Chapter 10 - Anna’s ChildDaniel did not strike Owen.
He wanted to.
Instead, he asked one question.
“Did Anna know?”
Owen looked toward the floor.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than theft.
Anna discovered that the clinic used her eggs to create an embryo with Owen’s genetic material as part of the Bellmere evidence project.
She never consented to the fertilization.
Once she found the embryo, she refused to destroy it because she believed it could prove the clinic’s crimes.
“She wanted it preserved as evidence,” Owen said.
“She wanted a child used as evidence?” Daniel demanded.
“She believed the embryo already existed and deserved protection.”
“Did she intend to raise the baby?”
“She didn’t know.”
Daniel turned away.
Anna had been forced into an impossible decision created by other people. Owen’s explanation did not tell him what she would have chosen freely.
Owen claimed he and Anna worked together only as investigators. The clinic selected his sample because his father descended from one of the trust’s founding families.
He did not know the embryo had been created until Anna found the record.
The council later moved it into Nora’s transfer batch.
“Why put your biological child inside your wife?” Vanessa asked.
“I tried to replace the embryo before implantation.”
“With what?”
“One created from Nora and me.”
Nora stared.
“You had an embryo with my DNA?”
“Yes.”
“Did I consent?”
“No.”
The room became silent.
Owen insisted he wanted Nora to carry at least one child genetically connected to both of them.
He called it correction.
Nora called it another violation.
“You decided what would hurt me less,” she said. “You never decided to tell me the truth.”
Owen accepted the accusation.
He opened Margaret’s case.
Fetus A was created from Nora’s preserved egg and Michael Hale’s sample.
Fetus B was created from Anna Reed’s egg and Owen’s sample.
Fetus C was created from Daniel’s sample and the unknown Bell-2 donor.
Three embryos.
Three unrelated bloodlines.
All transferred together.
The identities supported the Three Heirs Trust.
But Owen claimed the trust itself was a trap.
Permanent control would not pass to the children.
It would pass to their court-appointed collective guardian.
That was why Vanessa needed all three.
That was why the council needed all three.
That was why Margaret hid the transfer inside Nora’s IVF cycle.
“She trusted me to carry them?” Nora asked.
“She trusted you to resist anyone who tried to divide them.”
“She never asked me.”
“No.”
No one had asked.
The pattern continued beneath every supposed protection.
Dr. Warren ordered new comparison tests for Fetus B using Anna’s preserved medical sample and Owen’s fresh sample.
Before results returned, hospital legal counsel delivered an emergency order.
The Three Heirs Council had petitioned for fetal protective custody.
The order requested that after delivery, each infant be transferred to a separate specialized facility pending identity review.
Owen’s warning became immediate.
“If they separate them, the council can produce three different reports and create whatever heirs it wants.”
Detective Collins challenged the order.
The issuing judge was Celia Voss.
Her mother had managed Bellmere’s old maternity center.
The court refused to delay.
Dr. Warren locked Nora’s chart and declared that no infant would move while medically unstable.
The council responded by revoking the hospital’s participation in the Hawthorne insurance network.
Administrators began pressuring Warren.
Daniel opened Anna’s evidence file.
Inside was a list of children removed through similar fetal-protection orders.
Seventeen births.
Seventeen mothers declared unstable.
The newest entry was already prepared.
NORA HALE—THREE LIVE DELIVERIES EXPECTED.
Time of delivery:
4:30 a.m.
Nora checked the clock.
It was 3:52.
The council had scheduled the birth before her labor began.
May you like
Then her water broke.
👉 The council predicted Nora’s delivery in advance, proving someone intended to force the triplets’ birth on a controlled schedule.
