Chapter 9 - THE SECOND PREGNANCY
I caught Tiffany before her head hit the concrete.
Her pulse raced beneath my fingers.
Dr. Carter crawled beneath the shutter and examined her.
“She’s contracting.”
“It’s too early,” Tiffany gasped.
The speakers counted down.
Forty-five seconds.
Ethan pointed toward a maintenance room.
“The transmitter is behind that wall.”
Dr. Carter helped Tiffany sit.
“Sarah, go.”
I ran with Ethan.
The maintenance door required a retinal scan.
Ethan pressed his eye to the reader.
Access denied.
I used mine.
Access granted.
Ethan looked at me.
“Why did it accept you?”
I didn’t have time to answer.
Inside, two servers controlled the fetal implants.
One label read CP-31.
The other CP-32.
The same codes from our files.
The countdown reached twenty seconds.
“Which is mine?”
Ethan opened a panel.
“Both.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“The embryos were split from the same original creation.”
My breath stopped.
“You mean the babies are genetically identical?”
“Not babies.”
He looked sick.
“Embryos.”
A computer record appeared.
One embryo had been transferred to Tiffany.
The other to me.
Both used Ethan’s genetic material.
But the maternal DNA listed on both records belonged to the same donor.
Not me.
Not Tiffany.
“Who is the mother?” I whispered.
The answer loaded.
SUBJECT S-01.
SARAH MILLER.
I stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Ethan understood first.
“They used your eggs.”
I touched my stomach.
Both babies were biologically mine.
Tiffany’s face appeared on the monitor feed from the stairwell.
She heard everything.
Her expression shattered.
Bradley had used my stolen eggs to impregnate another woman.
The countdown reached ten.
Ethan pulled both server cables.
Nothing happened.
I raised the black device.
“What if we activate both frequencies together?”
“It could overload the implants.”
“Or stop the signal.”
Five.
Four.
Three.
I pressed both chips simultaneously.
The device became burning hot.
Ethan knocked it from my hand.
It exploded against the floor.
The screens went black.
For one second, there was no sound.
Then Lisa’s voice came through the intercom.
“Both heartbeats are stable.”
I nearly collapsed.
Tiffany began sobbing.
Dr. Carter closed his eyes.
We had saved them.
Then the main server restarted.
A hidden file opened automatically.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE.
Sarah Miller — thirty-seven weeks.
Tiffany Reed — thirty-five weeks.
Extraction site — Carter Medical Research Center.
Final status — maternal disposal approved.
Tiffany stared at me through the camera.
“They planned to kill us.”
A door opened behind Ethan.
Samuel stepped into the room holding a pistol.
“No,” he said.
May you like
“Only the one who remembered.”
Then he aimed at me.
