By Donfik

January 2024

Chapter Twelve: Nathaniel’s Harrington

Nathaniel “Nate” Harrington had never intended to come to Ashton Valley. To him, the town was a quiet, inconsequential place—far from the bustling laboratories and cutting-edge research centers where he felt most at home. Nate’s life was defined by order and predictability: a regimen of research, work, and solitary reflection. Social events like medical conferences, with their endless networking and small talk, were far from his interests.

However, his mentor, Dr. Carmichael, had insisted that Nate attend the conference, knowing how important it was for his own plans. Dr. Carmichael had seen in Nate the potential for extraordinary things—things that were still too far-fetched, even for a scientist like Nate to fully grasp. For Nate, this conference was an obligation, not an opportunity. He was there at Dr. Carmichael’s request, but his mind was elsewhere, preoccupied with thoughts of the next big project he could sink his teeth into.

But fate, as it often does, had other plans for Nate. After a long day of presentations, debates, and academic posturing, Nate stepped out into the crisp evening air, feeling the weight of exhaustion bearing down on him. The conference had drained him, leaving him with a strange sense of unease. Something about the atmosphere in Ashton Valley didn’t sit right with him. He couldn’t place it—perhaps it was the quiet, rural setting, so different from the pulse of the city, or maybe it was something deeper, something he couldn’t name.

As he walked back to his hotel room, the dizziness hit him out of nowhere. His vision blurred, his head spun, and before he could even react, his legs buckled beneath him. He collapsed in the middle of the street, the world spinning around him as his body gave way.

The next thing he knew, he woke up in a sterile, dimly lit hospital room, a sense of confusion overwhelming him. His body felt weak, drained—like he had been through something he couldn’t remember. When a nurse entered the room, she explained that he had suffered a severe allergic reaction. The cause was still unclear, but it had been serious enough to warrant immediate medical attention.

Despite the chaos, one thing stood out to Nate. He couldn’t recall the moment he had collapsed, but he had a lingering sense of something more sinister—something that didn’t align with the usual course of medical emergencies. Had someone intentionally made him sick? His mind raced with suspicions, but his thoughts were too muddled to form a coherent theory.

What Nate didn’t know, what he couldn’t have possibly known, was that in his unconscious state, his blood had been taken—without his consent, without any explanation. Dr. Carmichael, ever the manipulative genius, had seen an opportunity in Nate’s rare genetic makeup. It wasn’t just Nate’s scientific mind that Dr. Carmichael found valuable; it was his genetics—the rare traits that Nate had inherited through his family lineage. These were the traits that would make Nate the perfect candidate for Dr. Carmichael’s secret experiments.

Dr. Carmichael had long been working on a project to push the boundaries of human potential, and Nate’s genetic material, combined with Clara’s, was the key to unlocking something far beyond their understanding. The hospital staff, under Dr. Carmichael’s direction, had taken what they needed, using Nate’s unconscious state to perform the illegal procedure that would set everything in motion.

Chapter Thirteen: A Connection in the Shadows

Clara’s thoughts were clouded, a swirling storm of confusion and fragments of memories she couldn’t quite piece together. As she spent more time with Ethan, bonding with him slowly and steadily, the questions that had haunted her for years only grew louder in her mind. Every passing day with him made her realize just how much she didn’t know about her own story—or his. The need to understand what had truly happened during her pregnancy, to uncover the truth about her connection to Ethan, became unbearable.

At first, it had been a simple feeling in the back of her mind—something wasn’t right, something didn’t make sense. But the more she thought about the events surrounding the pregnancy, the more Clara began to question her memories. Why had she been chosen to carry Ethan? She didn’t remember much about the months leading up to his birth. She recalled being in the hospital, but her mind was foggy on the specifics. There was something deeply unsettling about the whole experience, and the mystery gnawed at her.

