Chapter 3 - The Bloodline of Shadows
Nathaniel guided Lily toward a private consultation room off the main hallway, instructing Renata to keep a guard at the door and ensure that no hospital staff logged Maya under standard public registry until he understood the true magnitude of the danger. He brought Lily a cup of warm chamomile tea and a dry blanket, sitting across from her at the small wooden table.
With trembling fingers, Nathaniel took the wet paper Lily handed him. It was a birth certificate and a legal guardianship transfer, partially waterlogged but still legible. As his eyes scanned the official blue ink, his breath hitched in his throat. The document listed Lily's full name: Lily Clara Reyes. Date of birth: seven years ago.
He was a father.
He stared at the paper, then looked up at the young girl sitting across from him, sipping her tea with cautious, delicate movements. He saw it now — the slight arch of her eyebrows, the sharp line of her chin, the distinct hazel ring around her dark pupils. She had Clara's soft features, but her eyes were unmistakably his own.
"Lily," Nathaniel stammered, his voice choked with emotions he hadn't allowed himself to feel in nearly a decade. "Did... did your mother ever talk about me?"
Lily looked up, her gaze steady and mature beyond her years. "She kept a picture of you in her locket," she said softly. "Every night before we went to sleep, she told me that my daddy was a brave man who built things to help sick people. She said we couldn't be with you because bad people wanted to hurt you through us. She said if the time ever came where she couldn't protect us, you would step between us and the dark."
A tear finally broke free from Nathaniel's eye, tracing a solitary path down his cheek. Eight years of confusion, pain, and buried anger evaporated in an instant, replaced by a fierce, roaring surge of protective instinct. Clara hadn't abandoned him because she stopped loving him; she had fled to shield him and their unborn child from a threat he had never even seen coming.
"Who is Maya, Lily?" Nathaniel asked gently.
"Maya is my little sister," Lily said. "She's ten months old. Julian Vance found us two months ago. He made Mama work for him in a laboratory, making medicines. But Mama found out he was doing bad things with the medicine — testing it on poor people in secret. She tried to destroy his files, so tonight he came with guards to take Maya to force Mama to give the files back."
Before Nathaniel could process the revelation, the hospital doors at the end of the corridor burst open. Heavy, measured footsteps echoed against the tile floor, accompanied by the low, authoritative murmur of several security personnel. Nathaniel stood up immediately, stepping out of the consultation room and locking the door behind him, putting his body between Lily and the hallway.
May you like
Walking down the corridor, flanked by two towering men in black suits, was Julian Vance. His tailored charcoal overcoat matched Nathaniel's own, but his eyes were cold, calculating, and devoid of warmth.
"Nathaniel," Vance said, halting ten feet away with a slick, practiced smile. "What a coincidence finding the CEO of Apex Healthcare wandering an ER at midnight. I hear two unregistered children were brought in here tonight. As their legal guardian, I'm here to take them home."
