Chapter 7 - LIAM
Sentinel created Liam from eggs taken during an Army medical procedure and Thomas’s stored genetic material.
Neither of us consented.
A surrogate carried him.
The program planned to place him with us later as a natural-born son.
A child designed to stabilize two high-value officers.
Liam lived at a private military school in Virginia under another surname.
Federal agents recovered him.
He knew my face from training videos.
He called me Colonel.
Not Mom.
I did not demand another word.
Thomas asked to meet him.
The advocate refused until evaluation.
Biology did not create immediate rights.
Then the registry showed a second child.
Sophie Hayes.
Same age.
Created from Claire Bennett and Thomas.
A backup family.
If I failed, Claire would replace me and Sophie would replace Liam.
Children became interchangeable evidence of a marriage.
The court froze all Sentinel guardianship records.
Independent advocates took control.
Then Margaret offered information in exchange for immunity.
She said she knew where Sophie was.
The prosecutor refused immunity.
Margaret revealed the location anyway because Victor’s faction had abandoned her.
Sophie was found alive.
She believed Margaret was her grandmother.
Margaret had raised her in secret.
The mother-in-law who called me a beggar had been caring for a replacement granddaughter beneath another property.
Her cruelty toward me came partly from believing Claire and Sophie deserved my life.
May you like
Explanation.
Not excuse.
