Chapter 7 - PATIENT ZERO
The freezing water of the Chicago River had reached our chests, but the chill that ran down my spine when I read the file had nothing to do with the temperature.
Melissa Mitchell - Patient Zero.
I stared at the thick, plastic-wrapped medical file, the bold black letters mocking my entire existence.
“Adrian,” I whispered, my voice trembling so badly I could barely form the words. I held the file up, keeping it above the rising waterline. “Look at this.”
Adrian’s arms tightened around my waist, keeping me steady in the swirling water. He looked down at the file, his dark eyebrows pulling together in deep confusion.
“Patient Zero?” Adrian repeated. He took the file from my shaking hands. The heavy plastic wrapping had kept the papers inside completely dry.
“I was never Dr. Aris’s patient,” I said frantically, my mind racing through sixteen years of memories. “I worked the front desk! I scheduled root canals! I never let him treat me!”
Adrian didn't answer. He ripped the plastic wrapping open with his teeth, pulling out the thick stack of medical documents.
The water in the vault was rising faster now, the pressure from the river widening the crack in the door seal. We didn't have much time before the room completely submerged.
Adrian flipped open the heavy manila folder. He pulled out a small tactical flashlight from his belt, shining the narrow beam onto the top document.
It was a surgical report.
Dated twelve years ago. The exact day Ellie was born.
“Melissa,” Adrian said, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly quiet register. “This isn't a dental record.”
I leaned in, squinting in the harsh flashlight beam.
The document was highly detailed, filled with complex medical jargon, but the summary at the bottom was written in plain, unmistakable English.
Procedure: Unauthorized Embryo Implantation.Subject: Melissa Davis (Mitchell).Donor: Castellano Syndicate Trust Account Alpha.
My breath caught in my throat. I couldn't process the words. It felt like I was reading a foreign language.
“Unauthorized embryo implantation?” I gasped, looking up at Adrian. “What does that mean?”
Adrian’s face had gone completely pale. The hardened mafia boss, a man who had stared down bullets and bombs without flinching, looked physically sick.
He flipped to the next page.
It was a genetic profile. A DNA match report.
“Dr. Aris wasn't a dentist before he lost his license,” Adrian whispered, his eyes scanning the page rapidly. “He was a fertility specialist. A geneticist for the black market.”
Adrian looked up at me, his dark eyes filled with a profound, terrifying sorrow.
“Melissa,” Adrian said softly, his voice breaking. “Ellie isn't Ryan’s daughter.”
I shook my head violently, sending freezing water splashing against my face. “No. No, that’s impossible. I was pregnant! I carried her for nine months!”
“You carried her,” Adrian agreed gently, placing his hand on my cold cheek. “But she doesn't share your DNA. Or Ryan’s.”
“Then whose baby is she?!” I screamed, the absolute horror of the betrayal finally shattering my sanity.
Adrian turned the flashlight back to the medical file. He pointed a trembling finger at the donor line on the DNA report.
Genetic Profile Match: Isabella Castellano.
The vault went dead silent, save for the rushing water.
I stopped breathing. I stared at the name on the paper, the letters burning themselves into my retinas.
Isabella Castellano. Adrian’s younger sister. The bride from tonight’s wedding.
“Sixteen years ago,” Adrian said, piecing the horrifying puzzle together aloud, “my mother died in childbirth. The baby was lost. The trauma devastated my father. He demanded the doctors preserve my mother’s remaining embryos. He locked them away in a secure medical trust, hoping to keep a piece of her alive.”
Adrian looked at the file, absolute fury radiating from him in waves.
“Dr. Aris was the custodian of that trust,” Adrian realized. “He had access to the Castellano embryos. But he couldn't just sell them on the black market. He needed an incubator. Someone close. Someone he could monitor.”
“So he used me,” I whispered, the sickening truth washing over me.
“He hired Ryan to marry you,” Adrian confirmed, his voice hard as steel. “He paid Ryan to drug you, perform the implantation procedure at his private clinic, and pass the pregnancy off as a natural conception. Ryan kept you close, working as a receptionist, so Aris could monitor the child’s development every single day without arousing suspicion.”
I felt like I was going to vomit.
My entire life, my marriage, my job—it was all a clinically orchestrated nightmare. I was nothing but a vessel. A human petri dish for a corrupt doctor and a greedy, sociopathic husband.
“Ellie is a Castellano,” I breathed, looking down at the dark, freezing water. “She’s your sister’s biological daughter.”
