The Embryos

He would kill their unborn children to keep the money flowing.

Elena walked into the hardware store, the fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, a sharp contrast to the darkness of her thoughts. The aisles were quiet, populated only by a few late-night contractors. She pushed a cart, her mind replaying Marcus’s threat.

*Or worse. Implanted. In a surrogate who doesn't ask questions.*

He wasn't just threatening her. He was threatening to create more heirs. More pawns for the Hawthorne game. More children to be used, abused, and discarded when they became inconvenient.

She stopped in the aisle labeled *Solvents & Adhesives*.

She picked up a can of acetone. A bottle of bleach. A jug of ammonia.

She wasn't building a bomb. She was building a distraction.

"Need help finding anything, miss?" A clerk appeared at the end of the aisle, looking concerned.

"I have a pest problem," Elena said, her voice flat. "A big one."

She added a timer, a battery, and a spool of wire to the cart.

"That's some serious pest control," the clerk said, eyeing the chemicals.

"They're very persistent," Elena said.

She paid with cash—the last of the money from the ring. She walked out into the night, carrying her arsenal in plastic bags.

The cab was waiting. Yuri looked at the bags, then at her.

"You going to war?" he asked.

"Yes," Elena said. "Take me to the impound lot."

"Impound lot?"

"The one in Queens," Elena said. "Where they took my car."

Yuri drove. Elena sat in the back, assembling her device. It wasn't sophisticated. It wasn't military grade. But it was loud. And it was bright.

She needed to get back into the estate. But she couldn't go through the gates. She couldn't go through the tunnel.

She had to go through the front door.

But first, she had to make sure no one was home.

Or rather, she had to make sure everyone *left* home.

They reached the impound lot. Elena got out. She walked to the fence.

Her SUV was there. Parked in the back. Battered, broken, but still hers.

She climbed the fence. She broke the window. She retrieved the one thing she had left behind.

The transponder.

The EZ-Pass tag.

She climbed back out.

"Where now?" Yuri asked.

"The Hawthorne Estate," Elena said. "But drop me a mile out."

They drove north. The city faded into suburbs, then into the dark, wooded hills of Westchester.

Elena got out at the service road. She walked through the woods, carrying her bags.

She reached the perimeter wall.

She set the timer on the device. Ten minutes.

She placed it against the base of the wall, near the main power conduit.

She started the countdown.

Then she ran.

She ran to the main gate. She hid in the bushes, watching the guard shack.

Two guards. Armed. Alert.

*Ten minutes.*

She checked her watch.

*Nine.*

She took out the transponder.

She walked up to the gate sensor.

*Beep.*

The gate opened.

The guards shouted. "Hey! Stop!"

Elena didn't stop. She ran through the opening gate, sprinting up the driveway.

"Intruder!" the guard yelled into his radio. "Main gate! Female!"

They chased her.

But they didn't shoot. Marcus wanted her alive. He wanted the documents.

She ran toward the house.

*Five minutes.*

She reached the front door. Locked.

She ran around to the side. To the library window.

She smashed it with a rock.

The alarm blared. Deafening.

"Security to sector 4!"

She climbed inside.

The library was dark. But she knew the layout. She knew where Marcus kept his private files.

She didn't go for the files.

She went for the fireplace.

She poured the acetone onto the logs. She lit a match.

The fire roared to life.

*Two minutes.*

She heard footsteps in the hall. Marcus.

"Elena!" he shouted. "I know you're in here!"

She stood by the fireplace, the flames illuminating her face.

He burst into the room. He was holding a gun.

"You came back," he said, breathless. "Where are the papers?"

"In a safe place," Elena said.

"Give them to me."

"Give me the embryos."

"They're in the lab," Marcus said. "Downstairs. Secure."

"Show me."

"No," Marcus said. "Papers first."

*One minute.*

"I don't have them," Elena said.

Marcus raised the gun. "Then you're useless."

"Am I?" Elena asked. "Or am I the only thing standing between you and prison?"

"You're nothing," Marcus said. "You're a breeding mare who outlived her usefulness."

*Zero.*

*BOOM.*

The explosion rocked the house. The windows rattled. The lights flickered and died.

"What did you do?" Marcus screamed.

"I blew the power," Elena said. "And the backup generator."

"So what?"

"So," Elena said, stepping toward him. "The cryo-tanks in the lab need power to keep the embryos frozen. Without power... they thaw."

Marcus's eyes widened.

"You're killing them," he whispered.

"No," Elena said. "I'm setting them free."

She looked at him.

"You have about twenty minutes before they're viable," she said. "You can shoot me. Or you can go save your legacy."

Marcus looked at the gun. He looked at the door to the basement.

He made his choice.

He dropped the gun.

He ran.

Elena watched him go.

She picked up the gun.

She wasn't going to the basement.

She was going to the nursery.

To get the one thing that mattered.

The recording. The baby monitor. The one she had hidden in the teddy bear.

The one that proved Eleanor ordered the hit.