Chapter 6 - THE SECRET IN MY BLOOD
Dr. Bennett ordered immediate testing.
Not just bloodwork.
Genetic screening.
Toxicology.
Fetal imaging.
The phrase what they put inside her repeated in my head until I could not breathe.
Agent Brooks watched the video frame by frame.
The room behind Garrett contained stainless-steel cabinets, oxygen tanks, and a faded blue symbol on the wall.
Vale Biomedical Systems.
My father’s company.
The company I had just learned I owned.
One of its original research buildings stood across from the hospital.
Closed for twelve years.
Or publicly closed.
Federal agents surrounded it before dawn.
Garrett and my father were gone.
But the building was not empty.
Inside, agents found medical records with my name dating back to childhood.
Blood samples.
Hormone tests.
Fertility reports.
I had never approved any of them.
Dr. Bennett entered my room holding preliminary results.
Her face looked carefully controlled.
“What did they put inside my baby?”
“We don’t know that anyone placed anything inside her.”
“My father said—”
“He may have meant something inherited.”
She sat beside me.
“Your blood contains a synthetic protein marker.”
“What does that mean?”
“It is used in experimental gene therapies.”
My stomach tightened.
“I never had gene therapy.”
“The marker appears to have been present for years.”
Agent Brooks opened one of the recovered files.
The first page displayed a project name.
PROJECT LEGACY.
SUBJECT E-17.
My childhood photograph was clipped beneath it.
I felt sick.
My father had not created the trust to protect my money.
He had created it because I was evidence.
Vale Biomedical had developed an experimental treatment for inherited heart disease.
My father’s family carried a fatal genetic mutation.
The company tested a therapy on children before receiving approval.
I was one of them.
My mother had signed the consent.
I had been eight years old.
Dr. Bennett spoke slowly.
“The therapy may have altered reproductive cells.”
“Meaning my baby inherited it?”
“Possibly.”
“Is she sick?”
“We don’t know.”
The fetal monitor continued beating.
Steady.
Strong.
Agent Mercer entered with a recovered voicemail from my father.
It had been stored on a hidden company server.
His voice filled the room.
“If Elena becomes pregnant, the child may carry the corrected gene. The company will try to control both of them. Garrett Hartford must never gain access.”
I closed my eyes.
Garrett’s father had been a Vale Biomedical executive.
Garrett had known the truth long before meeting me.
The trust was not the only reason he married me.
He wanted my child.
A knock sounded at the secure-room door.
A nurse entered carrying a hospital chart.
“Someone delivered this for Elena.”
Inside was an ultrasound image.
Not from my current pregnancy.
The date was four years earlier.
The year I had suffered what Garrett called a miscarriage.
The image showed a developed fetus.
Far beyond the ten weeks I remembered.
My breathing stopped.
“I lost that baby at ten weeks.”
Dr. Bennett examined the image.
“This fetus was at least twenty-four weeks.”
“That’s impossible.”
The nurse turned pale.
Agent Brooks pulled another document from the chart.
A transfer form.
INFANT FEMALE, SUBJECT G-1.
STATUS: VIABLE.
I stared at the page until the letters blurred.
My first baby had not died.
May you like
Someone had taken her.
At the bottom of the form was Garrett’s signature.