As she continued to search for answers, Clara’s suspicions led her down a dark path. It all started with a specific event, one that had seemed harmless at the time, but now stood out like a flashing red warning sign. Five years ago, Ashton Valley had hosted an annual medical conference, a prestigious event that attracted experts from across the country. Clara had been a volunteer at the local hospital during that time, a decision she now regretted more than she could ever admit.

The conference itself had been a blur of lectures, workshops, and discussions about the latest advancements in medicine. Clara had thought little of the event at the time—after all, she was there to gain extra credit for her studies, not to be caught up in anything more sinister. But what Clara didn’t know was that the conference marked the beginning of a series of events that would alter her life in ways she could never have predicted.

Nathaniel Harrington, a biochemist with a reputation for brilliance and eccentricity, had attended the conference to present his groundbreaking research on cellular regeneration. At the time, Clara didn’t pay much attention to him—he was just another scientist in a room full of academics, each of them speaking in jargon that was far beyond her comprehension. But now, in hindsight, Clara began to wonder if his presence at the conference had been more than just coincidental. Was he connected to Dr. Carmichael’s mysterious research? Was there something more to Ethan’s origins than she had ever imagined?

Her mind raced with these questions as she started digging into her memories. The more she searched, the more certain she became that something darker had transpired—something that would connect her to Nathaniel Harrington in ways she couldn’t yet understand.

Chapter Fourteen: A Night of Confusion

For Clara, the night she had volunteered at the hospital, the night everything had changed, felt like a blur—a strange and disorienting experience that had left her with more questions than answers. She had been assigned to help with routine health screenings for a group of patients, a task that seemed innocuous enough. But something about that night felt off. She had been led into a back room by a nurse she didn’t recognize, a woman who spoke in hushed tones, assuring Clara that everything was standard procedure.

The procedure she underwent that night was far from standard.

Dr. Carmichael had been orchestrating his own experiments for years, operating under the guise of routine medical procedures. He had taken Clara’s eggs, without her knowledge or consent, and combined them with Nate’s genetic material, forming an embryo—one that would grow into the child who was now standing before her, Ethan.

Clara had no memory of this. She didn’t know that her eggs had been harvested, didn’t know that her body had been used in a twisted, unethical experiment. She had woken up the next day with no explanation, feeling strange, disoriented, but with no clear recollection of what had happened. The hospital staff had dismissed her concerns, telling her that everything had gone as planned. But the nagging feeling lingered, and as she pieced together her fragmented memories, Clara began to realize just how deeply she had been manipulated.

The truth was darker than she could have ever imagined: she had been part of an experiment, and Ethan was the result.

But there was more. Dr. Carmichael had been playing a dangerous game. The child he had created wasn’t just any child—Ethan was meant to be something more, something extraordinary. But what he hadn’t foreseen was the emotional cost of his manipulations. Clara’s connection to Ethan, her love for him, would make everything far more complicated than he had planned. And now, as Clara began to uncover the truth, the shadows of the past were beginning to emerge, threatening to destroy everything she had built.

Chapter Fifteen: Nate’s Suspicion

Years had passed since Nate last thought about Ashton Valley, but as fate would have it, he stumbled across a journal entry from his time there. The notes were vague, but an unsettling feeling gnawed at him as he read. It was a simple mention of an unexpected hospital visit, one that had left a mark on him, but the specifics were lost in the haze of his memory. He had thought little of it at the time, chalking it up to the confusion of his situation.

But as Nate continued to dig, a creeping unease began to settle in. Hospital records from that time didn’t line up. There were unauthorized tests, missing documentation, and inexplicable gaps in his medical history. These anomalies stirred something deep inside him—a feeling that something far more sinister had been at play, and he had been a part of it.

