Chapter 3 - The Birth Records Someone Tried to Erase
“What does that mean?”
My voice shook so badly I barely recognized it.
Roman took the triplets from the floor one at a time and placed them on the couch.
His movements were slow, controlled.
Too controlled.
The kind of control a person used when rage was close to breaking loose.
Dr. Bell removed his glasses.
“The laboratory compared older medical samples belonging to both of you.”
“What older samples?” I asked.
“You underwent fertility treatment before your pregnancy, correct?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Roman.
He had gone completely still.
Dr. Bell continued carefully.
“Mr. Voss also stored reproductive material at a private clinic several years ago.”
Roman’s eyes hardened.
“After I was shot.”
Dr. Bell nodded.
“The genetic markers confirm the embryos were created using material from both of you.”
“That’s impossible,” I said. “My husband was the father.”
Roman’s gaze snapped to me.
“You were married?”
“His name was Daniel Hayes.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
The word silenced the room.
I looked down at my hands.
“He died in a car accident three months before the babies were born.”
Roman watched me closely.
“Was he involved in the fertility treatment?”
“He came to every appointment.”
“Did he provide the samples?”
“I thought he did.”
Roman turned to Donovan.
“Find Daniel Hayes.”
“He’s dead,” I said.
Roman did not look away from Donovan.
“Find out who he was before he died.”
Donovan nodded and left.
I stood.
“You don’t get to investigate my husband.”
“Your husband helped someone impregnate you with my children.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know he attended appointments where another man’s genetic material was used.”
“He may not have known.”
Roman came closer.
“Neither of us knew.”
His voice lowered.
“That is what makes us useful.”
“To whom?”
He looked at Dr. Bell.
The doctor’s face was pale.
“There was a research project,” Dr. Bell admitted.
Roman’s expression turned deadly.
“What project?”
“Project Helix.”
I felt cold all over.
“What does that have to do with my babies?”
Dr. Bell glanced at the triplets.
“It was an illegal embryo-selection program.”
Roman stepped in front of him.
“You have ten seconds to explain before I stop asking politely.”
Dr. Bell backed into the wall.
“The project targeted donors with specific genetic traits. Intelligence, physical resilience, low hereditary disease risk.”
I stared at him.
“You selected my children like products?”
“I was not part of it.”
“You knew the name.”
“I heard rumors.”
Roman grabbed the front of his coat.
Sofia began to cry.
“Roman.”
He released the doctor immediately.
The sudden obedience surprised everyone, including him.
I picked Sofia up.
Roman straightened his cuffs.
“Continue,” he said.
Dr. Bell swallowed.
“The project was believed to be funded by wealthy clients who wanted children with carefully selected traits.”
“Then why use us?” I asked.
“Your medical records showed exceptional fertility indicators. Mr. Voss’s profile showed certain genetic advantages.”
Roman’s face turned colder.
“Someone accessed my private files.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman stepped closer again.
Dr. Bell raised both hands.
“But the original records might still exist at St. Catherine’s.”
“Why weren’t they destroyed?”
“Hospital systems create backups. Some archives cannot be altered without leaving a trail.”
Roman looked at me.
“We are going there.”
I hugged Sofia.
“No.”
“You want answers.”
“I want my children safe.”
“So do I.”
“You travel with armed men.”
“Because people are trying to kill me.”
“That does not make me feel better.”
“It should. They usually fail.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I was not joking.”
A phone began ringing.
Not Roman’s.
Not mine.
Dr. Bell pulled his phone from his pocket.
The screen displayed no number.
He hesitated.
Roman took it from him and answered.
He said nothing.
A distorted voice came through the speaker.
“You should have left the dead where they were buried.”
My blood turned to ice.
Roman’s expression did not change.
“Who is this?”
“You took children that were never meant to belong to you.”
“They are mine.”
“Legally, perhaps.”
Roman’s eyes darkened.
“Touch them, and I will tear apart everything you have built.”
A quiet laugh answered him.
“You already lost the nanny.”
The call ended.
Roman slowly lowered the phone.
“Mrs. Carver,” I whispered.
