Chapter 6 - THE VOICE OF MY DAUGHTER
The child sounded terrified.
“Mommy?”
My body moved before my mind.
Dr. Reed caught me before I reached the door.
“It could be a recording.”
The girl cried again.
“Please come.”
I had never heard Lucy speak.
Yet every cell in my body responded.
Priya checked the hallway camera using a battery-powered tablet.
Aaron stood outside the locked wing wearing hospital scrubs.
He held a phone playing the child’s voice.
No child was with him.
Dr. Reed pressed the intercom.
“Security is coming.”
Aaron smiled at the camera.
“They work for my mother.”
Two guards appeared behind him.
Instead of stopping him, they unlocked the corridor.
Priya pushed a medication cart against the door.
Dr. Reed activated a silent emergency alarm connected directly to city police.
Aaron approached slowly.
“Anna, your body is becoming dangerous for the baby.”
I pressed both hands over my stomach.
“You made it dangerous.”
“I saved you after the twins.”
“You stole them.”
His expression cracked.
Only slightly.
Then he recovered.
“My mother made decisions during an emergency.”
“You were holding Lucy.”
“You were bleeding to death.”
“Then why did you tell me they were dead?”
“Because you couldn’t survive the truth.”
Always the same structure.
Harm disguised as protection.
The door handle moved.
The two corrupt guards forced the lock.
Priya opened the oxygen panel and released a loud pressure alarm. The hospital’s fire doors automatically sealed between Aaron and the main hallway, trapping him inside our corridor but blocking the guards outside.
Dr. Reed grabbed a metal instrument tray.
Aaron entered.
He looked at me, then at the IV line.
“You’ve already been exposed to too much VX-17.”
“Because of you.”
“Because Mother panicked.”
That was the first admission.
Dr. Reed stepped closer.
“Where are the twins?”
Aaron smiled without warmth.
“One is beyond your reach.”
“And the other?”
His eyes shifted toward my stomach.
“Her heart tissue matches the baby.”
I felt cold.
Lucy or Ella had a medical condition.
My unborn daughter had been conceived as a donor.
The pregnancy was not accidental.
Aaron had planned her to save one of the twins he stole.
“Which child is sick?”
He did not answer.
Police sirens approached outside.
Aaron reached into his coat.
Priya raised the fire extinguisher.
He pulled out a small vial of dark liquid.
The same color as the silver cup.
“If I’m arrested,” he said, “your daughter dies before anyone finds her.”
Dr. Reed asked, “What is that?”
“The only dose that reverses what Mother gave Lucy.”
May you like
He threw the vial against the wall.
It shattered.
