Chapter 6 - The Genetic Anomaly"Mr. Hayes... Mrs. Hayes," Vance stammered, her fingers trembling as she dropped the report onto the metal table. "We... we ran the rapid compatibility test on the blood sample you just provided, sir. Combined with the boy's genetic markers."
I stepped forward, my eyes scanning the technical jargon on the page. Nothing made sense. The charts were a chaotic mess of overlapping DNA strands, glowing with automated computer flags.
"What is this?" I asked, looking up at Vance. "Why are there three strands instead of two in the recombination profile?"
Dr. Vance swallowed hard, looking at Nico as if he were a ghost standing in broad daylight. "Because... because Mr. Hayes is not just a universal donor match. According to the sequencer, Leo’s genetic structure isn’t reacting to the marrow as foreign tissue. It’s recognizing it as a duplicate code. As if... as if the boy’s entire genome was engineered from the very beginning to be a biological mirror of Nico’s."
The room went dead silent. The hum of the hallway fluorescent seemed to amplify a hundred times over.
I slowly turned my head to look at Nico. His face had lost every trace of its usual arrogant composure. For the first time since I had met him—for the first time in our five-year marriage and three-year bitter divorce—Nico Hayes looked genuinely cornered.
"Nico," I whispered, my voice trembling with a sudden, creeping dread that made my stomach churn. "What did you do before we had Leo? What kind of clinic were you visiting in Geneva before we got married?"
Nico didn't answer. He slowly rose from his chair, walking past Vance without a word, his eyes fixed on the floor.
"Nico! Answer me!" I screamed, lunging forward and grabbing his arm. "Is Leo even my son? Or was he grown in a lab using your harvested DNA and a surrogate womb you picked out like a piece of property?!"
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Nico stopped. He slowly turned his head, looking down at me with eyes that were suddenly hollow, completely devoid of light.
"He is your son, Claire," Nico said, his voice barely a whisper. "Your egg. Your blood. I swear it on everything I own." He paused, a dark shadow passing over his features. "But he was never meant to be just a child. He was designed to be a vessel."
