosion killed her.
That was the official story.
Cain claimed she survived.
Not only survived.
Built the network.
I refused to believe him.
Then federal agents searched his files.
A photograph appeared.
My mother stood beside Adrian Vale at a clinic in Prague.
The image was dated last year.
She looked older.
Her hair was silver.
But it was her.
A second photograph showed her holding Noah as a newborn.
I had never seen her at the hospital.
Yet there she was.
My mother had been watching from the beginning.
Elijah admitted his father introduced him to Miriam before he met me.
“She designed the pairing.”
I stared at him.
“You knew she was alive?”
“I knew a woman named Dr. Carter. I didn’t know she was your mother.”
“Did you ever ask?”
“No.”
Of course he had not.
Powerful men rarely questioned arrangements that benefited them.
Cassandra remained in custody.
She agreed to cooperate after learning Lily’s diagnosis was false.
Her testimony confirmed Miriam had visited the family mansion several times under another name.
She instructed Cassandra to win custody of Noah.
She promised Lily access to the best treatment in the world.
Every person had been given a different lie.
Every lie pushed them toward the same goal.
Control of Noah.
The reason became clear in Miriam’s research notes.
Noah’s cells carried a rare regenerative trait.
Not a miracle cure.
But potentially valuable for experimental therapies.
Miriam believed one child could advance medicine by decades.
She did not see Noah as a grandson.
She saw him as a biological resource.
The network had spent six years tracking him.
My custody loss was phase one.
The forced transplant was phase two.
Phase three remained hidden.
Then Toby remembered the phrase Adrian used.
“Founders’ trial.”
A date appeared repeatedly in the files.
September 18.
Ten days away.
A private medical summit would be held aboard a research ship outside United States jurisdiction.
Noah was scheduled as the primary subject.
Other children were already being transported there.
Federal authorities identified the vessel.
The Helix Crown.
Registered in Panama.
Currently traveling toward international waters.
Miriam was onboard.
So were six missing children.
My phone rang from an encrypted number.
I answered.
My mother’s voice came through.
“Naomi.”
I could not breathe.
“You always were stubborn.”
“You kidnapped my son.”
“I protected his purpose.”
“He is a child.”
“He is the future.”
“Bring him near my family again, and I will destroy everything you built.”
She laughed softly.
“You became exactly the doctor I hoped you would become.”
“I became the doctor you pretended to be.”
The line went silent.
Then she said, “Come aboard the Helix Crown.”
“Why?”
May you like
“Because Noah is not the only child with your blood.”
👉 Miriam invited Naomi onto the research ship and revealed that Noah had a biological sibling hidden somewhere inside the trafficking network.
