Chapter 8 - Sarah's Baby
Claire stared through the glass.
Sarah had been visibly not pregnant two weeks earlier.
Yet she held a newborn.
Evelyn rushed toward the door.
Claire stopped her.
“Wait.”
Everyone had learned something.
Do not open doors simply because someone arrives carrying an answer.
Melissa checked outside.
No visible vehicle.
No one else.
Sarah looked exhausted.
Claire opened the door only after police had been called.
Sarah stepped inside.
Evelyn stared at her.
The resemblance became obvious once they knew to look.
Same eyes.
Same shape of the mouth.
Sarah noticed.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Evelyn began crying.
Marianne had not contacted her.
Sarah knew nothing about her birth.
Claire did not dump the truth on her immediately.
Instead:
“Whose baby is that?”
Sarah looked down.
“I don’t know.”
The infant had been left outside Sarah’s apartment thirty minutes earlier.
Inside the blanket was a Northstar bracelet.
NV-04.
Ryan was NV-03.
Another program child.
But the baby was only days old.
Someone had restarted Arthur’s system.
Sarah had driven toward Claire’s house because a note told her:
BRING NV-04 TO CLAIRE BENNETT.
“Why did you obey?”
“Because the note included my childhood photograph.”
Sarah had been adopted.
She always knew that.
Her parents said her biological mother died in childbirth.
Another lie.
Evelyn sat down.
Claire realized the truth had to come carefully.
“Sarah, we may have information about your biological family.”
Sarah looked at Evelyn.
Then seemed to understand before anyone spoke.
“No.”
Evelyn whispered:
“I think I’m your mother.”
Sarah backed away.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t call yourself that yet.”
Evelyn stopped.
Correct.
Biology did not instantly create a relationship.
Then the newborn began crying.
Claire noticed something attached beneath the blanket.
A flash drive.
Thomas and Marianne arrived with police shortly afterward.
Claire saw her father through the window.
She didn’t run to him.
Thomas stopped several feet away.
“Can I come in?”
Claire thought about six years.
Then nodded once.
He entered.
Claire slapped him.
Hard.
Then hugged him.
Both cried.
“You don’t ever get to decide I’m safer mourning you.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get forgiveness because you came back.”
“I know.”
Good.
Then they opened the flash drive on an offline laptop.
One video.
Dr. Martin Vale.
Claire’s obstetrician.
He looked frightened.
“If you’re watching this, Northstar has activated Continuity Protocol.”
He explained NV-04.
The newborn was not a replacement for Claire’s baby.
It was another child created through unauthorized reproductive material.
Someone was recreating Arthur Hale’s genetic pairing experiments.
Dr. Vale had participated.
Then regretted it.
The infant’s biological parents were unknown in the recording.
But Vale revealed something worse.
Claire’s pregnancy had never been part of the new experiment.
Her baby was conceived naturally.
Ryan was the biological father.
Claire was the biological mother.
Everyone stared.
All the embryo-transfer records were fabricated.
Why?
Vale answered from the video:
“To make Claire believe her child belongs to Northstar.”
Claire whispered:
“Why?”
The recording continued.
“Because fear makes parents surrender custody voluntarily.”
Thomas went pale.
Then Vale said:
“The real target was never Claire’s baby.”
May you like
He looked into the camera.
“It was Claire.”
