Chapter 3 - The Children My Husband Was Never Supposed to Have
I couldn't breathe.
Clones.
The word echoed inside my head.
It sounded impossible.
Like something from a movie.
But the doctor's face wasn't joking.
“These babies were genetically created?”
He nodded.
“Based on the DNA profile of a donor.”
“Who?”
He looked at Elias.
Elias didn't answer.
I whispered,
“Who?”
The doctor finally said,
“Elias Vance.”
My world collapsed.
I turned toward him.
“No.”
Elias looked just as stunned.
“I didn't authorize anything.”
“But they're genetically related to you.”
“How?”
The doctor shook his head.
“We don't know.”
I looked at my daughters.
Two tiny girls.
Two lives that had almost ended beneath a bridge.
And somehow they were connected to the most feared man in New York.
Elias crouched beside the bassinets.
He stared at them.
For the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
Not fear for himself.
Fear for them.
“What did they do?” he whispered.
The doctor handed him the documents.
“There's more.”
Elias looked up.
“What?”
“These children weren't created recently.”
“What does that mean?”
“Their genetic material was preserved years ago.”
Elias froze.
“How many years?”
“Approximately fifteen.”
He looked at me.
Fifteen years.
I was only thirty.
My daughters were newborns.
This made no sense.
Then Elias's face changed.
“My father.”
The doctor nodded.
“Your father was working with a private genetics company before he died.”
Elias looked at the floor.
“I thought he shut it down.”
“He didn't.”
The doctor showed him another document.
A company name appeared.
VANCE BIOGENETICS.
I stared.
“You owned a genetics company?”
“My family did.”
“What happened?”
Elias's voice was bitter.
“My father claimed it was a medical research company.”
“And?”
“It wasn't.”
The doctor explained that the company had secretly experimented with genetic replication.
They had collected DNA from powerful families.
Political families.
Business dynasties.
Criminal organizations.
They were trying to create genetically enhanced heirs.
I felt sick.
“And my daughters?”
“They were created from your husband's stolen samples.”
“Why?”
The doctor looked at Elias.
“To create children genetically connected to the Vance bloodline but legally born to another family.”
I couldn't understand.
“Why would anyone want that?”
Elias answered.
“To control the inheritance.”
I stared at him.
“My daughters are heirs?”
“Potentially.”
He explained that Elias's father had left behind a hidden fortune.
A fortune worth billions.
But the inheritance required a biological descendant.
Elias had no children.
Someone had created my daughters using his DNA.
They were supposed to become legal heirs.
But there was a problem.
Elias's enemies wanted control of them.
Nathan had been part of the plan.
He had married me.
He had waited for the pregnancy.
He had pretended to hate having daughters.
Because he knew exactly what they were.
I felt betrayed all over again.
“He knew.”
Elias nodded.
“He knew everything.”
“And he abandoned us because they were girls?”
“No.”
Elias looked at me.
“He abandoned you because he wanted everyone to believe the experiment had failed.”
I stared at my daughters.
“Then why take them?”
“He wants them alive.”
“Why?”
“Because they're worth billions.”
I felt sick.
My daughters weren't children to these people.
They were assets.
Elias stood.
“No one is taking them.”
His voice was cold.
“I don't care who wants them.”
He looked at me.
“I'll burn down everything protecting them.”
May you like
I believed him.
But neither of us knew that Nathan was already inside the building.
