Chapter 4 - CONFRONTING THE MONSTER
The rain had intensified into a howling gale by the time our SUV pulled into an abandoned warehouse on the dark side of the city docks. Waves slammed viciously against the rusted pilings below.
Inside the warehouse, a single spotlight illuminated the center of the concrete floor. Bound tightly to a heavy metal chair was Dr. Richard Vance.
His expensive doctor's suit was rumpled and dirt-stained. His silver hair was disheveled, and his face was slick with terrified sweat. Two of Damian's guards stood over him like stoic statues.
The heavy metal door groaned open as Damian and I walked inside. My shoes clicked sharply against the cold concrete.
When Dr. Vance looked up and saw Damian Marchetti, he began to sob hysterically. "Damian! Please! Please, I swear I didn't know! It was an emergency protocol! Mrs. Marchetti offered me millions! She said the surrogate had signed away her rights!"
"Liar!" I screamed, stepping out from behind Damian's shadow.
Dr. Vance’s eyes widened in utter, paralyzing horror. The color completely drained from his face as if he were looking at a ghost returned from the grave.
"M-Maya...?" Vance gasped, his voice squeaking in terror. "You... you're dead... they told me you left the country..."
"You told me my babies died!" I shouted, tears of pure rage springing to my eyes as I marched right up to him, stopping inches from his trembling face. "You stood at the foot of my bed, looked me in the eyes while I was bleeding and crying, and told me my three little angels were stillborn! You handed me fake death certificates!"
"I didn't have a choice!" Vance sobbed, shaking his bound wrists against the metal chair. "The Marchetti syndicate—they threatened my family! Your late wife, Elena, threatened to destroy my medical license if I didn't deliver three healthy infants! You were a poor nursing student with no family, no money, no influence! Nobody was supposed to care!"
"NOBODY WAS SUPPOSED TO CARE?!" I roared, slapping him across the face with every ounce of strength in my body.
The loud crack echoed off the high warehouse ceilings. Vance’s head snapped sideways, blood trickling from his split lip.
"I died that day!" I screamed into his face, my body shaking with furious energy. "I spent fourteen months wishing I was buried in the ground with them! And you bought a new yacht with the money you made selling my blood and flesh!"
Damian stepped forward slowly, placing a heavy, warm hand on my shoulder. His gentle touch was the only thing keeping me from tearing Vance apart with my bare hands.
"Step back, Maya," Damian whispered softly to me. "Let me speak to the doctor."
I stepped back, breathing heavily, my hands clenched into tight fists.
Damian leaned down, resting his hands on the arms of Vance’s chair, trapping the doctor in his terrifying personal space.
"Richard," Damian said, his voice terrifyingly calm, like a calm sea before a tsunami. "My wife is dead. She cannot answer for her sins. But you are alive. And you are going to tell me every single detail about the network that facilitated this."
"I can't!" Vance wept, panic making his eyes roll back. "If I talk... the board members of Saint Jude's... the cartel partners in South America who manage the private adoption routes... they will kill my wife! They will kill my children!"
Damian pulled a silver-plated hand gun from his shoulder holster, racking the slide with a loud, metallic CLACK. He placed the cold barrel directly against Dr. Vance’s forehead.
"You have two choices, Richard," Damian murmured, his dark eyes showing zero emotion. "Option one: you refuse to speak, and I pull this trigger right now. Option two: you give me every name, every paper, every account number, and I put you in a federal protective custody cell where you will spend the rest of your pathetic life eating prison food."
Vance squeezed his eyes shut, hyperventilating as the cold steel pressed into his skin. "Okay! OKAY! I'LL TALK! I'LL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING! I HAVE A FLASH DRIVE! IN MY SAFE AT THE CLINIC! IT HAS THE COMPLETE LEDGER OF ALL FAKE STILLBIRTH RECORDS FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS!"
My stomach churned violently. Five years. I wasn't the only mother they did this to.
Suddenly, Damian’s encrypted phone vibrated in his pocket.
Damian didn't lower the gun. He reached into his pocket, answered the phone, and placed it on speaker.
"Speak, Aris," Damian ordered.
Dr. Aris Thorne’s voice came clearly through the speaker, crisp and loud over the sound of rain outside.
"Damian, the DNA sequencing is complete," Dr. Thorne reported. "The results are one hundred percent conclusive."
I held my breath, my heart pounding in my ears.
"Maya Lin is the biological mother of all three toddlers—Bella, Leo, and Lucas," Dr. Thorne stated. "And Damian... the second match was shocking. Elena didn't just buy random infants. The paternal DNA markers match YOUR family line. The biological father of those triplets is your late younger brother, Julian Marchetti, before he passed away two years ago. Elena used his preserved genetic material without your knowledge."
Silence crashed over the warehouse.
Damian lowered the gun slowly, his face frozen in utter shock.
The triplets weren't just my babies. They were Damian's niece and nephews—his late brother’s last surviving bloodline. The children he had raised as his own for a year were biologically tied to both of us.
May you like
Damian looked up at me, his dark eyes filled with a terrifying, breathtaking realization.
Before anyone could speak, the warehouse doors were suddenly blown inward with a deafening EXPLOSION.
