Chapter 8 - Sofia's Confession
Locker 318 contained a red leather bag.
Nothing else.
Damian carried it himself.
They returned to the estate just before sunset.
Noelle went straight to the nursery.
She needed to see the children before opening whatever Sofia had left behind.
Emilia was standing inside her crib, gripping the rail.
The moment Noelle entered, she shouted.
"Mama!"
Matteo joined her.
Luca laughed.
Noelle cried again.
She was beginning to hate how easily tears came now.
Then she stopped hating it.
For fourteen months she had trained herself not to cry because crying changed nothing.
Now tears meant something had changed.
She lifted Emilia.
Then Matteo.
Then Luca demanded equal treatment.
Her arms weren't big enough.
Damian appeared behind her.
Without speaking, he lifted Luca.
For a moment they stood together.
Noelle with two children.
Damian with one.
All three babies babbling.
It looked almost normal.
That was dangerous.
Noelle reminded herself of everything between them.
A stolen pregnancy.
A dead wife.
A criminal empire.
Six other children.
A conspiracy.
Nothing about this was normal.
"Ready?"
Damian asked.
"No."
"Me neither."
They went downstairs anyway.
The red bag contained three flash drives.
A notebook.
Two burner phones.
And a sealed envelope.
DAMIAN.
His name was written across it in a woman's handwriting.
He stared at the envelope for nearly a minute.
Noelle sat opposite him.
"You can open it alone."
He shook his head.
"If this concerns you, you should hear it."
"What if it doesn't?"
"It will."
He broke the seal.
Inside was a letter.
Damian read silently.
His expression changed line by line.
Finally Noelle said.
"Read it."
He looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
He began.
"Damian."
"If you're reading this, I failed."
His voice became rough.
Noelle watched his hands.
"I have lied to you about the children."
Damian paused.
Then continued.
"They are yours."
"I used embryos created from your stored samples without your knowledge."
"I told myself I was preserving something we had already tried to create together."
"I told myself you would forgive me when you held them."
"I told myself many things because the truth made me a person I could not bear to see."
Damian stopped.
Noelle's throat tightened.
He continued.
"Their mother is named Noelle Bishop."
Noelle closed her eyes.
"I chose her."
"I saw her photograph."
"I read her file."
"I knew she had lost her mother."
"I knew her partner worked out of town."
"I knew she was struggling financially."
"I knew she did not consent."
Noelle's nails dug into her palm.
Damian's voice cracked.
"I knew."
He stopped.
Noelle looked at him.
"Keep going."
He swallowed.
"Hale promised no harm would come to her."
"He said Crane would create a medical reason for the implantation and that, after delivery, Noelle would be compensated and told the babies had not survived."
Noelle's chair scraped backward.
"Compensated?"
Damian stared at the page.
Noelle laughed.
It sounded ugly.
"They were going to pay me for dead children?"
Damian's face tightened.
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"I want every word."
He continued.
"But on April seventeenth, I saw her."
Noelle went still.
"I saw Noelle through the glass after she woke."
"I heard her scream."
"I watched nurses hold her down while she begged for her babies."
"I understood then that Hale had lied to me about what this would be."
Noelle's eyes burned.
"I had not borrowed something."
"I had stolen human beings."
Damian lowered the letter.
His eyes were wet.
Noelle stared at him.
"Keep reading."
"I wanted to stop the placement."
"Victor told me it was too late."
"He said Noelle was legally dead."
"He said exposing the truth would destroy you, me, the children, and everyone involved."
"He threatened to have Noelle actually killed if I tried."
Noelle felt cold.
"So I took the babies."
Damian whispered the sentence.
"I took them home."
"I named them."
"I loved them."
"And every day I loved them more, I became more afraid of losing them."
Noelle covered her mouth.
The letter continued.
"I became the very thing I hated."
"A person who allowed fear to become permission."
Damian paused.
"I am sorry."
"Noelle may never read this."
"If she does, I have no right to ask forgiveness."
"But she deserves the truth."
"The babies are hers before they are mine."
Noelle looked away.
"And Damian."
"If you ever discover this, do not punish her for what I did."
"Do not use your name."
"Do not use your money."
"Do not use the law."
"Give her back what we stole."
Damian could barely finish.
"If she lets you remain their father, spend the rest of your life deserving it."
Silence filled the room.
Noelle looked at the letter.
She wanted to hate Sofia.
Part of her did.
Another part imagined a desperate woman standing behind glass, seeing the mother she had reduced to a file become a real human being.
Regret did not erase the crime.
But it mattered.
"There's more."
Damian's voice was faint.
