Nobela ni Pearlmide

CHAPTER FIVE: I WANT MY BABY"I will not terminate my pregnancy just because your mistake has complicated your life."Elena arrived at the clinic with the divorce document folded inside her handbag. She had barely slept. Adrian had spent the night alternating between angry calls and messages insisting she had misunderstood the financial agreement. Not once had he asked whether she was all right. That absence made the decision in front of her clearer than any argument could have.The clinic director met her privately and apologized for the paperwork error. A document unrelated to her medical treatment had been mixed into the forms she was asked to sign. The clinic would provide copies of every page, document the incident, and cooperate with her independent lawyer. Elena insisted that the mistake be recorded in writing. She was tired of being told to trust people who seemed to benefit from her confusion.Then the director explained the sample mix-up. The clinic’s initial review had conf

CHAPTER FOUR: SIGN HERE"These are routine forms, Mrs. Hayes. Sign where the tabs are, and we can finish everything today."Elena returned to the clinic the next morning with dark circles under her eyes and the previous day’s humiliation still lodged beneath her ribs. Adrian had not called to apologize or explain. Her biological parents had sent messages asking her to be reasonable, while Victoria had sent a single line: *I never wanted you to suffer.* Elena had deleted it without replying.She had come because the clinic had contacted her about a possible handling error. The director met her in a small office, apologized for the confusion, and explained that the clinic was investigating whether the wrong sample had been used during her fourth insemination attempt. The source had not yet been fully confirmed, and pregnancy could not be established so soon after the procedure.“I want the truth,” Elena said. “I have spent years paying for treatment and telling myself the next time migh

CHAPTER THREE: THE MISTAKE"Tell me how another woman ended up with my sample, and don’t waste my time with excuses."Sebastian Blackwood’s voice cut through the conference room so sharply that the junior executives stopped pretending to study their notes. He had been halfway through a discussion about a new hotel acquisition when his assistant handed him a message from the fertility clinic. The director had requested an urgent call and refused to explain the reason through staff. Sebastian had stepped into a private room expecting a storage update. Instead, he heard the words *sample mix-up* and *possible pregnancy*.“It was a handling error,” the clinic director said. “We are conducting an internal review, and we sincerely regret—”“Do not give me a rehearsed apology before you tell me what happened.” Sebastian shoved his chair back so hard that it struck the wall. “You were entrusted with biological material that could result in a child. Explain how you used it in someone else’s tr

CHAPTER TWO: MY SISTER’S BABY"You need to divorce Adrian before this becomes uglier than it already is."Elena had barely sat down in her biological parents’ drawing room when her father delivered the sentence. He did not ask why she had come from the clinic looking pale, or whether Adrian had been with her. He sat behind his desk with a file open in front of him, while her mother stayed close to Victoria on the sofa. Victoria held a tissue against her eyes, though her cheeks were dry.“I haven’t even taken my coat off,” Elena said. “Can someone explain why I’m being told to divorce my husband?”Her mother’s mouth tightened. “Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”“Harder for whom?” Elena asked. “I saw Adrian at the hospital with a pregnant woman. I want to know who she is.”Victoria lowered her head. “It was me.”The words did not seem to fit inside the room. Elena looked at her sister, then at her parents, waiting for someone to laugh and tell her she had misunderstood

CHAPTER ONE: THE WIFE HE NEVER TOUCHED"Please, Adrian. Just come for ten minutes. I don’t want to do this alone again."Elena Hayes stood outside the fertility clinic’s treatment room with her phone pressed to her ear and her appointment card bent between her fingers. She had arrived early because she was afraid of being late, although there was nobody waiting at home to wish her luck. This was her fourth insemination attempt. The first had ended with a nurse saying the timing had been right but nature was unpredictable. The second had ended with a sympathetic doctor and another bill. The third had ended with Elena sitting in her car until the clinic closed, crying so hard that she could barely see the road. She had promised herself she would not cry today.“I told you I’m in a meeting,” Adrian said. His voice sounded distant, as if she were an interruption he had already decided to forgive himself for making. “I’ll come when I can.”“They’re preparing me now. You said you would come

