Chapter 12 - The First Claire
Claire had a sister.
Identical twin.
Caroline Hart.
Claire had been told Caroline died at birth.
She hadn't.
Their mother gave birth through a fertility program connected to Vincent's research.
Vincent separated the twins.
Claire remained with the Hart family.
Caroline entered long-term observation.
Another human life turned into a study.
Caroline eventually escaped.
At twenty-four, she began investigating Vincent.
She contacted Emily.
They worked together.
The woman following Emily on the night of the crash was Caroline.
Not hunting her.
Protecting her.
Caroline witnessed the crash.
She called emergency services.
Then Vincent's people arrived first.
Caroline disappeared afterward.
Claire stared at the photograph of a woman with her own face.
“Is she alive?”
Sarah nodded.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Sarah last saw Caroline two years earlier.
Caroline was the person who sent Claire the original surrogacy offer.
Why?
To get Claire inside Vincent's reproductive program.
She wanted evidence.
But she did not know Vincent would use Sarah's embryo.
Claire felt furious.
Another person had used her “for the greater good.”
“Everyone keeps deciding what I can survive.”
Sarah lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
Claire's fake pregnancy now carried another meaning.
She had spent months pretending her body contained something because powerful people had spent years treating women's bodies as containers for plans they never consented to.
Claire was done.
She went public.
Not with every detail involving Lily.
With enough to trigger federal investigation.
Clinics were raided.
Records seized.
Vincent arrested.
Eleanor implicated.
Marcus cooperated.
The hidden infant was placed under independent medical protection while legal parentage was determined.
Victor thought the nightmare was finally ending.
Then investigators tested the baby.
Sarah was indeed biological mother.
But Vincent was not the father.
The laboratory record had been falsified.
Again.
The paternal match was close to Lily.
Extremely close.
Investigators ran broader comparison.
Victor expected himself.
No.
The baby's biological father was genetically almost identical to Lily's paternal source—
but not Victor.
There was only one explanation.
An identical twin.
Vincent.
Except Vincent's DNA also failed exact comparison.
Victor stared.
He and Vincent were identical twins.
No third brother existed.
Genetically, the result should have matched one of them.
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Unless—
Victor and Vincent were not the only identical male embryos created in their generation.
