Chapter 28 - THE FILE SAID SOFIA AND DANIEL HAD A SECOND CHILD WAITING—BUT THE “EMBRYO” HAD BEEN MISSING FOR SIXTEEN YEARS
The printer stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Sofia read the page three times, hoping repetition would transform the words into something less impossible.
It did not.
SECOND EMBRYO STATUS: STILL VIABLE.
CURRENT STORAGE LOCATION: HAWTHORNE VILLA.
Daniel stood beside her, pale beneath the blue room’s weak lighting.
“This is impossible.”
Sofia looked at him.
“You've been saying that for twenty-five chapters.”
“I mean medically impossible.”
“That has not slowed this family down.”
Marcus took the printout.
“The machine may be accessing an old database.”
“Then find the database.”
He did.
The signal came through wiring buried inside the west wing.
Not internet.
Closed network.
A local server.
They followed cables beneath the blue room into another concealed chamber.
This one was small.
Clinical.
Metal cabinets.
A refrigeration unit stood against the wall.
Daniel stared.
“Please don't tell me there are embryos in my basement.”
Sofia opened the unit.
Empty.
One rack.
Two numbered slots.
H-1.
H-2.
H-1 had a removal date sixteen years earlier.
Lily.
H-2 had another removal date.
Also sixteen years earlier.
Sofia looked at Marcus.
“The file lied.”
“No.”
Marcus pointed.
“It says the embryo was moved.”
“Where?”
He read.
“Internal transfer.”
Daniel frowned.
“Transfer where?”
Marcus searched.
Then stopped.
“H-2 was implanted.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped.
“In whom?”
The carrier name had been erased.
Lily whispered:
“Then there's another person like me.”
Nobody corrected her.
Somewhere in the world might be another child genetically created from Sofia and Daniel without either of them ever knowing.
A child now approximately sixteen.
Rachel looked frightened.
“I only knew about Lily.”
“Helena?”
“No.”
“The woman using Helena’s identity?”
“She never mentioned another pregnancy.”
Daniel paced.
“Then H-2 may have had another carrier.”
Marcus found a file.
TRANSFER SUCCESSFUL.
LIVE BIRTH: UNKNOWN.
SUBJECT LOST.
Sofia stared.
“Lost?”
Emily’s voice became cold.
“Eden language.”
Everyone looked at her.
“They used ‘lost’ when a subject escaped surveillance.”
Sofia’s pulse quickened.
“So H-2 may be alive.”
“Yes.”
“And Eden couldn't find them.”
“Yes.”
Sofia almost smiled.
“Good.”
Then Marcus found something else.
A recent access log.
Three days earlier.
Someone had searched H-2.
From Hawthorne Villa.
Daniel stared.
“Who?”
Marcus traced the device.
Margaret’s old tablet again.
Everyone turned.
Margaret shook her head.
“I swear—”
Sofia raised a hand.
“I believe you.”
Margaret stopped.
That mattered.
They checked the device.
Remote access.
Someone outside the villa had been using Margaret’s credentials.
Marcus traced the connection through dozens of servers.
Then stopped.
“Location?”
Daniel asked.
Marcus looked up.
“Boston.”
Arthur Bell’s prison facility.
Sofia stared.
“He's still accessing Eden from prison?”
“Or somebody is using his credentials.”
Sofia smiled without humor.
“Dead people, prisoners, fake identities. Apparently passwords are immortal.”
Then her phone rang.
Federal correctional facility.
Arthur Bell requested an emergency call.
Sofia answered.
“What?”
Arthur laughed softly.
“You found H-2.”
“Where is the child?”
“Child?”
Her stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“H-2 isn't a child anymore.”
“Sixteen is still a child.”
Arthur became quiet.
“Not if the embryo wasn't implanted sixteen years ago.”
Sofia frowned.
“The records—”
“Were falsified.”
“By whom?”
“Helena.”
“Why?”
“To hide when H-2 was actually born.”
Sofia felt Daniel step closer.
“When?”
Arthur answered.
“Twenty-six years ago.”
Silence.
Sofia stared.
“That would make H-2 older than Lily.”
“Yes.”
“Older than me.”
“No.”
Arthur paused.
“H-2 was created from the same genetic source as you.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Arthur’s voice became almost gentle.
“Sofia, you were not the first person to carry Sofia Ramirez’s genetic profile.”
