Chapter 9 - why the Moore family was chosen
Dr. Hale finally answered the question Julia had been asking since the ER.
Why their family?
The answer began in her old fertility records.
During IVF treatment, Julia had participated in a routine genetic-screening panel. One result had been marked “research-interest variant.”
She had never noticed it.
Dr. Hale brought in Dr. Rebecca Sloan, a medical geneticist unaffiliated with Riverton.
“This marker relates to immune tolerance,” Sloan explained. “It doesn’t mean disease. But years ago, researchers were interested in whether close genetic relatives might have unusual compatibility during transplantation.”
Julia looked toward Clara.
“You’re saying someone thought she would tolerate an embryo from the same parents?”
“That appears to be the hypothesis.”
“An experiment.”
“Yes.”
“On my daughter.”
“Yes.”
Julia’s voice shook.
“And the embryo inside Clara survived because it’s genetically her sibling.”
“That may be part of the reason.”
The idea explained the term Project Kinship.
It also explained why M-02 had been preserved.
Clara had not been randomly selected five months earlier.
She had been selected before birth as a future potential host.
Peter discovered enough to understand that.
Then he died.
Detective Brooks obtained the corporate records behind Project Kinship.
Malcolm Voss founded it.
Raymond Voss performed unlicensed procedures.
But the financial structure belonged to Lydia Crane.
She had raised millions from private investors under the promise of developing “familial gestational compatibility.”
The language was intentionally vague.
Julia stared at the investor presentation.
“They made slides about this.”
Brooks nodded.
“They made money from it.”
“Where is Lydia now?”
“Missing.”
Her home was empty.
Her office had been cleared.
Lucy Crane had not attended school that morning.
Megan Foster was also missing from Rosewood.
Two girls.
One woman.
Brooks believed Lydia had taken both.
Julia immediately thought of M-03.
“If Lucy is my child…”
“We still need DNA.”
“She has Peter’s face.”
“I know.”
“Then find her.”
“We are.”
A breakthrough came from the mechanic who had sabotaged Peter’s car.
He remembered Lydia mentioning a private property outside Charlottesville.
State investigators traced it to a shell corporation that also owned Rosewood.
Brooks assembled a team.
Before leaving, she visited Clara.
“I want you to know we’re looking for Megan and Lucy.”
Clara nodded.
“If Lucy is my sister…”
Brooks waited.
“Will Mom still be my mom?”
Julia heard the question from the doorway.
She walked in.
“Come here.”
Clara began crying before Julia reached the bed.
“You are my daughter. Nothing anyone stole changes that.”
“But if Lucy came from your embryo—”
“Then she may also be my daughter.”
Clara looked frightened.
“Will you love her more because they stole her?”
Julia’s heart broke.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because love isn’t a pie.”
Clara gave a tiny, tearful laugh.
“You always say that about friends.”
“It works for daughters too.”
Dr. Hale entered with new imaging results.
His face was serious.
Clara’s pregnancy remained stable for the moment, but the abnormal implantation history increased medical risks.
“We need to continue very close monitoring.”
Clara looked tired.
“Can I go home?”
“Not yet.”
Julia squeezed her hand.
“We’re staying.”
That afternoon, Brooks’s team entered Lydia’s rural property.
The farmhouse appeared abandoned.
Inside, they found no Lydia.
No Megan.
No Lucy.
But the basement contained medical refrigeration units.
Empty.
On one wall hung a map of Virginia schools.
Dozens were marked.
Brooks photographed everything.
Then an investigator found a recording device.
It contained a message from Lydia.
“Detective Brooks, if you’re hearing this, Julia has probably found Peter’s archive.”
Brooks’s jaw tightened.
Lydia continued.
“Peter misunderstood Kinship. He thought we were trying to create a market for gestational hosts.”
A pause.
“We were trying to solve a different problem.”
The recording ended there.
A second file required a code.
Brooks contacted Julia.
“Do you know anything Peter used repeatedly as a number?”
Julia thought.
Their wedding date?
Clara’s birthday?
Then she remembered the M-03 movement year.
Twelve years.
She provided Lucy’s likely birth month based on the storage transfer.
The file unlocked.
Lydia appeared on screen again.
“This program exists because one child was born who should not have survived.”
Brooks watched.
“The first Kinship child.”
A photograph appeared.
It was not Clara.
It was not Lucy.
It was a boy.
Approximately fifteen years old.
The name beneath his photograph:
BENJAMIN VOSS.
Dr. Hale later checked the name.
Malcolm Voss had never publicly acknowledged having a child.
But an old hospital birth record existed.
Mother:
Lydia Crane.
Father:
Malcolm Voss.
Julia stared at the file.
Lydia had not begun Kinship for investors.
May you like
She had begun it with her own son.
👉 The investigation uncovered the original Kinship child—Lydia Crane’s secret son—suggesting Clara’s pregnancy was part of a much older experiment.