CHAPTER FIVE: THE FIRST MONSTERThe north research facility was already under lockdown when we arrived. Kael had brought a small tactical team, while I carried the access records my father had recovered. The front doors were sealed, and alarms flashed red across the glass.A scientist stumbled out of a side entrance, blood running down his face.“Don’t let them open the containment wing!” he shouted. “The subject is changing!”A crash shook the building. Something slammed against the inside of the laboratory door.Kael raised his weapon. “Everyone behind me.”I moved beside him instead. “The emergency controls are on the second floor. If the power fails, the containment doors will unlock.”“You know that how?”“I read the facility plans.”He looked as if he wanted to argue, but another crash silenced him. We entered through the side door and ran up the stairwell. A technician lay unconscious on the landing. I checked his pulse, then kept moving. There was no time to waste.At the cont

CHAPTER FOUR: I BUY MY FUTUREI should have been terrified by the message. Instead, I felt a sharp, satisfying thrill. In my first life, Mara had controlled every room she entered. She had persuaded the council to condemn my father, convinced Kael that the evidence was genuine, and watched the city collapse from behind locked doors.Now she knew I was coming for her.Good.I left the military compound at dawn with Rowan’s escort and headed to the bank. The investment I remembered was already climbing. I sold the shares at the peak I knew was coming, paid off my overdue bills, and bought emergency supplies with the profit. It wasn’t a fortune, but it was the first money I had earned in this life without begging anyone for help.I bought bottled water, dry food, a compact first-aid kit, batteries, a radio, and a sturdy backpack. I stored the most valuable supplies in the system’s inventory, keeping only what I could plausibly carry. The inventory had limits, and every slot mattered.At

CHAPTER THREE: THE WOMAN WHO KNOWS TOMORROWKael cancelled the briefing, but he didn’t believe me completely. He moved it to a secure conference room and filled the corridor with armed guards. If I was lying, I would be exposed. If I was telling the truth, he would catch whoever was behind the attack.I had no intention of waiting around to see which outcome he preferred.While Rowan reviewed the security logs, I used my temporary access to pull the warehouse manifests. The first address contained bottled water and canned food. The second held antibiotics, bandages, and portable generators. The third stored batteries, radios, and fuel canisters.I memorised the quantities and saved copies to my phone. Then I found a fourth shipment listed under an industrial cleaning company. It contained protective suits, respirators, and sealed laboratory containers. The delivery had been authorised by Dr. Mara Voss.My stomach tightened. Mara had testified against my father. She had told the counci

CHAPTER TWO: MY FIRST VICTORY“Stay down,” Kael ordered.I ignored him long enough to peer over the desk. The shooter had vanished from the opposite building, but a red laser dot swept across the wall again. I grabbed Kael’s sleeve and yanked him lower just as another bullet punched through the desk.He turned on me. “You were warned.”“And you were about to get shot in the head. You’re welcome.”His expression promised consequences. I didn’t care. I had already died once because powerful people refused to listen. I wasn’t going to let pride kill the man the system had chained to my future.Kael spoke into his radio. “Rowan, lock down the building. Nobody exits without clearance. Get a team to the roof across the street.”A voice answered through static. “Copy, Commander.”I knew the next part. The assassin had entered through the western stairwell, used an access code stolen from a dismissed contractor, and planted a second weapon in the service corridor. In my first life, the attack

CHAPTER ONE: THE MAN WHO KILLED MY FATHERI watched Commander Kael Draven put a bullet through my father’s head.The sound was smaller than I expected. One sharp crack, a burst of smoke, and my father dropped to his knees on the execution platform. For one impossible second, he looked almost surprised. Then he fell forward, and the world I knew ended with him.“Your father betrayed the city,” Kael announced to the crowd. “His actions endangered every survivor under our protection.”My father had spent twenty years trying to protect those survivors. He had warned the council that the containment project was unstable. He had begged them to shut it down. They called him a traitor, and Kael believed them.I screamed until my throat tore. Soldiers dragged me away before I could reach my father’s body. Kael watched without blinking.I swore I would make him pay.Three days later, the infected broke through the city gates. The council fled, the military abandoned the outer districts, and the