Her eyes opened.
“What?”
“H-2 was.”
Daniel stared.
Arthur continued.
“Before your birth, Eden produced a prototype using reconstructed genetic material from Eleanor Hawthorne and K-7.”
Sofia’s breathing changed.
“That isn't Sofia’s DNA.”
“Correct.”
“Then why call it H-2?”
“Because after you were born, your genome was compared to the prototype.”
Sofia felt cold.
“How similar?”
Arthur answered:
“Nearly identical.”
No one spoke.
Sofia whispered:
“Who is H-2?”
Arthur sighed.
“You've met her.”
The call disconnected.
Sofia stared at the phone.
Daniel muttered:
“I hate that man.”
They searched everyone.
Victoria.
Emily.
Claire.
Rebecca.
Rachel.
Catherine.
Every woman approximately Sofia’s age.
Then Lily spoke.
“Rachel.”
Rachel turned.
The teenager stared at her.
“You told me you didn't know your parents.”
Rachel’s face changed.
Sofia saw it.
“Rachel.”
The woman backed away.
“No.”
“How old are you?”
“Fifty-one.”
“Truth.”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“I don't know.”
Sofia stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know when I was born.”
Silence.
Rachel had no original birth certificate.
No childhood records before age twelve.
No verified parents.
She had been found in a psychiatric facility under another name.
Helena had rescued her.
Sofia stared.
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because I didn't know it mattered.”
Marcus collected a DNA sample.
Emergency comparison.
The result came back before dawn.
Rachel was not H-2.
But she was related.
Half-sibling relationship.
To Sofia.
Sofia stared.
Same father.
Elias.
Rachel began crying.
Then another match appeared.
Rachel’s mother.
Margaret Hale.
Everyone froze.
Margaret stared at Rachel.
“My daughter?”
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
Margaret began sobbing.
“I never had a daughter.”
Marcus read deeper.
The DNA suggested Rachel was not naturally conceived.
Another Eden creation.
Margaret and Elias.
Sofia felt sick.
The people running Eden had repeatedly turned human relationships into raw material.
Rachel stared at Margaret.
“So Helena raised her own sister's daughter without knowing.”
Margaret reached toward her.
Rachel stepped back.
“Not yet.”
Margaret lowered her hand.
“I understand.”
Sofia respected both of them for that.
Then Marcus’s computer beeped.
Another match.
H-2 had finally been identified through archived medical genetics.
The name appeared.
Sofia stared.
No.
Daniel whispered:
“You've got to be kidding me.”
The person was already inside Hawthorne Villa.
She had been for months.
Sofia slowly turned toward the doorway.
Victoria stood there.
Her face had gone completely white.
“What?”
Sofia looked at the screen.
H-2 MATCH: VICTORIA ASHFORD.
Victoria laughed once.
Nervously.
“No.”
Marcus repeated the analysis.
Same result.
Victoria stepped backward.
“My mother is Catherine.”
“Maybe socially,” Sofia whispered.
Victoria stared.
“What does that mean?”
The computer loaded the reconstructed record.
GENETIC MOTHER: ELEANOR HAWTHORNE.
GENETIC FATHER: ELIAS KANE / K-7.
Sofia stopped breathing.
Same biological parents as Sofia.
Daniel looked from Victoria to Sofia.
Victoria whispered:
“No.”
Sofia could barely speak.
“Victoria…”
The woman she had slapped beside the pool.
The woman who had almost attacked Margaret.
The woman raised to marry Daniel.
The woman she had once considered an enemy.
Victoria stared at her.
“We're sisters?”
Sofia nodded slowly.
“Biologically.”
Victoria began crying.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Marcus checked the screen.
Someone had entered the archive.
A glass case had been smashed.
The silver baseball bat was gone.
Sofia ran.
They reached the archive.
Broken glass covered the floor.
On the empty pedestal was a handwritten note.
Two sentences.
YOU FOUND H-2.
NOW FIND THE WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO BOTH OF THEM.
Victoria stared.
Sofia frowned.
“Both?”
Isabella whispered:
“But I gave birth to Sofia.”
A voice behind them answered:
“No, Isabella.”
Everyone turned.
Rachel stood at the archive door holding an old hospital photograph.
“You gave birth to one baby.”
She raised the photograph.
May you like
“But there were two girls in that delivery room.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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