Chapter 3 - THE NURSERY VAULT
The black key opened a steel door beneath the apartment garage.
Behind it was a private medical room.
Crib.
Infant warmer.
Locked cabinet.
Cameras.
A wall of family photographs.
Every woman in the pictures was pregnant.
Every baby wore a bracelet marked WALKER HEIR.
Some mothers were identified as relatives.
Others as “temporary carriers.”
My photograph was the newest.
Taken without my knowledge during prenatal visits.
Nora found a hidden schedule.
Emily Walker — extraction at twenty-four weeks if marker confirmed.
The family planned to remove my baby early, declare me medically unstable, and place the child under Helena’s guardianship.
The assault was meant to create a medical emergency they could control.
Then one cabinet revealed three frozen blood samples under my name.
Collected months before I met Victor.
The Walker family had selected me before our first date.
My marriage had been arranged through medical data.
Samuel claimed he wanted to shut the program down.
Evelyn did not trust him.
Neither did I.
Then the nursery monitor switched on.
A live image showed another pregnant woman in another room.
Same navy dress.
Same black hair.
Same face as mine.
She looked into the camera and whispered:
May you like
“Emily, don’t let them tell you you’re the first.”
Read Chapter 4 to learn who the other Emily was.
