Chapter 14 - THE TRADE
I refused to bring Grace.
Helix knew that.
That was why they sent another photograph.
This one showed a hospital bracelet.
GRACE CARTER.
I looked down at my daughter’s wrist.
Her bracelet was still there.
Luka took the phone.
“Old photograph.”
Ryan nodded.
“They’re bluffing.”
I wanted to believe them.
But motherhood had changed the way fear worked inside me.
Every threat involving Grace felt physically painful.
We created our own plan.
I would go.
Luka would track me.
Ryan would carry fake sequence strips.
My mother would stay with Grace inside the Moretti estate.
The meeting point was an abandoned pharmaceutical facility two hours outside New York City.
Snow had begun falling when we arrived.
I stepped from the SUV alone.
Ryan remained hidden with Luka’s team.
The building smelled like rust and disinfectant.
A man searched me.
He removed my phone.
Then he led me into a laboratory.
Evelyn sat tied to a chair.
Samuel stood nearby with a bruise on his forehead.
Richard Vale waited behind a glass desk.
Beside him stood a woman I had never seen.
Early fifties.
Silver-blonde hair.
Perfect black suit.
Vale introduced her.
“Dr. Helena Cross.”
She smiled.
“Founder of Helix Crown.”
I stared at her.
“You destroyed my family.”
“No.”
She looked genuinely calm.
“Your father destroyed his own career because he lacked courage.”
“He didn’t want children used as products.”
“Every medical breakthrough requires risk.”
“Not without consent.”
She smiled faintly.
“You sound like him.”
I looked at Evelyn.
“Let them go.”
“Sequences first.”
“I don’t have them.”
Cross studied me.
“Then why are you here?”
“To tell you Grace will never belong to you.”
Her expression barely changed.
“Children belong to their parents.”
“For now.”
A chill moved through me.
“What does that mean?”
Vale opened a folder.
Inside were legal papers.
Ryan’s petition.
Emergency custody.
I stared at the signature.
Ryan Carter.
Filed at 7:04 that morning.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Cross smiled.
“Your husband was useful after all.”
I felt something inside me collapse.
Ryan had betrayed me again.
The petition claimed I was mentally unstable after childbirth.
It requested temporary custody of Grace.
It named Ryan as the biological father.
It included statements from Dr. Reed.
I looked at Samuel.
His face tightened.
“They forged them.”
Cross shrugged.
“Courts prefer paperwork to emotion.”
My hands went cold.
“If Ryan gets custody—”
“He can authorize research.”
Vale finished.
I whispered.
“He did this.”
Cross smiled.
“He did what he was paid to do.”
The door behind me opened.
Ryan walked in.
Alone.
For one horrible second, I thought the plan had been a lie.
He approached Cross and placed the transparent strips on the table.
My heart stopped.
“Ryan.”
He didn’t look at me.
Cross picked them up.
“Finally.”
Then Ryan said.
“They’re fake.”
Everything exploded at once.
The windows shattered inward.
Smoke filled the room.
Luka’s team entered from both sides.
Ryan grabbed Evelyn’s chair and pulled her behind a concrete column.
Samuel hit the floor.
Vale ran.
Cross reached for a gun.
I saw it before anyone else.
She aimed at Ryan.
I shouted.
Luka fired once.
Cross’s weapon flew from her hand.
Security swarmed her.
Vale was tackled near the door.
Within ninety seconds, it was over.
I ran to Evelyn.
Samuel cut her restraints.
Ryan stood against the wall breathing hard.
I walked toward him.
“Did you file that petition?”
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
My hand curled into a fist.
Then he added.
“Read the last page.”
I grabbed the document.
At the bottom of the petition was a handwritten amendment filed twelve minutes later.
PETITION WITHDRAWN.
Then another attachment.
Affidavit from Ryan.
I entered my marriage to Elena Carter under contract with Helix Crown.
I manipulated access to her medical information.
I concealed material facts concerning her identity and pregnancy.
I am not fit to seek custody of Grace Carter.
I request that all records be preserved as evidence.
I stared at him.
“You confessed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“Because I finally decided losing everything was better than being the man who sold you twice.”
