Chapter 2
The back of Luka’s black armored SUV was lined with butter-soft leather and smelled faintly of expensive cologne and ozone. I sat wedged in the corner, clutching Maya as the city lights blurred into long streams of neon outside the tinted windows.
Luka sat across from me, his long legs crossed, a tablet resting on his lap. Beside him sat a sleek black leather briefcases locked with a biometric scanner.
"Where are you taking us?" I asked, my voice cracking from exhaustion. "I don't have clothes. I don't have formula. I don't even have my ID—Mark took my wallet."
"Everything you and the baby need is already at the house," Luka said without looking up from his screen. "Clothes, nursery supplies, specialized pediatric formula, and a medical team waiting to examine Maya."
"Why?" I demanded, my fear giving way to a sudden, desperate anger. "You don't know me! You signed your name on my daughter's birth certificate like you own us! Why are you doing this, Luka? What is file M-17?!"
Luka slowly closed his tablet and set it aside. He shifted forward, resting his elbows on his knees, bringing his face into the amber glow of the interior lighting. Up close, I could see a faint, jagged scar running through his left eyebrow, cutting straight through a tiny cluster of black ink.
"Eighteen years ago, your father saved my life," Luka said softly. "I was ten years old. My uncle tried to poison my father to take control of Moretti Bio-Tech. Arthur was the lead biochemist. He realized what was happening, synthesized the antidote in secret, and hid me in his laboratory for three days until the threat was eliminated."
I blinked, my mind reeling. "My dad... did that?"
"Arthur was a hero," Luka said, his eyes filled with a raw, undeniable sincerity. "He gave me a second chance at life. And before he was killed two years ago, he sent me an encrypted message. He knew his time was short. He told me that if anything ever happened to him, I had to protect his daughter."
Luka tapped the briefcase beside him.
"File M-17 isn't just research, Clara. It's a patent worth four billion dollars—a revolutionary gene therapy that cures congenital heart defects in infants. Arthur developed it, but he registered it under your name and your unborn child's genetic code."
My jaw dropped. "What?"
"When Mark married you three years ago, he didn't marry you because he loved you," Luka revealed, his voice dropping into a dangerous hush. "He was hired by my uncle’s faction to spy on you. Mark discovered that Arthur had locked the patent behind a DNA trigger. The only way to unlock file M-17... is through the blood of Arthur’s direct bloodline."
A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. "Maya..."
"Precisely," Luka said grimly. "Mark realized you were pregnant six months ago. He waited until she was born to steal her umbilical blood sample. He thought he could use her DNA to claim the four-billion-dollar patent for himself and his mistress."
Just then, Luka’s phone buzzed sharply on the leather seat between us. He picked it up, glancing at the caller ID. A dark, vicious smile spread across his lips.
He pressed speakerphone and held it out.
"Where is she?!" Mark’s voice screamed through the speakers, wild and hysterical. "Luka! I know you were at the hospital! What did you do with Clara and the kid?!"
Luka leaned back into his seat, his gray eyes locked onto mine. "They are with me, Mark. Where they belong."
"She’s my wife!" Mark raged. "And that kid is mine! You have no legal right—"
"I have her birth certificate in my hands, Mark," Luka interrupted, his tone dripping with cool, absolute dominance. "I signed the father line. The state of Illinois recognizes me as her guardian. And if you so much as step onto my property, I won't call the police. I'll execute you for trespassing."
"You think you won?!" Mark shrieked. "I have the blood samples from the nursery! I'm running the DNA sequence right now! Once M-17 unlocks, I'll own Moretti Bio-Tech!"
Luka let out a low, terrifying chuckle. "Check your test tubes again, Mark."
There was a sudden, frantic rustling on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of glass shattering and Mark letting out a horrified gasp.
"What... what is this?!" Mark gasped. "The sample... it’s blank! It’s synthetic water!"
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"I swapped the samples before you even walked out the door with your mistress," Luka said smoothly. "You traded your wife, your daughter, and your soul for a vial of saline solution. Enjoy your evening, Mark."
Luka ended the call, leaving the interior of the SUV thick with a stunned, breathless silence.