He turned the page.
"Victor is running something larger than the children."
"He calls it Continuance."
"Crane has records."
"Samuel Bell has names."
"If I die, assume Victor knows I was gathering evidence."
"I stored copies in the drives."
"Take them to someone outside our world."
"Someone you cannot buy."
Damian almost smiled bitterly.
"Sofia knew me."
Noelle looked at the flash drives.
"What's on them?"
Reyes brought in an offline laptop.
The first drive contained documents.
Payments.
Medical records.
Patient lists.
The second contained video.
Sofia herself appeared on-screen.
She looked younger than Noelle expected.
Beautiful.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
"My name is Sofia Marchetti."
She stared into the camera.
"If this recording is being watched, there is a good chance I am dead."
Damian stopped breathing.
Noelle looked at him.
He didn't blink.
Sofia explained Project Legacy.
Names.
Dates.
Hale.
Crane.
Bell.
Private clinics.
Wealthy families.
Illegal embryo transfers.
Fraudulent deaths.
Adoptions.
Noelle felt sicker with every minute.
Then Sofia said something new.
"Victor keeps a master list."
Damian leaned closer.
"It contains every child."
"Every donor."
"Every carrier."
"Every buyer."
"Where?"
Noelle whispered.
Sofia continued.
"I don't know where he stores the current version."
"But the access key is based on the date Carlo Marchetti founded the Marchetti Foundation."
Damian's face changed.
He knew the date.
Reyes wrote it down.
Then Sofia looked directly into the camera.
"Damian."
"If you're watching this, I need you to know something else."
A tear slid down her face.
"I loved you."
"But love did not make me good."
Noelle looked at Damian.
His expression broke.
"I thought wanting a child badly enough made my choices understandable."
"It didn't."
"I harmed a woman I had never met because I believed my grief mattered more than her life."
Noelle's breath caught.
"Don't make the same mistake with vengeance."
Damian looked away.
Sofia continued.
"Find Noelle if she's alive."
"Tell her."
"Then let her decide what happens next."
The video ended.
Noelle stared at the black screen.
No one spoke.
Finally Damian stood.
He walked to the window.
His shoulders were rigid.
Noelle joined him.
"You loved her."
"Yes."
"You hate her."
He swallowed.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"Both can be true."
He looked at Noelle.
She realized she was repeating what she had needed someone to tell her earlier.
What happened to her pregnancy was monstrous.
Her children were still beloved.
Sofia's choices were monstrous.
Damian had still loved her.
Human beings were cruel enough to contain contradictions.
Noelle touched the window glass.
"What do we do?"
Damian looked at her.
"We give the evidence to federal investigators."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I thought people like you avoided federal investigators."
"I do."
"Comforting."
"But Sofia was right."
He looked at the flash drives.
"This can't stay in my world."
Noelle nodded.
Then Reyes entered.
"Problem."
Damian sighed.
"Of course."
"Victor Hale called."
Noelle turned.
"What?"
"He wants to talk."
Damian's eyes narrowed.
"Trace?"
"Trying."
"What does he want?"
Reyes looked at Noelle.
"Her."
Damian's expression became terrifying.
Noelle felt her pulse jump.
"Why?"
Reyes held out the burner phone.
A message displayed across the screen.
BRING NOELLE BISHOP TO ST. CATHERINE'S TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT.
COME ALONE.
OR THE OTHER SIX CHILDREN DISAPPEAR FOREVER.
Noelle stared.
Damian read it twice.
"The other six."
"He has them?"
Reyes shook his head.
"Unknown."
Noelle felt sick.
Children she had never met.
Children who had been created by the same machine.
Damian's biological children.
His responsibility now whether he liked it or not.
Noelle looked at him.
"I'm going."
"No."
"That didn't take long."
"You're not bait."
"Neither are six kids."
"We don't know if he has them."
"And if he does?"
Damian didn't answer.
Noelle stepped closer.
"You said what you do now matters."
His eyes hardened.
"It does."
"Then we don't abandon them."
"Noelle."
"What if one of them has a mother who spent nine years believing her baby died?"
He flinched.
"What if someone is waiting for the phone call I got tonight?"
She pointed toward the nursery upstairs.
"I would walk into hell for those three."
Damian's jaw tightened.
Noelle met his gaze.
"So would you."
A long silence.
Then he nodded once.
"Fine."
Reyes stared.
"Boss—"
"We go."
Damian looked at Noelle.
"But we don't go alone."
Noelle frowned.
"Hale specifically said—"
Damian's smile returned.
May you like
The dangerous one.
"He also thinks I'm stupid enough to follow instructions."
