CHAPTER 9 — THE BLOODLINE THEY ERASED
CHAPTER 9 — THE BLOODLINE THEY ERASED
“Target identified.”
Luka's voice was no longer his.
It was flat.
Mechanical.
His eyes stared straight through me.
Then his hand closed around the gun.
My mother screamed.
“ELENA, GET DOWN!”
I pulled Lily against my chest and dropped behind the seat.
The gun fired.
The windshield shattered.
Luka jerked the steering wheel.
The car swerved across the highway.
Ethan grabbed the wheel from the passenger side.
“Luka!”
No response.
“Luka, wake up!”
Luka raised the gun again.
I watched his face.
There was no anger.
No hatred.
No emotion.
Only obedience.
And suddenly I understood.
The conditioning wasn't a metaphor.
Victor had built something inside him.
Something that could be activated.
Something that could turn the man I trusted into a weapon.
“Luka!”
He turned toward me.
For half a second, something flickered in his eyes.
Recognition.
Fear.
Then it disappeared.
My mother shouted:
“Say his name!”
“What?”
“His real name!”
I didn't understand.
“Luka!”
“His birth name!”
I looked at her.
She screamed:
“Daniel!”
I froze.
“Daniel?”
Luka's hand trembled.
His eyes widened.
My mother repeated it.
“Daniel Moretti!”
The gun lowered.
Luka gasped.
His face twisted in pain.
Then he slammed his head against the steering wheel.
“Get out!”
Ethan grabbed the wheel.
“Now!”
The car crashed through a roadside barrier.
Everything went black.
When I woke, I was lying in wet grass.
Rain fell against my face.
My ears were ringing.
I immediately searched for Lily.
She was crying beside me.
Alive.
I pulled her into my arms.
“I'm here.”
Her tiny hands clutched my shirt.
“I'm here.”
Then I remembered Luka.
I looked toward the wreckage.
Ethan was dragging my mother away from the vehicle.
“Where's Luka?”
Neither answered.
I stood.
“Where is he?”
Ethan pointed toward the forest.
“He ran.”
My heart sank.
“He was activated.”
My mother nodded.
“He will come back.”
“How do you know?”
She looked at me.
“Because he always comes back.”
We hid in an abandoned railway station.
The building had been unused for years.
Broken signs hung from the walls.
Old benches were covered in dust.
Ethan barricaded the doors.
My mother treated the cut on my forehead.
Lily finally fell asleep.
I sat beside her.
My mind kept returning to one thing.
Daniel.
Why had that name affected Luka?
I looked at my mother.
“Who is Daniel Moretti?”
She didn't answer immediately.
Finally, she said:
“The name they gave him.”
“Then what is his real name?”
She looked at me.
“Luka wasn't born a Moretti.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He was born Daniel Vale.”
My heart stopped.
“Vale?”
She nodded.
“Your bloodline.”
I couldn't breathe.
“He's family?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Daniel Vale had two sons.”
I stared at her.
“Daniel and Adrian.”
She nodded.
“Adrian was Luka's biological father.”
I shook my head.
“You just said Luka was Daniel Vale's son.”
“He was.”
“But you said Adrian was his father.”
“Adrian is his biological father.”
I frowned.
“Then why call him Daniel?”
“Because Adrian wasn't the man who raised him.”
She paused.
“Daniel Vale adopted him.”
I understood.
“Victor erased Luka's identity.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the Vale bloodline was dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?”
My mother looked at Lily.
“Because it carried the original M-17 sequence.”
Ethan placed a folder on the table.
“We found this in the hospital.”
I opened it.
Inside were old photographs.
The first showed my mother.
The second showed Daniel Vale.
The third showed a little boy.
Luka.
But the fourth photograph stopped me.
A woman stood beside Daniel.
She looked familiar.
I stared.
“Who is she?”
My mother looked at the picture.
Then closed her eyes.
“Your grandmother.”
I stared.
“My grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“Her name?”
“Isabella Vale.”
I turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten note.
