Chapter 5 - The Man Who Knew Her MotherClaire stared at her father.
Claire watched him the entire way.
Every few minutes he checked his phone.
Twice, he typed messages and deleted them.
Once, his hands actually trembled.
Arthur Bennett's hands never trembled.
When the rear doors opened, a medical team was waiting.
Claire refused to let the twins leave her line of sight.
"You can examine them in my room."
"Mrs. Whitmore," a pediatrician began, "the neonatal unit—"
"My room."
Arthur nodded.
"Do it."
Within twenty minutes, Claire had been moved into a private recovery suite with two bassinets beside her bed and armed security outside the door.
The twins underwent blood tests, scans, and complete examinations.
There was no sign they had been harmed beyond the unexplained blood draw.
Claire should have felt relieved.
Instead, she kept thinking about the fifth vial.
Arthur's blood.
When the doctors left, Claire locked the door.
Her father stood near the window.
"Tell me."
Arthur didn't turn.
"Claire—"
"No."
She lowered her voice so she wouldn't disturb the babies.
"You asked me to trust you. I'm trying. So tell me why someone stealing my children had a vial of your blood."
Arthur faced her.
"Because twenty-nine years ago, I gave it to Helixor."
Claire stared.
"What?"
"During early research."
"You volunteered?"
"Every senior executive involved did."
"Why?"
"To demonstrate confidence in the project."
Claire laughed bitterly.
"That's corporate theater."
"Yes."
"And someone kept your sample for nearly thirty years?"
"Apparently."
Claire studied him.
"You're leaving something out."
Arthur looked exhausted.
"The regenerative marker your mother carried?"
Claire nodded.
"I didn't discover it through Helixor."
"Then how?"
"Through you."
Claire froze.
"What does that mean?"
Arthur sat.
"When you were born, you had severe neonatal anemia."
"I know."
"Doctors couldn't explain it. Your mother and I agreed to genetic testing."
Claire felt the room shift beneath her.
"You told me the tests were normal."
"They weren't."
She stopped breathing.
Arthur looked toward Emily and Noah.
"You carried part of the marker."
"Part?"
"The maternal portion."
"And Daniel carried the other."
"It appears so."
"How?"
"That's what I don't understand."
Claire's voice became sharper.
"How much did Daniel know?"
Arthur didn't answer quickly enough.
Claire's heart dropped.
"Dad."
"Possibly more than we did."
She stared at him.
"Did Daniel marry me because of this?"
Arthur looked genuinely pained.
"I don't know."
But suddenly the past rearranged itself.
Daniel's relentless curiosity about Arthur.
Questions about Claire's childhood medical history.
His insistence that they use a particular fertility clinic even though Claire had conceived naturally months later.
His excitement when he learned she was having twins.
The way he had become oddly protective of every prenatal appointment.
"No," Claire whispered.
Arthur frowned.
"What?"
"At twelve weeks, Daniel switched doctors."
"Why?"
"He said our original obstetrician didn't have good enough equipment."
Arthur's face darkened.
"Who recommended Vale?"
"Daniel."
The room went quiet.
Claire pulled the blanket tighter around herself.
"My entire pregnancy was planned."
"We don't know that."
"I do."
She reached for her phone.
Marcus had provided a secure device after they arrived.
Claire searched her email archive.
"Daniel sent me something months ago."
"What?"
"A prenatal consent form."
Her fingers flew across the screen.
She found the message.
Opened the attachment.
Read.
Standard genetic screening.
At least that was what she had believed.
Arthur leaned over.
"Scroll."
Claire did.
Page six.
Tiny language.
Authorization for retained biological material.
Secondary research.
Partner laboratories.
Claire looked at her father.
"I signed it."
"Most people would."
"Daniel told me it was routine."
Arthur took the phone.
"Helixor Research Holdings."
Claire stared.
"Helixor still exists?"
"Not under that name."
She felt sick.
The room door opened.
Marcus entered.
He didn't smile.
"We arrested Selena."
"For kidnapping?"
"Conspiracy. Forgery. Interstate trafficking of biological material."
"And Daniel?"
"Missing."
Claire's face went blank.
"What?"
"Hospital security cameras show he exited through a maintenance corridor nine minutes after we recovered the twins."
Arthur swore.
"Vivian?"
"Gone too."
Claire closed her eyes.
Of course.
Daniel had spent years preparing.
He had contingency plans.
Marcus continued.
"We searched your home."
Claire opened her eyes.
"And?"
