Chapter 4 - The Ghost in the System
"What do you mean it's not her ex-boyfriend?" Roman demanded, his hands gripping the edge of the desk so hard the dark wood groaned.
"The paternal markers don't match any standard database," Dr. Vance explained, setting the paper down. "But they DO match a high-level security code within the federal criminal registry. The father of these triplets... is Richard Vance—the former head of the Chicago FBI field office."
Pamela gasped, her tear-stained face lifting in absolute horror. "Richard Vance? That's... that's impossible! I've never met an FBI agent in my life!"
"Think, Pamela!" Roman turned on her, his dark eyes ablaze with urgency. "Fourteen months ago. Before St. Anselm. Did you sign any documents? Did you visit any clinics before entering Pendelton’s program?"
Pamela’s hands shook as she pressed her temples, trying to unlock memories buried beneath a year of grief and exhaustion.
"I... I went to a fertility clinic," she whispered. "Two years ago. I was broke. I saw an ad in the newspaper offering five thousand dollars for egg donation. I was desperate for rent money. I went to the Apex Medical Research Center downtown..."
"Apex," Roman snarled. "A dummy corporation fronted by the Department of Justice. It wasn't an egg donation clinic, Pamela. It was a black-budget IVF project."
"Why would the FBI want triplets?" Pamela cried out.
"Not the FBI," Roman corrected, his face hardening into granite. "Richard Vance wasn't just an agent. He was the chief architect of the federal task force trying to dismantle my syndicate. He couldn't get a wiretap into my inner circle. He couldn't buy my lieutenants. So he created a leverage engine."
The realization hit the room like a physical blow.
"They used Pamela's eggs and an anonymous donor—Vance himself—to harvest genetically engineered infants," Roman realized aloud, his voice dropping into a register of pure venom. "They orchestrated Elena’s 'pregnancy,' bribed Pendelton to slip those babies into my home, and waited for the right moment to use a paternity test to seize my entire estate and put me in federal prison for child trafficking!"
"They used my body..." Pamela choked out, vomiting slightly into a nearby wastebasket as horror overtook her. "They treated my children like weapons to trap you!"
"And now," Donovan’s voice rang out from the doorway, his weapon drawn, "the trap is springing."
Outside the high security gates of the Voss estate, red and blue lights suddenly painted the rain-soaked night sky. Heavy armored vehicles crashed through the front gates, their tires screeching on the gravel driveway.
May you like
Through the loudspeakers outside, a booming voice echoed over the estate:
"ROMAN VOSS. THIS IS THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION. YOU ARE SURROUNDED. SURRENDER THE ILLEGALLY ACQUIRED INFANTS IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE."
