Chapter 3 - THE SECRET IN THE HOSPITAL RECORD
Gavin refused to speak for almost ten minutes.
Elias did not threaten him.
That somehow made it worse.
He simply waited.
Finally Gavin said:
“It wasn’t supposed to involve Ava.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everything involved me.”
Gavin stared at the floor.
“Victor Dane financed fertility clinics.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
I had struggled to become pregnant for nearly two years.
Gavin knew how much those months hurt.
Negative tests.
Appointments.
Bloodwork.
One miscarriage.
Then he had taken me to a private clinic in Manhattan.
He said a client recommended it.
Three months later, I became pregnant.
Twins.
I had called it a miracle.
Now I felt sick.
“What clinic?”
Elias asked.
“Harbor Reproductive Center.”
His security chief immediately left to make a call.
I stared at Gavin.
“What did Victor Dane have to do with my pregnancy?”
“Nothing directly.”
“Stop lying.”
He closed his eyes.
“The clinic stored genetic samples for private clients.”
“What does that mean?”
Gavin swallowed.
“Some wealthy families paid to preserve embryos and donor material outside normal records.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“Trafficking?”
“No.”
Gavin shook his head.
“Not babies. Genetic access.”
I gripped the table.
“And my daughters?”
Gavin looked at me.
“The clinic made an error.”
My knees weakened.
“What error?”
“You were supposed to receive our embryo.”
“Our?”
“My sperm. Your egg.”
“Supposed to?”
Silence.
Elias moved closer.
Gavin finally whispered:
“One embryo was ours.”
My heart stopped.
“One?”
“And the other belonged to someone else.”
The room disappeared.
I thought of my daughters.
Mia and Rose.
Born seven minutes apart.
Different in subtle ways.
Mia had dark hair like mine.
Rose had lighter hair.
The doctor said fraternal twins could look completely different.
Of course they could.
But now—
“No.”
I whispered.
Gavin continued:
“The clinic discovered it during early genetic screening.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
Pain shot through my body.
Worth it.
“You knew for months?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“Dane ordered me not to.”
“Why?”
Gavin looked toward Elias.
Then:
“Because the second embryo belonged to his family.”
Elias went completely still.
“Whose?”
Gavin stared at him.
“Your brother’s.”
Silence.
Elias had a brother?
I had never heard of one.
Then he said:
“Gabriel is dead.”
Gavin nodded.
“Exactly.”
Elias’s face changed in a way I had not seen before.
Not anger.
Grief.
His younger brother, Gabriel Vance, had died four years earlier.
Car accident.
No children.
At least that was what Elias believed.
Before his death, Gabriel and his wife had stored embryos at Harbor Reproductive Center while she underwent cancer treatment.
She died first.
Gabriel died eight months later.
The embryos should have been destroyed under instructions.
Apparently one wasn’t.
Victor Dane obtained it.
Why?
Leverage.
Bloodlines mattered in their world.
Gabriel’s child could become a symbol.
An heir to assets Elias controlled on behalf of his brother’s estate.
I felt nauseated.
“One of my daughters is Gabriel Vance’s biological child?”
Gavin nodded.
“And mine?”
He looked confused.
I grabbed his shirt.
“My egg?”
“No.”
The word broke something.
I let go.
“What?”
“The embryo was created from Gabriel and his wife.”
Rose—or Mia—was not biologically mine.
Yet I had carried her.
Felt her kick.
Bled to bring her into the world.
Held her beneath the overpass.
No laboratory result could make her less my daughter.
But someone had used my body without telling me.
I turned toward Elias.
He looked equally shaken.
Then his security chief returned.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Harbor clinic shut down forty-eight hours ago.”
“Records?”
“Servers wiped.”
Gavin closed his eyes.
Elias turned.
“Dane.”
Gavin whispered:
“Yes.”
Victor Dane had discovered one of Gabriel Vance’s embryos had resulted in a live birth.
He wanted the child.
Not because he cared.
Because Vance family trusts transferred certain voting interests through biological descendants.
If Gabriel had a legal child, millions in property and voting rights could shift.
Elias whispered:
“That’s why he wants one twin.”
I held my daughters closer that night.
Both.
No test.
No distinction.
Mine.
Elias came into the room after midnight.
He remained near the doorway.
“I need to tell you something.”
I looked up.
“What now?”
“My brother left everything to me if he had no surviving children.”
I understood.
“If Rose or Mia is his child—”
“Some assets may belong to her.”
I laughed without humor.
“A baby has no use for criminal territory.”
“No.”
“Then let it go.”
“I intend to.”
I stared.
“What?”
“If proving her identity endangers her, I don't need the inheritance.”
It was the first thing Elias said that made me trust him.
He was willing to lose something.
Gavin had sacrificed everyone to keep something.
Elias would give something up to keep a child safe.
Then he said:
“But Dane won't.”
“Why?”
“Because if Gabriel’s heir exists, a voting block Dane has spent years trying to acquire becomes permanently inaccessible to him.”
“So he needs her gone?”
“Or controlled.”
My skin went cold.
Elias crouched beside the crib.
Mia slept.
Rose stretched one tiny hand.
Her fingers closed around his.
He froze.
Then whispered:
“No one uses you.”
The words sounded like a promise to himself.
The next morning, a package arrived.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
BABY B — MILLER
And a note:
YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO US.
Elias read it.
Then burned the note in a metal tray.
I stared.
“What are we going to do?”
He looked at me.
“First, we prove which child Dane wants.”
“And then?”
His eyes became cold.
May you like
“Then we make sure he never gets close enough to know.”
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