“Were Marcus and Khloe actually brother and sister?”
Nobody spoke.
Khloe instinctively stepped away from Marcus.
“No.”
Her hand moved protectively over her stomach.
“No. That cannot be true.”
Marcus stared at the screen.
**Birth mother: Elizabeth Sterling.**
The same woman Project 417 claimed was his biological mother.
Daniel pushed past Adrian.
“The record is false.”
“How do you know?” Marcus demanded.
“Because I was there when Khloe was born.”
“Project 417 changed birth records.”
“Not this one.”
Daniel grabbed the laptop.
“Look at the creation date.”
Adrian checked the metadata.
His expression changed.
“This file was created six months ago.”
Marcus understood immediately.
“Victor.”
Daniel nodded.
“He manufactured it.”
“But why?” Khloe asked.
“To destroy you without killing you.”
Everyone turned.
Jonathan Thorne stood near the ambulance, refusing to lie down despite the bandage pressed against his wound.
He looked at Marcus.
“Victor knew the strongest weapon against a family wasn’t murder.”
Jonathan’s eyes shifted toward Khloe.
“It was doubt.”
---
A police investigator ordered DNA samples immediately.
Marcus agreed.
Khloe did too.
But Jonathan shook his head.
“You don’t need to wait.”
He removed a small envelope from inside his coat.
Inside was an old photograph.
Elizabeth Sterling stood beside another woman holding newborn Khloe.
Daniel pointed at her.
“That’s Catherine.”
Khloe stared at the photograph.
Her mother.
The woman who had died when Khloe was twelve.
Jonathan turned the photograph over.
A hospital identification label remained attached.
**Mother: Catherine Sterling.
Infant: Khloe Sterling.**
“Victor created Subject 417-KS recently,” Jonathan explained. “He wanted Marcus to find it.”
Adrian frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if Marcus believed Khloe was his sister, their marriage would collapse.”
Khloe suddenly understood.
“And the baby…”
Jonathan nodded grimly.
“They would fear their child was the result of incest.”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
Victor had not simply tried to manipulate records.
He had weaponized their unborn child.
---
Police brought Victor toward a waiting vehicle.
Marcus stopped him.
“You created Khloe’s file.”
Victor smiled through the pain.
“And it worked.”
“No.”
Marcus looked toward Khloe.
“For a few minutes, perhaps.”
Victor leaned closer.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“417-KS wasn’t the important file.”
Marcus froze.
Victor smiled.
“It was the distraction.”
Before Marcus could respond, an officer pushed Victor into the vehicle.
Marcus turned toward Adrian.
“Check the drive.”
Adrian was already typing.
Hidden directories appeared.
One encrypted folder had been accessed while everyone was examining Khloe’s record.
Then deleted.
“Can you recover it?”
“Maybe.”
“What was it called?”
Adrian stared at the screen.
**PROJECT HEIR.**
Daniel went pale.
Jonathan whispered, “No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What is Project Heir?”
Jonathan did not answer.
“Dad.”
The word felt strange in Marcus’s mouth.
Jonathan finally looked at him.
“Project 417 wasn’t only about replacing identities.”
“What else?”
“Eventually they started selecting bloodlines.”
Khloe stared at him.
“For what?”
“Influence. Wealth. Genetics. Inheritance.”
Marcus felt sick.
“And Project Heir?”
Jonathan looked toward Khloe’s stomach.
“The next generation.”
---
Adrian recovered part of the deleted file.
A list appeared.
Dozens of names.
Most were coded.
At the bottom was one entry that had been updated that evening.
**HEIR-01**
Status:
**VIABLE**
Associated subjects:
**M. THORNE**
**K. THORNE**
Khloe stepped backward.
“Our baby?”
Marcus grabbed the laptop.
“What did Victor do?”
Adrian scrolled.
“There’s a medical file attached.”
Khloe suddenly remembered the needle.
Her hand went to her neck.
“The injection.”
Marcus looked at her.
Jonathan’s face changed.
“Get her back to the hospital. Now.”
---
Minutes later, Khloe was rushed into Obstetric Emergency.
Marcus remained beside her.
Dr. Caldwell examined the toxicology information recovered from Project Heir.
Finally, he looked up.
“The substance injected into Khloe was not intended to kill her.”
Marcus exhaled.
Then saw the doctor’s expression.
“What?”
Dr. Caldwell turned toward Khloe.
“It was designed to trigger a specific laboratory abnormality.”
“Why?”
“To make us perform additional genetic testing.”
Marcus understood.
Victor wanted the hospital to test the baby.
“But why?”
Dr. Caldwell hesitated.
“Because someone wanted confirmation of the fetus’s genetic profile.”
Khloe gripped Marcus’s hand.
The doctor continued.
“And apparently they got it.”
Adrian entered holding the recovered drive.
“I found the final transmission.”
Marcus stood.
“What transmission?”
“At 10:47 tonight, the hospital laboratory automatically sent an encrypted genetic report to an external server.”
“Where?”
Adrian looked at him.
“A private research facility in Switzerland.”
Khloe whispered, “What did they want with our baby?”
Adrian opened the transmitted report.
His face went completely still.
“What?”
Marcus demanded.
Adrian turned the screen around.
At the bottom of the report was a single line.
**HEIR-01: GENETIC MATCH CONFIRMED.**
And beneath it:
**BIOLOGICAL FATHER: NOT MARCUS THORNE.**