Chapter 3 - THE PROCEDURE I NEVER CONSENTED TO
Three months before I became pregnant, Victor took me to Samuel Miller's clinic.
He said I was sick.
Hormonal imbalance.
That was the explanation.
I remembered blood tests.
An injection.
Sedation for what Samuel called a minor uterine procedure.
I woke nauseated.
Victor bought me flowers.
First time in years.
Now I understood why.
Mercer looked ashamed.
“You were inseminated without informed consent.”
The words were clinical.
The violation was not.
My daughters had been conceived through a procedure done to my body while I was sedated.
I covered my mouth.
Elias turned away.
Not from disgust.
From rage.
I could see it in his shoulders.
“Why Julian?”
He asked.
Mercer swallowed.
“Victor needed a male child carrying Vance blood.”
“For what?”
“No idea.”
Elias looked at me.
I could barely speak.
“Did Julian consent?”
“No.”
Mercer shook his head.
“His samples were stored after a medical procedure years earlier. Samuel's company acquired the clinic holding them.”
So neither of us had consented.
Me.
Julian.
Two bodies turned into a scheme.
Then Elias asked:
“Why twins?”
“Likely accidental embryo split or multiple insemination success.”
Mercer looked at me.
“The important point is that Emma and Lucy are biologically Julian's daughters.”
My girls.
Still mine.
No one could change that.
But Victor was not their father.
For the first time since the overpass, something inside me loosened.
Victor had no blood claim.
Then immediately tightened again.
“He still has Julian.”
“Yes.”
Elias walked toward the door.
I knew that movement.
“Where are you going?”
“To get my brother.”
“Don't start a war.”
He looked back.
“My brother has been imprisoned for a year.”
“And my husband wants the girls alive. That means he expects you to react.”
Elias stopped.
I surprised myself.
Three days earlier I had been afraid to speak at my own dinner table.
Now I was telling Elias Vance how not to run his criminal empire.
Maybe nearly dying rearranged priorities.
Elias came back.
“Continue.”
Mercer explained Victor had spent years trying to gain access to Vance shipping routes.
Elias refused every alliance.
Julian disappeared around the same time Victor's organization suddenly began moving contraband through new corridors.
Maybe Julian had been forced to help.
Then Elias's intelligence chief entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We checked Victor's building.”
“Julian?”
“Gone.”
Elias's face hardened.
“When?”
“Less than an hour ago.”
Victor had moved him immediately after learning I survived.
Then another report.
A convoy left Brooklyn heading north.
Three SUVs.
One ambulance.
Victor's men.
Possible prisoner transport.
Elias looked at me.
“He's moving Julian.”
Then one of the security monitors beeped.
A camera outside the penthouse elevator showed a package sitting on the floor.
No delivery person.
Bomb team inspected it.
Safe.
Inside was a newborn bracelet.
Hospital-style.
Name:
BABY BOY MILLER.
Date:
Four years earlier.
I stared.
Victor had no son.
At least none I knew about.
Then I turned the bracelet over.
A handwritten message:
ASK AVA WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FIRST BABY.
May you like
I had never been pregnant before.
Or so I believed.