THE LAST OF THE ORIGINAL LINE.
I looked up.
“What does that mean?”
My mother answered:
“The Vale family didn't begin with M-17.”
She opened another document.
“M-17 began because of the Vale family.”
The truth unfolded slowly.
Nearly a century earlier, my great-grandfather had worked with researchers studying hereditary disease.
They discovered something unusual.
Certain members of the Vale family recovered from illnesses at extraordinary rates.
They had unusually strong immune responses.
But there was another trait.
Their nervous systems reacted differently to emotional stress.
They could remain calm during extreme fear.
They could recognize subtle changes in other people's behavior.
And in rare cases…
They could trigger emotional responses in others through voice, proximity, and biochemical cues.
My mother looked at me.
“You inherited the strongest version.”
I shook my head.
“I don't control people.”
“You don't consciously.”
She showed me another file.
“Remember when you were a child and Victor was angry?”
I nodded.
“You used to look at him.”
“And?”
“He would calm down.”
I remembered.
I had always thought it was coincidence.
My mother continued.
“You weren't calming him.”
I frowned.
“Then what?”
“You were suppressing his emotional response.”
I stared at her.
“That's impossible.”
“That's what M-17 was created to study.”
Ethan turned another page.
“This is why Victor wanted you.”
I looked at the document.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE: REPRODUCE THE VALE RESPONSE THROUGH CONTROLLED BREEDING.
My stomach turned.
“Controlled breeding.”
“Yes.”
“That's why they chose Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“That's why they chose Luka.”
“Yes.”
“And Lily…”
My mother whispered:
“…is the first child born from two compatible lines.”
I stared at my daughter.
“So she isn't an experiment.”
“No.”
“She is proof.”
My mother nodded.
“Proof that Victor was right.”
I hated the sentence.
But I understood why everyone was terrified of her.
If Lily really carried both sequences, she represented something no one had ever achieved.
A complete M-17 genetic expression.
A noise came from the hallway.
Everyone froze.
Luka stepped into the station.
He was soaked.
Blood ran down his forehead.
His weapon was gone.
He looked exhausted.
“Luka.”
He didn't move.
I stood slowly.
“Are you okay?”
He looked at me.
“I remember.”
My mother went pale.
“Everything?”
He nodded.
“I remember the hospital.”
“The experiments.”
“The conditioning.”
“And…”
He looked at me.
“I remember your father.”
My heart tightened.
“Daniel?”
Luka nodded.
“He wasn't just my adoptive father.”
“What was he?”
“My protector.”
He took a breath.
“He knew Victor would eventually come for you.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered something.”
“What?”
“That the Vale bloodline wasn't the only bloodline involved.”
He looked at my mother.
“She knows.”
My mother lowered her head.
“Tell her.”
My mother whispered:
“The Moretti bloodline.”
Luka nodded.
“The Morettis were the opposite.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“The Vale family could influence emotional responses.”
“The Moretti family could resist them.”
I understood.
“That's why Victor needed both.”
“Yes.”
“Control and resistance.”
“Yes.”
“And Lily has both.”
Luka looked at my daughter.
“Yes.”
I thought about the night at the hospital.
The way Luka had looked at Lily.
The way he had signed the father line.
The way he had promised to protect her.
Suddenly it made sense.
He hadn't been protecting an ordinary child.
He had been protecting the first person who could potentially end M-17.
Or perfect it.
“Then why did Victor want her alive?”
Luka answered:
“Because he can't reproduce the sequence without her.”
“Why not?”
“Because every previous subject died.”
I looked at my mother.
“Every one?”
She nodded.
“Your daughter is the first survivor.”
I felt sick.
“And if Victor gets her?”
“He can build the program again.”
“For what?”
Luka looked at me.
“To control millions.”
A siren sounded outside.
Ethan looked through the window.
“Cars.”
“How many?”
“Too many.”
My mother grabbed the files.
“We have to leave.”
Luka shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“They aren't here for Lily.”
“Then who?”
He looked at me.