His unease only deepened when he came across an article about Clara Yale, who had returned to Ashton Valley. The article detailed the mysterious circumstances surrounding her pregnancy years ago, something that seemed to overlap with the timeframe of Nate’s own visit to the hospital. The timelines were too neat, too connected. Nate’s curiosity morphed into concern. He couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he might be linked to Clara’s child in ways he hadn’t yet imagined. Determined to uncover the truth, Nate packed his bags and headed back to Ashton Valley, haunted by the possibility that his life had been shaped by forces beyond his control—and that those forces might still be lurking in the shadows.

Chapter Sixteen: Revelations and Shadows

Clara sat in the dim corner of a quiet café in Ashton Valley, her fingers trembling as she cradled a mug of warm tea. Her breath caught as she looked across the table at Nate. There was a nervous energy between them, a silent recognition of the shared weight they carried. He was a stranger in many ways, but there was a deeper connection between them, one that neither of them could fully grasp.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Nate began, his voice steady but laced with an undercurrent of unease. “But I think we’re connected in ways neither of us could have imagined.”

Clara’s guarded expression betrayed only the slightest flicker of vulnerability. She had built walls around herself over the years, and no one had ever breached them—until now. “You think you’re connected to Ethan?” she asked quietly, her voice trembling just enough for Nate to notice.

Nate nodded and slid a folder across the table. The weight of it seemed almost symbolic—proof, perhaps, that the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. Inside the folder were copies of medical records, notes from his journal, and even a faded photograph of him standing at the Ashton Valley hospital. He had been there years ago, unaware of the significance of his visit.

“I had no idea what was done to me until recently,” Nate said, his voice tight with frustration. “These documents prove that my blood and DNA were taken without my consent. The same thing that was done to you, Clara.”

Clara’s breath hitched as she scanned the papers. Her eyes moved quickly over the documents, each one confirming her worst fears. The timelines matched up—the same period she had volunteered at the hospital, the same experiments that had been conducted. Her head swam with the realization of how deep this rabbit hole went. “Why me?” she whispered, the weight of the question pressing down on her chest.

Nate leaned forward, his voice strained. “You were chosen because of your genetic profile. Something unique in your family line. They didn’t just choose randomly. It wasn’t a coincidence.”

The words hit Clara like a punch to the gut. Her family—her lineage—had been targeted for reasons she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. The idea that her body had been used as a vessel for an experiment was incomprehensible, and yet, all the evidence was laid out before her.

Chapter Seventeen: Secrets of the Yale Family

As Clara delved deeper into the documents Nate had uncovered, a chilling truth began to emerge about her own family. Her late mother, Evelyn Yale, had unknowingly participated in genetic studies in her youth. Samples had been taken from her during routine visits to various medical facilities, and unbeknownst to Evelyn, these samples had been cataloged and kept by research institutions for years.

Clara had always thought of her mother as a fiercely independent woman, someone who had fought against the odds to raise her children after Clara’s father had disappeared. She never suspected that Evelyn’s genetics had been the subject of so much interest. The documents revealed that Evelyn’s genetic profile had been flagged as “extraordinary” due to a rare chromosomal marker that enhanced resilience and cognitive ability—a trait that Clara, unknowingly, had inherited.

But it wasn’t just Evelyn who had been a part of these studies. Clara’s entire family had been quietly monitored, with her lineage becoming a point of fascination for genetic researchers long before Clara had ever set foot in Ashton Valley. The truth hit Clara like a cold wave: she was no accident. She had been a target long before she even knew what was happening. Dr. Carmichael’s interest in Clara wasn’t just because of her biology; it was because her family had been a part of this twisted experiment for generations.

His notes revealed his belief that combining Clara’s genetic material with Nate’s rare genome could produce a child with unparalleled potential—a child who could change everything. Nate’s voice brought Clara back to the present. “Your family was part of this before you were even born. They used both of us, Clara. We were never meant to know.”

The words reverberated in Clara’s mind, a bitter truth she didn’t want to accept. She had been manipulated, and so had Nate. Their lives had never been their own. They had been pawns in a much larger game.

………..To be Continued