"Daniel took his passport, two laptops, cash, and a firearm from a safe."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"He owns a gun?"
"Registered."
"I didn't know."
"There's more."
Marcus placed a photograph on the bedside table.
Claire picked it up.
A storage unit.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Medical files.
Surveillance photographs.
Some photographs showed Claire.
Walking to work.
Entering restaurants.
Leaving her father's townhouse years before she ever met Daniel.
Claire stared.
"Dates?"
Marcus pointed.
"The earliest was fourteen years ago."
Claire stopped breathing.
She had met Daniel eight years ago.
"He was watching me for six years before we met."
Arthur sat down slowly.
Marcus nodded.
"We also found files on your college roommates, former employers, previous boyfriend, and your father."
Claire felt violated in a way she couldn't describe.
Every memory she had once considered spontaneous became suspect.
The coffee shop where she first met Daniel.
Had he planned it?
The rainstorm when he offered her his umbrella.
The restaurant where he proposed.
Their wedding.
Their home.
Everything.
Marcus put another photograph down.
This one showed a folder.
PROJECT JANUS.
Arthur made a sound under his breath.
Claire looked at him.
"You know that name."
Arthur didn't deny it.
"Janus was Helixor's final internal project."
"What was it?"
Arthur's eyes moved to the babies.
"A program designed to create a universal regenerative therapy using genetically compatible siblings."
Claire's stomach turned.
"Twins."
"Yes."
"And they needed twins carrying both markers."
"Yes."
Claire's voice shook.
"How rare?"
Arthur's answer was barely audible.
"Potentially one pair in hundreds of millions."
Claire stared at Emily and Noah.
Daniel had not simply wanted their babies.
He had wanted these babies.
Specifically.
Marcus said, "There's another problem."
Claire laughed without humor.
"Of course there is."
"Selena isn't talking."
"Then make her."
"We can't."
"Why?"
"Because forty minutes after arriving at federal detention, her attorney produced documentation showing she was working as a confidential informant."
Arthur stared.
"For whom?"
Marcus's expression hardened.
"That's the problem."
He placed a copy of the document on the table.
The authorization carried a federal seal.
And a signature.
Arthur leaned closer.
His face went pale.
Claire saw the name.
Assistant Director Nathan Cole.
Arthur whispered:
"No."
Claire looked at him.
"Who is Nathan Cole?"
Marcus didn't answer.
Arthur did.
"My former partner."
"At the FBI?"
"Before Bennett Dynamics."
Claire looked between the men.
"And he's protecting Selena?"
Marcus nodded reluctantly.
"It appears so."
Arthur stood.
"No. Nathan would never—"
Marcus cut him off.
"He signed the authorization."
"You verified it?"
"We're trying."
Claire stared at her father.
"How well do you know him?"
Arthur's mouth tightened.
"He held you the day you were born."
Claire's skin prickled.
Marcus's phone rang.
He answered.
"Reed."
His expression changed.
"When?"
He listened.
Then looked at Claire.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Marcus lowered the phone.
"Someone accessed this building's neonatal floor using executive credentials."
Arthur turned toward the security monitor.
"Whose credentials?"
Marcus looked directly at him.
"Yours."
Claire instinctively reached toward the bassinets.
Sirens sounded somewhere downstairs.
Arthur rushed to the door.
"Lock the floor!"
Then the lights went out.
The entire room plunged into darkness.
Emily began crying.
Noah followed.
Claire's heart exploded into panic.
"Nobody touches my children!"
Emergency lights flickered red.
A figure moved beyond the glass wall outside.
Then another.
Security shouted.
A gunshot cracked down the corridor.
Claire dragged both bassinets toward her bed.
Arthur pushed a cabinet against the door.
Marcus drew his weapon.
"Claire, get down."
She crouched beside her babies.
The door handle turned.
Locked.
Then a voice came through the intercom.
Calm.
Male.
Familiar to Arthur.
"Art."
Arthur froze.
Claire stared at him.
The voice continued.
"You always were terrible at keeping secrets."
Arthur stepped toward the speaker.
"Nathan?"
Claire's blood went cold.
Nathan Cole.
The federal official supposedly protecting Selena.
The man who had held Claire as a newborn.
The voice replied:
"Open the door, Art."
Arthur's jaw clenched.
"No."
A soft laugh.
"Then I suppose I'll have to tell Claire what you did to her mother."
Claire stared at her father.
"What is he talking about?"
Arthur didn't move.
The speaker crackled again.
May you like
Nathan said:
"Ask him why your mother really died, Claire."
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