“They're here for you.”
“Why?”
“Because they know what you discovered.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“The erased bloodline.”
He pointed at the old photograph.
“Your grandmother had another child.”
My heart stopped.
“Another child?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Luka hesitated.
“A daughter.”
My mother whispered:
“Your aunt.”
“What was her name?”
My mother looked at me.
“Amelia.”
I searched the files.
There was no record.
“No.”
My mother shook her head.
“Victor erased her.”
“Why?”
“Because she escaped.”
“Where did she go?”
Nobody answered.
Then a gunshot shattered the station window.
We ducked.
Luka grabbed me.
“Move!”
We ran toward the back exit.
Ethan carried the files.
My mother held Lily.
We reached the railway tunnel.
Behind us, armed men stormed the station.
Luka slammed the steel gate shut.
“Keep moving!”
We ran into darkness.
The tunnel seemed endless.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
Our footsteps echoed.
Finally, we reached an underground platform.
An old train waited there.
I stared.
“Where did that come from?”
Luka smiled faintly.
“My father built it.”
“For M-17?”
“No.”
“For escaping it.”
We boarded.
The engine started.
The train moved.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
Then Ethan opened the file.
“There's one more thing.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He showed me a document.
It contained a genetic family tree.
My eyes moved across the names.
ISABELLA VALE
DANIEL VALE
MARA VALE
ELENA VALE
Then another name.
AMELIA VALE
And beside Amelia's name:
STATUS — UNKNOWN
I stared.
“She's alive.”
Luka nodded.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she contacted me.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
My heart raced.
“Where is she?”
Luka looked at me.
“She runs a clinic.”
“What clinic?”
“The hidden hospital.”
I froze.
“Mercy?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
He took out a photograph.
A woman stood outside a small rural clinic.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakably related to my mother.
My aunt.
On the back was an address.
Then another note.
SHE KNOWS WHO CREATED LILY.
I looked at Luka.
“Who created my daughter?”
He didn't answer.
My mother began crying.
I turned toward her.
“Mom.”
She whispered:
“Amelia.”
“What about her?”
“She didn't just escape M-17.”
My mother looked at Lily.
“She designed the final embryo.”
I stared.
“She created Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To end M-17.”
I shook my head.
“How?”
“She believed the only way to destroy the program was to create a child whose DNA could permanently disable it.”
I looked at Lily.
“And it worked?”
My mother nodded.
“That's why everyone wants her.”
I felt a chill.
“Because she can destroy M-17.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Victor say she could control millions?”
My mother looked toward the darkness outside the train.
“Because Victor lied.”
I frowned.
“About what?”
“The real purpose of M-17.”
“What is it?”
She looked at me.
“It was never designed to control people.”
“Then what?”
“To control disease.”
I stared.
My mother continued:
“Victor corrupted the project.”
“He turned medical research into a weapon.”
“And Amelia created Lily…”
“…because she believed Lily's blood could cure what Victor had created.”
I looked at my daughter.
A cure.
Not a weapon.
Not an heir.
Not an experiment.
A cure.
Then the train suddenly stopped.
The lights went out.
Luka raised his weapon.
A voice came through the speakers.
“Welcome home, Elena.”
My blood froze.
It was Amelia's voice.
My aunt.
Then she said:
“Bring the child to me.”
My mother grabbed my arm.
“No.”
The voice laughed softly.
“You don't understand, Mara.”
A pause.
“I'm not trying to save Lily.”
The emergency lights flickered on.
A figure appeared at the far end of the train.
An older woman.
Gray hair.
A white coat.
My aunt.
Amelia Vale.
She smiled at me.
Then looked at Lily.
And whispered:
“I created her.”
She paused.
“And now I need to destroy her.”
Luka raised his weapon.
Amelia didn't move.
Instead, she lifted one hand.
Behind her, dozens of armed guards appeared.
Then she said the words that made my blood run cold:
“Because Lily isn't the cure.”
May you like
She looked directly at me.
“She is the disease.”
