Chapter 7 - The Other Children
Damian didn't move.
Noelle could see the sentence hitting him again and again.
Not the first children.
She looked at Dr. Bell.
"How many?"
Bell's eyes lowered.
"That depends on what you mean."
Damian crossed the room so quickly two of his own men reacted.
He grabbed Bell by the front of his coat.
"How many children?"
Bell's oxygen tube slipped.
He gasped.
Noelle rushed forward.
"Damian."
He didn't release him.
"How many?"
"Seven pregnancies."
Bell choked.
Noelle grabbed Damian's wrist.
"Let him breathe."
Damian stared at Bell.
Then released him.
The old doctor collapsed against the cabinet.
Reyes replaced the oxygen tube.
Bell coughed violently.
Noelle's stomach rolled.
Seven pregnancies.
"How many births?"
she asked.
Bell looked at her.
"Five."
Damian went silent.
"Children?"
"Nine."
Noelle closed her eyes.
The triplets.
Plus six.
Somewhere.
"Where are they?"
Damian asked.
"I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
"I truly don't."
Bell sat on the edge of a metal chair.
"Project Legacy changed."
"Explain."
Bell looked tired.
"Carlo Marchetti created the original program."
Damian's hands curled into fists.
"He feared enemies would wipe out your family."
Bell continued.
"His original intent was crude but simple."
"Preserve reproductive material."
"Use surrogacy if you died without heirs."
Damian's voice was ice.
"Without my consent."
"Your father didn't consider consent important."
"That sounds like him."
"But after Carlo died, Victor Hale kept the program alive."
Noelle felt sick.
"Why?"
"Money."
Bell's smile was bitter.
"Control."
"Leverage."
"Powerful families paid."
Damian stared.
"They sold children?"
"Sometimes embryos."
"Sometimes genetic material."
"Sometimes guaranteed heirs."
Noelle's skin crawled.
"Guaranteed?"
Bell looked at her.
"Selected donors."
"Selected carriers."
"Medical screening."
"Traits."
"Family history."
"You mean eugenics."
Bell did not deny it.
Noelle wanted to vomit.
"And women like me?"
Bell's shame deepened.
"Some consented."
"Some were paid."
"Some—"
"Didn't know."
He nodded.
Damian turned away as if afraid of what his hands might do.
Noelle asked the question she dreaded.
"Was my pregnancy planned before I became pregnant?"
Bell looked at her.
"Yes."
She shut her eyes.
The room vanished.
Her first positive test.
The shock.
The fear.
Caleb crying with happiness.
He had kissed her stomach before there was anything to feel.
He had believed the children were his.
Noelle opened her eyes.
"Caleb."
Bell frowned.
"My boyfriend."
Her voice trembled.
"The man I thought was their father."
Bell looked confused.
"You were sexually active?"
Noelle's face burned with fury.
"What kind of question is that?"
Bell's expression changed.
He understood.
"You weren't supposed to be."
Silence.
Noelle stared.
"What?"
"The carrier candidates chosen for non-consensual implantation were selected during documented periods of sexual inactivity."
"I wasn't."
Bell looked genuinely disturbed.
"Then Crane falsified the screening."
Noelle remembered.
Caleb had traveled for construction work.
Three weeks away.
Then one weekend home.
She had conceived, or thought she had.
Dr. Crane had told her the dates matched.
"They implanted embryos in me?"
Bell nodded slowly.
"Likely during a procedure."
"What procedure?"
Noelle's mind raced.
Dental surgery?
Emergency visit?
Then she remembered.
"A biopsy."
Damian turned.
"What?"
Noelle touched her lower abdomen.
"Crane said I had an abnormal ovarian cyst."
Her voice hollowed.
"She scheduled a minor outpatient procedure."
Bell closed his eyes.
"That would be it."
Noelle's knees weakened.
Damian caught her.
This time she didn't pull away.
She leaned against him for one second.
Then pushed herself upright.
"Caleb died believing those children were his."
Her voice cracked.
Damian looked devastated for her.
Noelle wiped her tears angrily.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like you're sorry."
"I am."
"Sorry doesn't fix him being lied to."
"No."
"It doesn't fix me loving a pregnancy someone forced into my body."
"No."
"It doesn't fix the fact that I still love them."
Her voice broke.
"I love them more now."
Damian's expression softened.
Noelle covered her face.
"How can both things be true?"
Bell answered quietly.
"Because what was done to you is not the same as who they are."
Noelle lowered her hands.
She stared at him.
He looked ashamed enough to disappear.
"How long were you part of it?"
"Nine years."
"Did you steal babies?"
"I processed samples."
"Did you know?"
"Eventually."
"Eventually?"
Noelle's voice rose.
"How many women does eventually cost?"
Bell flinched.
Damian said nothing.
Noelle stepped closer.
"Why are you helping us now?"
Bell looked toward the stairwell.
"Because I'm dying."
"Convenient."
"Yes."
At least he admitted it.
"And because Evelyn Crane is cleaning the program."
Damian looked over.
"Cleaning?"
"Destroying records."
"Killing witnesses."
Noelle remembered the pilot.
Pritchard.
The shooter.
"Victor Hale?"
