Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Open Horizon
The afternoon sun cast long, golden shadows across Victoria’s nursery. She shifted in her sleep, her tiny fist curling against her cheek. I stood by the crib, the weight of the past nine months settling heavily onto my shoulders, but for the first time, I didn't feel afraid. I felt dangerous.
The doorbell rang.
I walked downstairs, my heels clicking softly against the marble floor. When I opened the door, there was no courier, no furious mother-in-law, and no broken ex-husband.
There was only a large, wooden crate sitting on the porch.
I called my private security guard over to open it. Inside the crate was a stunning, antique hand-carved wooden rocking horse, polished to a mirror shine. It was a masterpiece of craftsmanship, easily worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Tucked into the saddle was a small, cream-colored envelope.
I pulled out the card. There was no signature, only a single sentence written in elegant, precise cursive:
“She has her father's eyes, Laura. But she will have your strength. I’ll see you both very soon.”
I stared at the note, my heart skipping a beat.
Diego was broke, hiding in a car somewhere on the border. Julian was in New York, completely detached and purely transactional.
I slowly walked back up to the nursery and looked down at my beautiful daughter. I looked closely at the shape of her eyes, the curve of her jaw, and the tiny, distinct birthmark shaped like a crescent moon just beneath her left collarbone.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed with an urgent text message from Alejandro Vance.
“Laura, drop everything. We just got a notification from the urology clinic's archived backup server. Diego’s DNA profile from his second vasectomy was tampered with by an internal hack last night. Someone just uploaded a completely different genetic sequence to his file.”
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I held the phone in one hand and the unsigned note in the other, looking out the window at the bustling streets of Mexico City.
The battle with Diego was over. But a much larger, much more terrifying game had just begun.
