Chapter 8 - THE TREATMENT
Lily had inherited the Carter mutation.
Without regular infusions, her heart could fail.
Carter Legacy Health manufactured the treatment and kept its formula secret.
Margaret used medicine as a leash.
Grace stayed inside the network to keep Lily alive.
She had not betrayed me.
She had spent seven years protecting my stolen child.
Grace arranged a meeting at an abandoned roadside clinic.
Federal agents remained hidden nearby.
When I saw Lily through the glass door, my body recognized her before my mind could.
Same eyes.
Same dimple near the left cheek.
She held Grace’s hand.
“This is Emily,” Grace told her.
Lily stared at me.
“The dead lady?”
My throat closed.
“No.”
I knelt carefully.
“I’m your mother.”
She looked at Grace.
Grace nodded.
Lily began crying but did not come closer.
There was no instant reunion.
Only shock.
Then headlights surrounded the building.
Margaret’s people had tracked the medication pump inside Lily’s body.
Men in medical uniforms entered with weapons.
Agents responded.
Grace pulled Lily behind a steel cabinet.
I shielded my stomach.
The attackers were arrested, but one triggered Lily’s pump remotely.
Her heart rate collapsed.
Paramedics stabilized her with the final dose Grace carried.
The next infusion was due in forty-eight hours.
Without the formula, Lily might die.
Margaret called from an unknown number.
“Bring both pregnancies to me.”
She meant me and Laura.
“In exchange for Lily?” I asked.
May you like
“In exchange for every Carter daughter still breathing.”
There were more.
