Chapter 5 - My Husband Came Back for the Wrong Reason
The M-17 vault was beneath the hospital where my daughter had been born.
My father had worked there decades earlier.
The old research wing had supposedly been sealed after renovations.
Supposedly.
Luka's attorney obtained emergency access through a court order using Vanessa's contract and evidence of deleted medical records.
When we entered the basement, Daniel came with us.
Not because I wanted him there.
Because he claimed he could identify Northstar's server.
Room M-17 stood behind a gray steel door.
The same designation from the photograph.
Luka looked at me.
“Ready?”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“Me neither.”
The door opened.
Inside were filing cabinets.
Old computers.
Boxes.
Thousands of medical records.
My father's entire nightmare.
Daniel pointed.
“Server rack.”
An investigator began photographing everything.
I opened a drawer.
Names.
Dates.
Children.
Then I found:
MORETTI, MARIA.
My hands froze.
Luka stood beside me.
“Open it.”
Inside was a photograph.
A beautiful dark-haired woman holding two babies at different times.
One was Luka.
The other was me.
I covered my mouth.
A handwritten note from my father was attached.
Maria died protecting both children from exposure. Emma was placed with Thomas and Susan Bennett. Luka remained with the Moretti family. Separating them was the only way to keep Northstar from realizing both survived.
Luka sat down.
For the first time since I'd met him, the tattooed man who frightened everyone looked completely lost.
“She didn't abandon me,” he whispered.
“No.”
“She was protecting us.”
I touched his arm.
He looked at me.
“You really are my sister.”
“Apparently.”
A broken laugh escaped him.
“Thomas had a terrible sense of humor.”
I laughed through tears.
Then Daniel said, “Emma.”
I turned.
He was holding another envelope.
His expression terrified me.
“What?”
“There's another test.”
Luka immediately stepped forward.
“Put it down.”
Daniel stared at the envelope.
“It has Emma's name.”
“Daniel.”
He looked at me.
“This could change everything.”
I walked toward him.
“Give it to me.”
He held it tighter.
“If you open this, Northstar is finished.”
“Good.”
“You don't understand. They'll come after everyone connected to it.”
“They already came after my daughter.”
Daniel's voice broke.
“I can fix this.”
“How?”
“We destroy the envelope. We negotiate. They'll pay enough that none of us ever has to worry again.”
I stared at him.
Even now.
Money.
“You still don't understand why I left you.”
He looked shocked.
“You left me.”
“You walked out first.”
“Emma—”
“You walked away from your six-hour-old daughter because you were afraid your million-dollar deal had collapsed.”
His face hardened.
“I came back.”
“For her blood.”
He said nothing.
That was the end of my marriage.
Not legally.
That would take months.
But emotionally?
It ended right there in M-17.
I held out my hand.
“The envelope.”
Daniel looked toward the exit.
Luka didn't threaten him.
He simply said, “Don't make another coward's decision.”
Daniel's shoulders dropped.
He handed me the envelope.
I opened it.
Inside was not a DNA result.
It was a handwritten confession.
From Northstar's founder.
Dr. Samuel Voss.
The supposedly dead man.
At the bottom was a recent date.
Three weeks earlier.
I looked at Luka.
“He's alive.”
Luka read the page.
Then his expression changed.
“No.”
“What?”
He pointed to one sentence.
Subject M-17-B remains alive under assumed identity.
I read the next line.
Current identity:
THOMAS BENNETT.
My father.
May you like
The man I had buried eight months ago.
Was alive.