“No,” Adrian said fiercely, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look him in the eye. “You carried her. You gave birth to her. You raised her, loved her, and protected her for twelve years while her so-called father used her as leverage. DNA doesn't make a mother, Melissa. You are her mother.”
Tears spilled from my eyes, mixing with the dirty river water on my face. The absolute conviction in Adrian’s voice anchored me to reality when my entire world was collapsing.
Suddenly, a loud, metallic CRACK echoed from the vault door.
The hinges were giving way under the immense pressure of the river. The water level surged, rising to our collarbones.
“We have to go. Now,” Adrian ordered, shoving the medical file into the deep inside pocket of his heavy coat.
He waded through the chest-deep water toward the rusted iron ladder Ryan had climbed earlier.
“You first,” Adrian said, boosting me up toward the first rung.
I grabbed the freezing iron, my muscles screaming in protest. I climbed quickly, desperate to get out of the rising water. The ventilation shaft was narrow, dark, and smelled of stale air and rust.
I reached the top of the ladder and pushed against the heavy metal grate leading to the street level above.
It didn't move.
I pushed harder, panic setting in. “Adrian, it’s stuck!”
Adrian climbed up behind me on the ladder. He reached past me, pressing his broad shoulders against the grate, and heaved upward with all his strength.
The grate didn't budge an inch.
“Ryan,” Adrian growled, his voice echoing in the tight shaft.
“He locked it?” I asked, terror gripping my chest.
“He didn't lock it,” Adrian said, shining his flashlight upward through the grate.
Sitting directly on top of the grate, blocking our only exit, was a massive, concrete parking block. Ryan had dragged it over the opening the moment he climbed out, ensuring we would drown in the vault below.
The water in the shaft was rising rapidly now, covering our boots on the ladder rungs. The vault below us was completely submerged.
We had nowhere left to climb.
Adrian looked down at the rising black water, then up at the immovable concrete block.
For the first time all night, the mafia boss looked completely out of options.
“I’m sorry, Melissa,” Adrian whispered in the dark, his voice filled with a profound, quiet defeat. “I promised I’d get you back to your daughter.”
I reached out in the darkness and grabbed his hand. His fingers were freezing, but I held on tight.
“You kept your promise,” I said softly, the rushing water deafening in our ears. “You kept me alive long enough to learn the truth. If I die here, at least I die knowing I loved her.”
The water reached our waists on the ladder. We had minutes left before it filled the shaft completely.
Suddenly, a loud, metallic CLANG echoed from above.
The concrete block shifted.
Adrian’s head snapped up.
Another CLANG, followed by the sound of grinding stone.
Someone on the street level above was moving the concrete block.
A moment later, the block slid away completely, and a blinding beam of light shone down into the ventilation shaft.
“Boss!” a familiar voice shouted down.
It was Daniel.
Adrian let out a breath he had been holding. “Daniel! Get a rope down here! Now!”
Within seconds, a thick, heavy climbing rope dropped through the grate.
Adrian tied it securely around my waist. “Pull her up!” he yelled.
I was hoisted violently up the shaft, bursting out onto the wet asphalt of a dark Chicago alleyway. I collapsed onto the ground, gasping for fresh air, coughing up stale river water.
A moment later, Adrian climbed out of the grate, completely soaked, the heavy black coat dripping on the pavement.
Daniel helped him to his feet, handing him a dry towel.
“How did you find us?” Adrian asked, breathing heavily. “I told you to stay at the estate with Isabella and Ellie.”
Daniel looked grim. He wasn't smiling.
“I did, Boss,” Daniel said, his voice tight with an unspoken dread. “But an hour ago, Isabella demanded to leave. She took the girl.”
My heart stopped.
“What do you mean she took Ellie?” I screamed, scrambling to my feet.
Daniel looked at Adrian, then at me.
“Isabella knocked out one of my guards,” Daniel confessed, looking ashamed. “She took one of the armored SUVs. And she took Ellie with her.”
Adrian grabbed Daniel by the collar of his tactical jacket. “Where did she go, Daniel?!”
Daniel swallowed hard.
“She didn't leave a note,” Daniel said. “But she left this on the kitchen counter.”
Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, familiar object.
It was a blue ribbon. The exact ribbon I had tied in Ellie’s hair this morning.
Pinned to the ribbon was a piece of expensive wedding stationery.
May you like
Adrian took the paper and read it aloud, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper.
I know the truth, Adrian. I’m taking back what belongs to me.
