Chapter 2 - The Double Life
"I need to see the file," I demanded, my voice shaking but carrying a sudden, desperate strength. "I need to see whatever you have on my husband. Because you're wrong. Daniel loves her. He would never hurt her."
Detective Miller looked at Dr. Sterling, who nodded slowly. "Let’s step into the consultation room, Mrs. Carter. We have some things we need to show you."
The consultation room was small, lit by a single overhead light that cast harsh shadows across a generic wooden table. On the table lay a thick, manila folder and a laptop displaying a secure database login screen.
"When we identified the serial number on the micro-transponder through the X-ray imaging," Detective Miller began, pulling out a chair for me, "we ran it through the Federal Database of Medical Devices. The chip was manufactured by a company called Aegis Biometrics, a subsidiary of Vance Global Holdings."
I froze. The name Vance was a name I had hoped to never hear again for the rest of my life.
"Gregory Vance," I whispered, the name tasting like ash in my mouth.
"Yes," Miller said, opening the folder. "Gregory Vance. Your ex-husband. The biological father of Emily."
"Gregory is dead," I said quickly, my heart hammering against my ribs. "He died in a private plane crash five years ago. The lawyers confirmed it. The estate was settled. That’s why we were finally able to move to Columbus, to start over without his family constantly trying to drag us into court for custody."
"Gregory Vance is indeed dead," Detective Miller agreed, sliding a document across the table. "But Vance Global Holdings is very much alive, currently run by his older brother, Julian Vance. And three weeks ago, a petition was quietly filed in a sealed family court in Delaware to locate and retrieve the 'sole living heir' of the Vance estate. That heir is your daughter, Emily."
My breath hitched. "They have no right to her. Gregory signed away his parental rights before he died in exchange for my silence regarding his... his instability."
"That may be true, Mrs. Carter, but the Vance family has seventy million dollars sitting in a trust that cannot be accessed by Julian unless Emily is declared legally under his guardianship," Miller explained. "But that’s only half of the problem. Let’s talk about your current husband, Daniel."
He tapped a key on the laptop. A photograph appeared on the screen. It was a mugshot, taken perhaps ten years ago. The man in the photo had a thick beard, hollow cheeks, and dark, haunted eyes.
But it was Daniel.
"This is Daniel," I breathed, my fingers tracing the edge of the screen. "But his name... the screen says Daniel Sterling."
"His real name is Dr. Daniel Sterling," Detective Miller said, his voice dropping to a somber, serious pitch. "Ten years ago, he was the chief research biochemist for Aegis Biometrics—the very company that manufactured the tracking chip inside your daughter’s neck. He didn't just work there, Rachel. He was the lead developer of their subcutaneous biometric monitoring program."
I shook my head, my mind rejecting the information like a transplanted organ. "No. No, he's a logistics representative. He drives a hybrid sedan. He carries a clipboard. He gets excited about lawn fertilizer."
"He went into hiding eight years ago," Miller continued, ignoring my denial. "After a clinical trial went catastrophically wrong. Aegis was testing an experimental gene-therapy delivery system on pediatric patients. Three children died of acute respiratory failure. The company blamed Daniel, claiming he had altered the dosage levels without authorization. He was facing twenty years in federal prison before he disappeared, changing his name and his identity."
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"So you think... you think he married me to get to Emily?" I whispered, the horror of the thought threatening to tear my mind apart. "You think he’s using her as a test subject?"
"We don't know," Miller said honestly. "But we do know that the symptoms Emily has been experiencing—the headaches, the pressure behind her eyes, the sudden fainting spell—are identical to the early-stage side effects of the Aegis pediatric trial. Your husband has been administering something to her, Rachel. And we think the chip in her neck isn't just tracking her. We think it’s a delivery mechanism."
