Chapter 3 - THE EMBRYO ELIJAH SAID WAS DESTROYEDElijah asked to speak with Naomi alone.
She refused.
“Whatever you have hidden concerns Toby. His mother stays.”
Cassandra laughed bitterly.
“Which mother?”
The words struck harder than anyone expected.
Elijah sat beneath the trauma room’s security camera while Detective Cole stood by the curtain. Toby slept behind them under continuous monitoring.
After Micah’s death, Naomi and Elijah had three frozen embryos remaining at the fertility center connected to Mercer Biodynamics.
Naomi signed a withdrawal form demanding that none be used without her written consent.
Elijah told her all three were destroyed.
“That was a lie,” Naomi said.
“Yes.”
Her face went still.
Elijah explained that his father, company founder Thomas Mercer, argued that the embryos contained the only genetic material capable of explaining Micah’s death. He pressured Elijah to preserve them for research.
“One embryo was transferred,” Elijah said.
“To whom?”
Elijah looked at Cassandra.
She backed against the wall.
“I was told it came from an anonymous donor.”
Naomi’s breath caught.
“You carried my embryo.”
Cassandra shook her head violently.
“No. They told me the egg was mine.”
“You never underwent retrieval.”
“They said the procedure had been completed during another surgery.”
Naomi stared at her.
Even Cassandra’s deception had been built on another deception.
Elijah continued.
He believed Cassandra knew the embryo belonged to Naomi. Cassandra believed she and Elijah were Toby’s biological parents. Both signed documents prepared by Mercer’s private reproductive clinic.
“Did you know Toby was genetically mine?” Naomi asked Elijah.
“I knew the embryo came from our treatment cycle.”
“And you raised him without telling me.”
“I believed you would try to take him.”
“He was created from my body without consent.”
“I know.”
“You knew for four years.”
“Yes.”
Naomi looked toward the bed where Toby’s small hand rested beside the IV tubing.
She had spent eight years mourning one child while another biological son grew twenty minutes away.
Yet Toby knew Cassandra’s voice, Cassandra’s touch, Cassandra’s bedtime routines.
Biology did not erase the mother who had carried and raised him.
It did not erase what had been stolen from Naomi either.
Cassandra sat heavily.
“You let me believe he was mine.”
Elijah’s voice broke.
“He is yours.”
“Not the way you promised.”
“No.”
Dr. Vane entered with hospital counsel.
“This conversation must stop. Dr. Brooks cannot continue treating a child with whom she has a biological relationship.”
Naomi looked at him.
“How did you know the relationship was biological before the full genetic panel finished?”
Vane did not answer quickly enough.
Detective Cole stepped closer.
“You were aware of the embryo transfer?”
“I supervised the neonatal component of a private fertility program.”
Naomi recognized the wording.
“You supervised Toby’s birth.”
Vane’s silence confirmed it.
Cassandra stood.
“You were the doctor who brought him into the delivery room.”
“Yes.”
“You said he was premature.”
“He required observation.”
“You kept him for nine days.”
“For stabilization.”
Naomi checked Toby’s old records. The official chart showed jaundice and respiratory weakness.
The hidden Mercer file showed something else.
At birth, Toby had received repeated infusions of immune cells harvested from stored fetal tissue connected to Micah.
ARX-417 had been introduced into his cord blood before Cassandra ever held him.
The experiment did not begin six weeks ago.
It began at birth.
Toby was not being treated for an inherited condition.
He was being maintained as a living continuation of Project ARX.
Naomi turned toward Vane.
“You used Micah’s cells in him.”
Vane’s face remained composed.
“The transfer may have prevented the same fatal response.”
“You do not know that.”
“It may also explain why he survived tonight.”
“You created the danger and now claim credit for his survival.”
Vane ordered hospital security to remove Naomi.
Before they moved, the laboratory corridor alarm sounded.
Someone had entered the toxicology storage room using Vane’s master credential.
The sealed bottle and Toby’s backup blood samples were missing.
Security footage showed a woman in a white laboratory coat leaving through the staff elevator.
The camera captured her face.
Fiona Mercer.
May you like
Elijah’s sister had entered the hospital despite claiming she was calling from the company laboratory.
👉 Fiona appeared to have stolen the evidence, but the woman on camera moved as though she wanted the hospital to see her.
