Chapter 8 - The Mark Beneath Mia’s Hair
Mia did not cry when Evelyn examined the scar.
She stared at Luca.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“You never looked.”
The accusation nearly broke him.
Luca had spent years believing distance protected her. In truth, distance had allowed Samuel’s people to reach her without resistance.
Rose may have discovered the implant. That could explain why she moved Mia constantly and refused hospitals unless absolutely necessary.
Samuel confirmed that Rose had once worked for Antonio’s council.
She stole Mia after learning the child would be used to open the vault.
Later, she raised her as her own granddaughter.
“When did she stop working for you?” Mrs. Harlow asked.
“When conscience became inconvenient.”
“Did you kill her?”
Samuel smiled.
“No. Evelyn did.”
Mia looked toward Evelyn.
The woman stiffened.
“That is a lie.”
Samuel continued.
“Rose discovered Evelyn planned the second child. They argued. Rose entered the hospital and never returned.”
Evelyn denied harming her, but she admitted visiting Rose two weeks before her death.
Rose wanted the embryo destroyed.
Evelyn refused because she believed the baby was the only way to expose the council and free Mia from the implant.
“You created him as a tool too,” I said.
“I created a chance.”
“You used Luca’s child to fix what you did to his first.”
Evelyn’s face crumpled.
For twelve years, she had told herself every sacrifice served a larger rescue.
That was how people became monsters while believing they were saviors.
The countdown reached fourteen minutes.
Samuel still refused the voice code.
Victor found the council files inside the vault.
Each member had a biometric profile and emergency override phrase.
Samuel’s phrase might be hidden in his personnel recording.
We searched the server.
A video appeared showing Samuel twenty years earlier, kneeling before Antonio.
My father asked one question.
“What is more important than blood?”
Samuel answered.
“Obedience.”
Evelyn entered the word.
Rejected.
The system required his live voice.
I played the recording beside his mouth, but it detected an artificial source.
Samuel laughed.
Luca grabbed him by the throat.
“Say it.”
“If I speak, Roman kills me.”
Mia stepped closer.
“I will not let him.”
Everyone looked at her.
She faced me.
“Promise.”
Samuel expected my anger to defeat us.
Mia expected my word to matter.
I holstered my gun.
“If he disables both devices, he leaves this room alive.”
Luca stared at me.
“So he can disappear again?”
“He will not disappear.”
Samuel considered.
“You promise no execution?”
“I promise you remain alive tonight.”
He knew the difference, but time was running out.
He leaned toward the console.
“Obedience is more important than blood.”
The system accepted his voice.
The newborn’s implant deactivated.
Mia’s did not.
A warning appeared.
LEGACY SUBJECT ONE REQUIRES PRIMARY CREATOR AUTHORIZATION.
Samuel looked genuinely surprised.
“I did not place hers.”
“Who did?”
He stared at the screen.
“Antonio.”
My father had personally authorized Mia’s implant before his death.
Impossible.
Mia was born months after he died.
Unless her birth date was false.
Mrs. Harlow searched the files.
A medical record identified Subject One as a female child created through embryo transfer nine years earlier.
The embryo belonged to Luca and Clara.
Mia had not been born naturally before the explosion.
Clara had carried a pregnancy, but the infant reportedly died.
The surviving embryo was implanted into Rose’s daughter the following year.
Mia’s birth mother was not Clara.
Clara was her biological mother.
Rose’s daughter carried her.
Luca stared at the record.
His child had been designed and hidden before he knew she existed.
The primary creator authorization belonged to Antonio’s genetic profile.
A preserved voice model might still exist.
The vault displayed one stored message.
I activated it.
My father appeared on screen.
Older than I remembered.
Thinner.
Alive.
The recording date was six years after his funeral.
Antonio had not died from cancer.
His death had been staged.
He spoke directly to the camera.
“If Mia reaches this room, Roman and Luca have failed to remain divided.”
The brothers looked at each other.
My father continued.
“The girl carries the location of my final estate. Her implant cannot be removed without destroying the coordinates.”
Mia touched the scar again.
She had not been implanted only with a weapon.
She carried a map.
Antonio ended the recording with one sentence.
“Bring her to Saint Orison Island, or the child dies at sunrise.”
The countdown changed.
Three hours.
A map appeared.
May you like
Saint Orison Island lay seventy miles offshore, beyond a storm warning.
Continue to the next part: Antonio DeLuca is revealed to have survived his funeral and orders both sons to bring Mia to his hidden island before sunrise.