He turned to Donovan as the man reentered.
“Seal the building.”
Donovan reached for his earpiece.
“No one enters or leaves.”
Dr. Bell rushed toward the door.
Roman blocked him.
“You stay.”
“I have patients.”
“You have a problem.”
The lights went out.
Sofia screamed.
Emergency lights flickered on, filling the room with dim red illumination.
Roman pulled me behind him.
Donovan drew a handgun.
“Stay low.”
A gunshot cracked from the hallway.
Dr. Bell dropped to the floor.
The children began crying.
I crouched beside the couch, covering them with my body.
Roman knelt in front of us.
“Pamela, look at me.”
I could barely hear him over the alarm.
“Take Sofia. Hold the boys by their clothes if you have to.”
“Where are we going?”
“Service stairs.”
Another shot rang out.
The glass wall shattered.
Roman threw himself over me and the children.
Fragments rained across his back.
“Roman!”
“I’m fine.”
Blood appeared near his temple.
He touched it once, glanced at his fingers, and ignored it.
Donovan fired through the doorway.
A man collapsed in the hall.
“Move!” Donovan shouted.
Roman lifted both boys, one under each arm.
I held Sofia against my chest.
We ran.
The hallway smelled of smoke and antiseptic.
A nurse crawled from behind a desk.
Roman stopped.
“Where are the service stairs?”
She pointed toward the end of the corridor.
A second attacker appeared near the elevators.
Donovan fired.
The attacker ducked back.
Roman pushed me into a supply room.
“Lock the door.”
“You’re not leaving us.”
“I need to clear the stairs.”
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
“This is not a discussion.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“They already took my children once. I’m not letting their father disappear too.”
The words struck both of us.
Their father.
Roman looked at the babies in his arms.
Leo had buried his face against Roman’s shoulder.
Adrian clutched his shirt.
For one second, Roman’s anger disappeared.
Then he handed Leo to me.
“Stay behind me.”
We moved through the service corridor.
Donovan led.
Roman followed with Adrian.
I stayed between them, carrying Leo and Sofia.
We reached the stairwell.
A metal door slammed below us.
Footsteps rushed upward.
“Back!” Donovan shouted.
Roman shoved us behind the concrete wall.
A man appeared on the landing.
Roman struck him before he could raise his weapon.
The impact sent the man crashing against the railing.
Donovan pinned him to the ground.
“Who sent you?”
The attacker smiled through blood.
“She did.”
“Who?”
“The woman who gave him the babies.”
Roman froze.
“Elena Markov is alive,” the man said.
I stared at him.
Roman’s former lover.
The woman who had supposedly died giving birth.
The man laughed again.
“And she wants her investment back.”
Sirens sounded outside.
The attacker’s smile widened.
“You think those children belong to you because of blood?”
Roman stepped closer.
“They belong to no one.”
His voice was deadly calm.
“They are not property.”
The man looked toward me.
“You should ask your dead husband what he was paid.”
I stopped breathing.
Roman grabbed him by the throat.
“What did you say?”
The attacker’s eyes remained on me.
“Daniel Hayes was not a victim.”
A red laser dot appeared on his chest.
Roman saw it first.
“Down!”
A shot exploded through the stairwell window.
The attacker jerked backward and went limp.
Roman pulled me and the children beneath the stairs.
Donovan fired toward the opposite building.
The shooter vanished.
I stared at the dead man.
His final words replayed in my head.
Daniel was not a victim.
Roman crouched beside me.
“Pamela.”
“My husband knew.”
“We do not know that.”
“He attended every appointment.”
“We still do not know.”
“He died three months before the delivery.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“You think they killed him.”
“I don’t know what to think.”
Sofia touched my wet cheek.
“Mom.”
I held her tiny hand.
Roman looked at the triplets, then at me.
“This was never only about stolen babies.”
“No.”
He wiped blood from his temple.
“Someone designed this from the beginning.”
“And now they’re coming back for them.”
Roman stood.
His face became the one Chicago feared.
Cold.
Certain.
Merciless.
May you like
“No,” he said.
“They are going to regret that they ever learned our names.”
