Chapter 10 - THE BABY WITH MY NAME
I stared at the incubator.
The baby was too old to be newborn.
The label had been recently printed.
My name.
My date of birth.
My hospital number.
Nathan checked the child’s bracelet.
“What does this mean?”
Megan looked at me.
“They create replacement records.”
The program did not only steal children.
It erased their mothers and assigned new identities.
The baby inside the incubator had been prepared to become mine if my pregnancy failed.
A living substitute.
I felt sick.
“Who is her real mother?”
Megan pointed toward a storage cabinet.
Files filled every drawer.
Nathan opened the first.
The child’s biological mother was listed as Rebecca Lane.
Deceased after delivery.
No body released.
No investigation.
The baby stirred.
I placed one hand against the glass.
“We take her.”
The chamber door slammed shut.
Dr. Cross appeared on a wall monitor.
“You misunderstand the purpose.”
Nathan aimed at the camera.
“Open the door.”
“The children require stable homes.”
“You murdered their mothers.”
“Some mothers were unsuitable.”
Megan moved beside me.
“Who decided that?”
“I did.”
I looked at the camera.
“And me?”
Dr. Cross studied my bruised face.
“You remained with Jason despite repeated warning signs.”
Shame struck before anger.
She used the same cruelty as him.
Blame the person trapped.
Never the person building the cage.
“You sent him.”
“I observed whether maternal instinct could overcome coercive attachment.”
“My life was an experiment.”
“Your response was valuable.”
Nathan searched the walls.
“No visible release.”
Chemical vapor began entering through a ceiling vent.
Megan covered her mouth.
The baby’s monitor alarmed.
I looked at the incubator’s oxygen line.
It would not last.
Daniel’s voice came through Nathan’s radio.
“Sarah, listen.”
His breathing was weaker.
“There’s a thermal sensor behind the screen.”
I grabbed a metal stool.
Nathan understood.
We struck the monitor together.
Glass shattered.
Behind it was a red manual switch.
I pulled it.
The chamber door opened.
Fresh air rushed inside.
Agents carried the incubator through the corridor.
We evacuated all seven children and Megan through the maintenance pit.
Outside, ambulances filled the parking lot.
The live recording had spread across every major network.
Dr. Cross could no longer hide the workshop.
But she had disappeared.
Federal agents traced her transmission to St. Augustine Research Center.
Daniel was loaded into an ambulance.
I held his hand.
“Stay alive.”
He looked at my stomach.
“I tried to protect you.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was afraid you would leave.”
“I thought you were dead.”
He closed his eyes.
Before the doors shut, he whispered,
“Jason was not the one who married you first.”
I leaned closer.
“What?”
Daniel opened his eyes again.
“Our wedding was real.”
The ambulance doors closed.
I stared after it.
May you like
I had never married Daniel.
At least I did not remember doing it.
