Chapter 14 - The Federal Trap
When I opened my eyes next, I wasn't on the cold hallway floor. I was strapped securely to a high-backed leather chair in the center of our living room.
My limbs wouldn't respond. The paralytic had locked every muscle in my body, leaving me completely immobile, yet my mind was agonizingly sharp. Across from me, Julian was strapped to an identical chair, his eyes wide with a frantic, silent terror as tears streamed down his cheeks.
Standing beside a steel rolling cart filled with glass vials and long, silver hypodermic needles was not just the matriarch and the fake maintenance worker, but a third person—a woman in a crisp, expensive federal prison guard uniform.
"The perimeter is secure," the guard said, checking her watch. "We have twenty minutes before the local patrol car makes its routine sweep down this block. Make it quick."
The matriarch picked up a heavy glass cylinder, holding it up to the dim lamplight. A thick, glowing amber liquid swirled inside.
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"Generations of weak bloodlines trying to escape their true purpose," the matriarch whispered, walking slowly toward Julian. "We don't destroy families, Julian. We curate them. And tonight, your beloved wife becomes the cornerstone of the next century."
She raised the long needle, aiming it directly at Julian’s jugular vein.
