Chapter 11 - THE GOVERNMENT CLAIM
My father survived surgery.
Barely.
My mother remained unconscious for two days.
Both babies stayed in the neonatal unit under armed guard.
I named my daughter Lily.
The baby my mother carried became Grace.
Biologically, both were mine.
Legally, neither was considered fully mine.
The federal order gave temporary control to the Department of Biomedical Security.
Marcus tore a copy in half.
“That agency doesn’t exist.”
A woman in a gray suit entered the NICU conference room.
Director Evelyn Shaw.
She displayed credentials carrying three federal seals.
“It exists where necessary.”
“You classified infants as property,” I said.
“As genetic evidence.”
“They’re children.”
“They are also the only known carriers of a stable corrected sequence.”
Marcus stood between us.
“You will not remove them.”
Shaw placed a folder on the table.
“Agent Hale, you are suspended.”
The three men who crashed through my kitchen window were not ordinary agents.
They belonged to an internal investigative unit created after several unexplained child disappearances.
Marcus had been following Vance for five years.
His younger sister was one of the missing children.
Shaw knew.
She had buried every report.
Marcus looked at her.
“You worked with Tyler.”
“I controlled him.”
“You failed.”
Her eyes moved toward the glass nursery.
“Then we correct the failure.”
I recorded every word on a phone hidden beneath my blanket.
Shaw noticed too late.
She reached for it.
My mother’s voice came from the doorway.
“Touch my daughter and I’ll tell them everything.”
She stood in a wheelchair, pale but awake.
A nurse tried to stop her.
My mother held a sealed envelope.
Inside were original Project Eve contracts signed by Shaw.
My father had hidden them in our old family home.
My mother retrieved them before Tyler captured her.
Shaw’s expression shifted.
“Those documents are classified.”
My mother smiled weakly.
“They are also copied.”
“To whom?”
“Every major newspaper in the country.”
Shaw looked toward Marcus.
Then at me.
The power in the room changed.
May you like
But before anyone could arrest her, the NICU alarm sounded.
Grace’s incubator was empty.
