Chapter 4 - THE SECOND PROCEDURE
I had been twenty two when Sophie was born.
At that age, I lived alone in a basement apartment and worked two restaurant jobs.
I remembered that year.
At least, I believed I did.
Then Dominic asked about March.
“What happened in March?” I said.
“Were you hospitalized?”
“No.”
“Did you miss work?”
I began to answer.
The memory stopped me.
I had disappeared from Belladonna’s employment schedule for nineteen days.
My manager said I suffered a severe infection and returned with medical restrictions.
I remembered fever.
A white room.
My mother had already died, so no one remained to question the story.
I had no husband.
No close friends.
No one who would demand to see me.
Someone selected the emptiest part of my life and placed another lie inside it.
Vincent studied the newborn photograph.
“Claire gave birth in July.”
I counted backward.
March aligned with the early months of pregnancy.
“Was Claire pregnant?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you attend her medical appointments?”
“Most.”
“Did anyone mention fertility procedures?”
“No.”
Dominic opened an old digital schedule recovered from Carlo’s private physician.
Nathan Vale examined two women under false names during March.
The first was Claire Dawson.
The second was listed as Patient B.
The notes described synchronized hormone treatment and fetal transfer.
Claire may not have conceived Sophie naturally.
An embryo may have been transferred into her after she and Vincent were married.
“She never told me,” Vincent said.
“She may not have known,” I answered.
The medical notes showed Claire received medication described as treatment for anemia.
In reality, it prepared her body for pregnancy.
The embryo was identified only as BD 2.
Brielle Dawson, procedure two.
The first embryo had been created when I was sixteen.
The second may have been created from biological material collected when I was twenty two.
“How did they reach me again?” I asked.
Dominic looked toward Vincent.
“Belladonna belonged to Carlo through a hidden company.”
I had worked inside Moretti property for eight years without knowing.
My employment records, insurance, address, and medical absences passed through people connected to the family.
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“I purchased Belladonna after my father died.”
“You inherited it,” Dominic corrected. “The Dawson monitoring file continued automatically.”
Vincent turned toward him.
“You knew Brielle worked there.”
“I learned last year.”
“And said nothing.”
“I believed Claire was dead. I did not know the procedure file existed.”
“You knew my wife had a sister living inside one of my businesses.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide her?”
“Because Gabriel ordered surveillance on anyone connected to Claire.”
Vincent’s eyes became colder.
“Gabriel does not order you.”
“He carried Carlo’s original authority codes.”
The organization Vincent believed he controlled still contained commands issued by his dead father.
Gabriel Kane had used them to move money, people, and information without appearing in modern records.
He maintained Carlo’s old system beneath Vincent’s leadership.
Eleanor sat beside the archive table.
“I introduced Gabriel to Vincent.”
Everyone looked toward her.
“He was twenty years old,” she continued. “Carlo said his father died protecting the family.”
“Who was his father?” Vincent asked.
“Nathan Vale.”
The physician who conducted the procedures.
Gabriel was protecting his father’s work.
Perhaps he was continuing it.
Security located Gabriel’s vehicle near an abandoned church on the West Side.
The car contained blood in the back seat and a child restraint attached to the floor.
Sophie’s size.
Vincent called the secure room immediately.
The caregiver answered.
Sophie was still inside.
She held the black ring and asked when he would return.
He ended the call without revealing his fear.
The restraint had been prepared for another child.
Or for an earlier attempt.
A map inside Gabriel’s vehicle marked three locations.
Belladonna.
The Moretti residence.
And the apartment where I lived when Sophie was born.
Police records showed a fire destroyed that building four years earlier.
I thought it had been caused by faulty wiring.
The apartment may have been burned to remove medical evidence.
Vincent ordered his men to secure the church.
I insisted on going.
“No,” he said.
“Gabriel has files about my body and my sister.”
“He also has armed men.”
“I stopped one with a chair leg.”
“That does not make you bulletproof.”
“It makes me involved.”
Eleanor looked toward him.
“Let her choose.”
Vincent’s expression showed that he hated the advice because it was correct.
We traveled in separate vehicles.
Dominic remained restrained beside two guards. He claimed he could identify Carlo’s old symbols inside the church.
The building had been abandoned for years. Broken stained glass covered the floor. A faded cross hung above the altar.
No one was inside.
Beneath the altar, Dominic found a steel ring set into the floor.
A hidden stairway descended into darkness.
The underground room contained a surgical bed.
Medical instruments remained sealed inside cabinets.
Photographs covered one wall.
Women.
Children.
Witnesses from Carlo’s relocation program.
Some held babies they may not have conceived or delivered through informed consent.
Sophie’s photograph appeared near the center.
Beside it was a second little girl.
Same blonde hair.
Same gray eyes.
A yellow flower pinned to her coat.
She looked older than Sophie by perhaps one year.
The name beneath the photograph read:
SUBJECT DAISY.
I stepped closer.
“Who is she?”
Dominic stared at the image.
“I have never seen her.”
Vincent removed the photograph from the wall.
On the back was a handwritten instruction.
IF SOPHIE FAILS THE RECOGNITION TEST, TRANSFER VINCENT’S LOYALTY TO DAISY.
The attack at Belladonna had been a test.
Someone wanted to see whether I instinctively protected Sophie.
If the child did not trigger recognition, another girl existed to replace her.
A small television activated behind us.
Gabriel Kane appeared on the screen.
He stood inside a bright room beside a blonde child whose face remained turned away.
“Vincent,” he said, “your father built an empire that did not depend on blood.”
The little girl turned.
She looked exactly like Sophie.
Then Gabriel placed a crushed yellow flower in her hand.
May you like
“She has been waiting to meet her father.”
Continue to the next part: Vincent learns that another child raised in secret carries Sophie’s face and has been taught that he is her father.