Bell gave a faint smile.
"Victor thinks he's running with her."
"He isn't?"
"Evelyn doesn't leave loose ends."
Damian looked at Reyes.
"Find Hale first."
Bell coughed.
"You won't."
"Why?"
"Because she needs him."
"For what?"
Bell's eyes moved to Noelle.
"For the triplets."
Noelle stiffened.
"Why?"
Bell hesitated.
"Because they were the successful set."
"Successful how?"
Bell looked at Damian.
"Carlo wasn't only preserving your bloodline."
He swallowed.
"He wanted specific markers."
Damian's face darkened.
"I'm not special."
Bell gave him a tired look.
"Medically, no."
Noelle almost laughed despite herself.
Bell continued.
"But your father believed the Marchetti family carried unusually high resilience under stress."
Damian stared at him.
"That's the stupidest thing I've heard tonight."
"It is."
Bell nodded.
"But wealthy men can fund stupid beliefs until they become dangerous science."
Noelle looked at the folders.
"So Crane kept experimenting."
"Yes."
"On children?"
"Before implantation."
Noelle's stomach turned.
"Genetic editing?"
Bell shook his head.
"Selection."
"Embryo screening."
"Nothing beyond what fertility labs can technically do, but used for monstrous reasons."
Damian paced once.
"Why are these three important?"
"Because they are the first triplet set from your line with all targeted markers intact."
Noelle stared.
"They're babies."
"I know."
"Not samples."
"I know."
"Not evidence."
"I know."
"Children."
Bell's eyes filled.
"I know."
Noelle hated him for saying it too late.
Reyes moved from the far cabinet.
"Found something."
He spread several files across a metal table.
Photographs of children.
Different ages.
Two girls.
Four boys.
Dates.
Locations.
Adoptive families.
Damian stood rigid.
His biological children.
Six strangers.
The oldest looked nine.
Damian touched the edge of one photograph but not the image itself.
Noelle watched him.
"What will you do?"
He didn't answer.
"Damian."
"I don't know."
The admission sounded painful.
"You don't have to decide tonight."
"They exist because my father decided my blood mattered more than their mothers."
"That isn't your fault."
He looked at her.
"Maybe not."
Then he looked down again.
"But what I do now is."
That was when Noelle began trusting him.
Not because he was powerful.
Because he understood power could create obligations.
Bell coughed again.
Harder.
Blood appeared on his handkerchief.
Reyes stepped closer.
"Doctor?"
Bell waved him off.
"There's one more thing."
Damian looked at him.
"Sofia."
Damian's face shut down.
Bell continued.
"She didn't begin as part of the program."
Noelle listened.
"Hale told her about the stored embryos after years of failed fertility treatment."
Bell breathed carefully.
"She refused at first."
Damian's eyes hardened.
"Then?"
"Hale showed her carrier files."
Noelle's skin prickled.
"Mine."
"Yes."
"Sofia selected me?"
Bell looked away.
"Yes."
Damian closed his eyes.
It was almost worse than the first discovery.
His wife had looked at photographs of women and chosen Noelle.
"Why?"
Noelle whispered.
Bell looked at her.
"Because you looked like her sister."
Noelle frowned.
"What?"
"Her younger sister died at twenty-three."
Damian's eyes opened.
"Elena."
Bell nodded.
"Dark hair."
"Hazel eyes."
"Similar facial structure."
Noelle felt sick in a new way.
Sofia hadn't chosen a stranger.
She had chosen a replacement for someone dead.
Bell continued.
"After the implantation worked, Sofia became unstable."
Damian's mouth tightened.
"She wanted the babies immediately."
"Before birth?"
"Yes."
"Hale and Crane promised they would arrange a legal transfer."
Noelle laughed bitterly.
"By killing me on paper."
Bell nodded.
"But something changed after the birth."
Damian stepped closer.
"What?"
"Sofia saw you."
Noelle frowned.
"Me?"
"At the hospital."
Noelle searched her memory.
"I never saw her."
"She saw you."
Bell's voice softened.
"Through the nursery observation room."
"She watched you wake up."
"She heard you screaming for your children."
Noelle couldn't breathe.
Bell looked at Damian.
"That was the beginning of the end."
"She wanted to give them back?"
Damian asked.
"Eventually."
Silence.
"She fought Hale."
Bell continued.
"She started collecting evidence."
"She planned to tell you everything."
Damian looked down at the planner.
"Why didn't she?"
Bell's expression answered before his words.
"Because Victor found out."
Damian's face became stone.
"You said her death wasn't random."
Bell nodded.
"Victor ordered the bomb."
Damian took one step backward.
For eight months he had probably imagined enemies.
Rivals.
Revenge.
War.
But his wife had died because she had finally tried to undo what she had done.
Noelle didn't forgive Sofia.
Not then.
Maybe never.
But the shape of her hatred shifted.
Bell reached into his coat.
Reyes immediately raised his weapon.
Bell slowly removed a small brass key.
He held it toward Damian.
"Union Station."
"Locker 318."
"What's inside?"
Bell's hand trembled.
"What Sofia died trying to protect."
Damian took the key.
May you like
Bell whispered.
"Everything."
