Chapter 5 - THE DEAL
Grace had surrendered herself to Margaret in exchange for my adoption and safety.
For years, she participated in medical studies while Margaret promised never to contact me.
Then Margaret broke the agreement.
She arranged my marriage to Ryan because my adult genetic profile showed stronger results than Grace’s.
Grace discovered it too late.
The backyard phone call had come from Thomas, but the warning about the wrong Carter woman came from information Grace sent him.
She was alive.
She had infiltrated Carter Legacy Health.
Then she vanished again.
Detective Ortiz found a video message inside Margaret’s private server.
Grace faced the camera with bruises around her throat.
“Emily, Ryan thinks this began with your marriage. It began before your birth.”
She explained that Carter daughters had been used in experiments since the 1970s.
Some were placed with adoptive families and monitored secretly.
Others disappeared into institutions.
Margaret called it preserving the family.
A researcher named Dr. Samuel Vale called it the Carter Continuity Study.
Grace said the study’s master ledger was hidden beneath the suburban house.
The backyard pit marked the entrance.
Ryan had buried me directly above the evidence without knowing it.
Ortiz returned with excavation teams.
Beneath the pit they discovered a steel door.
It led to an underground medical room.
On one wall were photographs of pregnant Carter women.
Mine was the newest.
Another showed Laura.
Her photograph was labeled:
SUBJECT L — PREGNANCY UNKNOWN.
Laura stared at it.
“I’ve never been pregnant.”
A doctor ordered testing.
May you like
She was six weeks pregnant.
She had no memory of conceiving.
