Chapter 6 - SIXTY SECONDS OF DARKNESS
The darkness lasted less than a minute.
It felt like an hour.
Luka’s hand found my shoulder instantly.
“Stay down.”
I heard Grace begin to cry.
My mother whispered my name.
Vanessa screamed from somewhere near the bathroom.
Ryan shouted.
Then there was a sharp metallic crash outside the room.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Luka was already moving toward the door.
He opened it only a few inches.
The security guard who had been standing outside was on the floor.
Conscious.
But dazed.
His radio lay several feet away.
“Someone hit me from behind.”
Luka crouched beside him.
“Did they enter?”
“I don’t know.”
My blood turned cold.
I looked toward the bed.
My mother was still there.
Grace was still in my arms.
Then I saw the table.
The cassette recorder was gone.
“Mom.”
She followed my gaze.
“No.”
We searched the room.
Nothing.
Someone had entered during the blackout.
Someone had taken the recording.
Luka’s face became terrifyingly calm.
“Ryan.”
Ryan stared at him.
“What?”
“Empty your pockets.”
“Go to hell.”
Luka stepped closer.
“Empty them.”
Ryan shoved both hands into his pockets and threw his phone, wallet, keys, and loose change onto the bed.
No cassette.
Vanessa did the same voluntarily.
Nothing.
My mother still had the cassette case.
Only the recorder itself had been stolen.
I looked toward the hallway.
“Vale.”
Luka nodded.
“Probably.”
My mother sank into a chair.
“There was only one copy.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at Luka.
He removed his phone.
“My father had a digital duplicate.”
I stared at him.
“You’ve heard it?”
“Part of it.”
“What part?”
His eyes met mine.
“The part about your daughter.”
My arms tightened around Grace.
“Tell me.”
“Your father believed the M-17 correction could be inherited through the maternal line.”
I stared at him.
“So Grace inherited it.”
“Possibly.”
“Is that dangerous?”
“No.”
“Then why is everyone terrified?”
“Because if it’s inheritable, M-17 wasn’t a temporary treatment.”
He paused.
“It was the first stable human germline correction Carter Biomedical ever created.”
My mother closed her eyes.
I didn’t understand immediately.
Then I did.
My father hadn’t merely healed me.
He had changed something that could pass to my children.
And their children.
“What would that be worth?”
I asked.
Ryan answered.
“Billions.”
I looked at him.
His face had gone pale.
“Maybe more.”
Luka added.
“Every company in genetic medicine would want the process.”
My stomach twisted.
“And they need Grace to prove it.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly my newborn daughter was no longer just my daughter to these people.
She was evidence.
A patent.
A fortune.
A key.
I felt sick.
My mother took my hand.
“Your father realized what he had done.”
“He wanted the research destroyed.”
“Vale wanted it commercialized.”
“And your father refused.”
A terrible thought formed.
“His plane crash.”
Nobody spoke.
I looked at Luka.
“Was it an accident?”
He looked away.
That was an answer.
My knees weakened.
“You knew?”
“My father suspected sabotage.”
“Suspected?”
“He never proved it.”
“Who was on the plane?”
“My father.”
My mother’s voice became barely audible.
“And one of Antonio Moretti’s men.”
I looked at Luka.
He nodded.
“My uncle.”
The room fell silent.
Our families had been connected by death long before we met.
Ryan suddenly grabbed his phone from the bed.
The screen displayed six missed calls.
All from one number.
He looked at it.
Then at me.
“Elena, we need to leave.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“You left me twenty minutes ago.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the door.
“Because Vale isn’t the only person looking for the baby.”
Luka’s eyes sharpened.
“Who else?”
Ryan swallowed.
Then said the name.
“Helix Crown.”
My mother went white.
I had never heard of it.
Luka clearly had.
He swore under his breath.
“What is Helix Crown?”
I asked.
Luka looked at Ryan.
Ryan looked at me.
May you like
Then he said something that made my heart stop.
“The company that paid me to marry you.”
