Chapter 7 - The Father Hidden in the File
The stolen ambulance was found abandoned near Interstate 15.
No baby.
No doctor.
Only a bloodied hospital blanket and a discarded security badge.
Federal agents joined the search.
The Nevada clinic had closed before dawn.
Computers were removed.
Freezers emptied.
Employees gone.
Someone had planned the evacuation long before Annika went into labor.
I stood in Robert’s vault room while Jonathan opened the encrypted laboratory files recovered beneath the mansion.
“Why did you say Edwin isn’t the father?” I asked.
Robert leaned against the steel cabinet.
“Because his genetic samples were never viable.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“Then why pretend?”
“The trust requires a biological Stanford heir.”
I felt cold.
“So they used another Stanford.”
Robert looked away.
“Who?”
He did not answer.
“Robert.”
“Me.”
The room went silent.
My daughter had been created using my egg and Robert’s genetic material.
My husband’s father.
The child was biologically mine.
And biologically Edwin’s half-sister.
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“You knew?”
“Not until I recovered the files.”
“Did you consent?”
“Never.”
The project had stolen from both of us.
Edwin needed a child carrying Stanford blood.
His own genetic material could not produce one.
So Beverly and Dr. Crane used Robert’s.
Then they planned to present the child as Edwin’s heir.
The deception would activate the trust.
“How did they get your sample?”
“During my captivity.”
I closed my eyes.
Every person in Edwin’s family had been converted into something useful.
A wife.
A father.
A surrogate.
A child.
Nothing human remained once Edwin saw value.
Jonathan turned his laptop toward me.
“There is another complication.”
The embryo transfer records showed two embryos.
One implanted in Annika.
The second transferred to another surrogate.
“Who?” I asked.
“The patient name is hidden.”
“Is she pregnant now?”
“The transfer occurred eight months ago.”
Another child could already be born.
Robert examined the records.
“The destination code belongs to Crane’s Nevada clinic.”
The kidnapping was not only about hiding my daughter.
Dr. Crane might be taking her to another child created from the same genetic material.
A sibling.
Federal agents traced a clinic employee’s emergency contact to a ranch outside Las Vegas.
We arrived after sunset.
The desert stretched black beneath the mountains.
The ranch looked abandoned.
A single light burned inside the barn.
Agents entered first.
I followed after they cleared the entrance.
Rows of medical equipment filled the barn.
Portable incubators.
Oxygen tanks.
Locked cabinets.
At the far end, Dr. Crane stood beside a crib.
My daughter lay inside.
Alive.
I moved toward her.
Crane raised a syringe.
“Stop.”
“What is that?”
“A sedative.”
“For the baby?”
“For you.”
Agents aimed their weapons.
Crane laughed.
“If you shoot me, you’ll never find the second child.”
“Where is she?”
“Not she.”
A soft cry came from behind a partition.
A baby boy.
Crane smiled.
“Your son.”
I could barely process the words.
“Who carried him?”
“Someone who understood the value of the Stanford name.”
Beverly stepped from the shadows.
She wore hospital clothes beneath a dark coat.
Her injured leg was bandaged.
The woman arrested at the airport had not been Beverly.
It had been a paid double wearing prosthetic makeup.
Beverly had escaped before the police perimeter closed.
She lifted the baby boy.
“He was born two weeks ago.”
I stared at him.
My stolen biological son.
My daughter cried inside the crib.
Beverly looked between them.
“One child gives Edwin control.”
She smiled.
“Two children give me leverage over everyone.”
Agent Morris ordered her to put the baby down.
Beverly held him closer.
“You still don’t understand.”
She looked at Robert.
“Neither child belongs to you.”
Robert went still.
“The laboratory records were designed for you to find.”
“Whose samples did you use?” I asked.
Beverly’s eyes moved toward the barn entrance.
A man stepped inside under armed guard.
My breath stopped.
My father.
The man I watched die in the hospital.
May you like
Alive.
📖 Claire’s father had returned from the dead inside Beverly’s hidden clinic, but his connection to the stolen embryos would force Claire to question whether his final illness had been another performance. 👇
