Chapter 5 - The Exchange
Roman said no before I finished explaining my plan.
“No.”
“You didn’t even hear it.”
“I heard the part where you intend to meet Hart.”
“He wants the locket.”
“He wants you.”
“Then we give him what he thinks he wants.”
Roman stared at me across the study.
“No.”
I crossed my arms.
“You cannot order me around.”
“I can when the alternative is watching you walk into a trap.”
“That doctor risked her life for my children.”
“And I will get her out.”
“How?”
Roman looked at Donovan.
“Violently.”
I almost laughed.
“Excellent. Very subtle.”
Roman leaned both hands on the desk.
“Pamela, Hart has spent seventeen years preparing for this.”
“So have I.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I just didn’t know it.”
That silenced him.
I removed my mother’s locket from the evidence pouch Richard had brought from my apartment.
Roman watched carefully.
“Your father said the data inside could destroy Meridian.”
“Yes.”
“Then Hart will assume we made copies.”
“We did.”
“Which means the locket is useless as leverage.”
“To us.”
I looked at him.
“Not to him.”
Richard entered.
“She’s right.”
Roman glared at him.
“I’m developing a dislike for this family.”
“You should attend Thanksgiving.”
I stared at my father.
“You don’t get jokes yet.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
The plan was simple enough to sound dangerous.
Hart instructed me to come alone to an abandoned Meridian research building near the river at midnight.
I would wear a transmitter.
Federal agents would surround the location.
Roman’s people would cover exits.
The locket would contain a duplicate chip.
Roman objected until I finally said the only thing that could stop him.
“If you were the one Hart wanted, would you stay home?”
He stared at me.
“No.”
“Then stop asking me to be less brave than you.”
Something shifted between us.
He stepped closer.
“This is not bravery.”
“What is it?”
“Being terrified and going anyway.”
“That sounds like bravery.”
His eyes held mine.
“You came into my life six days ago.”
Six days.
It felt like six years.
“You ruined my restaurant.”
“You hated that restaurant.”
“You threatened my manager.”
“He touched you.”
“You investigated my entire life.”
“You turned out to be interesting.”
I almost smiled.
Then his expression softened.
“And now my children cry when you leave the room.”
“Our children.”
The words stopped both of us.
Roman looked down.
“Our children.”
He repeated it quietly.
Something warm moved through me.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more fragile.
Trust.
At eleven forty-five, I entered the abandoned Meridian building.
Rain struck broken windows.
My footsteps echoed.
Hart waited in the center of an old laboratory.
Dr. Bishop sat nearby.
Alive.
Bruised.
But conscious.
“You came.”
Hart sounded almost proud.
“I brought the locket.”
“Put it down.”
“Release her.”
He smiled.
“You don’t negotiate well.”
“I learned from Roman.”
That irritated him.
Good.
“You think Voss protects you?”
“He protected my children when everyone else failed.”
“Including your father.”
I refused to react.
Hart walked closer.
“You want to know why Richard disappeared?”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“You know what he wants you to know.”
I glanced toward Bishop.
“She needs medical attention.”
“She’ll survive.”
“Then release her.”
“After I verify the data.”
I set the locket on a metal table.
Hart retrieved a reader.
Seconds passed.
His expression changed.
“This is a copy.”
“Yes.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
“You think I’m stupid?”
“No.”
I swallowed.
“I think you’re predictable.”
Red laser dots suddenly appeared across his chest.
Federal agents entered from both sides.
“Elias Hart! Hands where we can see them!”
Hart laughed.
Actually laughed.
Then every light died.
Gunfire erupted.
Someone pulled me down.
Roman.
“What are you doing here?”
“Being predictable.”
He dragged me behind a concrete pillar.
Federal agents exchanged fire with Hart’s security team.
Bishop screamed.
I crawled toward her.
Roman cursed and followed.
We reached her chair.
I untied her.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.”
An explosion rocked the building.
Roman shielded us.
“Hart’s heading for the roof,” Donovan shouted through Roman’s radio.
Roman looked at me.
“Stay with Bishop.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Come back.”
His eyes met mine.
Something unspoken passed between us.
“I intend to.”
He ran.
I helped Bishop toward the exit.
Then she stopped.
“Pamela.”
“What?”
“There’s a server room.”
“So?”
“Hart kept live research data here.”
“This building was abandoned.”
“Publicly.”
Of course.
We turned toward a locked corridor.
I should have left.
Instead, I kicked the door.
Nothing.
Bishop typed an old access code.
The lock clicked.
Inside were servers.
Thousands of files.
Evidence.
Not just about me.
Hundreds of patients.
Children.
Families.
“They kept doing it.”
Bishop nodded.
“For years.”
I connected the drive Richard had given me.
“Can we copy everything?”
“Yes.”
Upload bar.
2%.
Gunshots echoed above.
12%.
I thought of Roman.
31%.
Bishop looked toward the door.
“We need to leave.”
45%.
“Not yet.”
61%.
Footsteps.
76%.
The door opened.
Hart.
Blood streaked one side of his face.
He held a gun.
“Move away.”
Bishop froze.
I stood between them.
“You lost.”
Hart laughed.
“You still think this is about evidence?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“This was always about legacy.”
I remembered what Richard said.
My genetic modification.
The triplets.
Hart’s obsession.
“You wanted proof the alteration could pass to children.”
“And it did.”
His eyes shone.
“Your children are extraordinary.”
“They’re babies.”
“They’re the future.”
“They are not yours.”
“No.”
Hart smiled.
“They are history’s.”
The upload reached 92%.
Hart noticed.
He raised the gun.
Bishop lunged.
The shot fired.
I screamed.
Hart fell.
Roman stood behind him.
Gun smoking.
He rushed toward me.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
I turned.
Bishop was on the floor.
Blood spread across her side.
“No.”
We pressed cloth against the wound.
Federal medics entered seconds later.
Upload complete.
The files were secured.
Hart survived his wound.
So did Bishop.
By sunrise, Meridian executives across four states were being arrested.
Hospitals were raided.
Accounts frozen.
The story exploded across national news.
Yet the greatest moment of my life happened quietly.
I returned to Roman’s house at eight in the morning.
Leo was awake.
He saw me.
“Mom!”
Miles followed.
Lily clapped.
I dropped to my knees.
All three crawled toward me.
Roman stood in the doorway.
He looked exhausted.
I gathered the children against me.
Then Lily reached backward toward him.
“Dad.”
Roman approached.
She grabbed his jacket and pulled.
Closer.
So he knelt beside us.
Three babies.
One mother who had been robbed of fourteen months.
One father who had never expected to become one.
And somehow, one family.
Not a normal one.
Not yet.
But ours.
Then Roman’s phone rang.
Donovan.
His expression changed as he listened.
“What?”
He looked at me.
Hart had survived surgery.
But that wasn’t the problem.
Before his arrest, he had released one final piece of information.
A sealed legal claim had been filed.
Against Roman.
For custody of the triplets.
I stared at him.
“Who filed it?”
Roman slowly lowered the phone.
“My mother.”
I blinked.
“What?”
Roman’s face hardened.
“She says you are mentally unstable, financially unfit, and dangerous to the children.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why would she do that?”
He looked toward the staircase.
A woman stood there.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Cold.
She had apparently entered while we were talking.
Roman’s mother.
Victoria Voss.
She looked directly at me.
“Because those children belong to this family.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“And you do not.”
May you like
I had defeated the man who stole my babies—but I was about to discover that getting them back might require fighting the most powerful woman in Roman Voss’s world.
---
