After 14 Hours of Labor, I Held My Sister’s Newborn Baby—Then She Recoiled in Disgust and Said I Had Violated Their “Contract.”

I hit the push-bar of the emergency fire exit, the metal alarm shrieking loudly through the quiet library.

I sprinted down the narrow concrete stairwell, my heart hammering against my ribs like a jackhammer. Behind me, the heavy footsteps of Arthur Vance’s security team echoed down the steps, their shouts bouncing off the bare concrete walls.

"Get the bag!" a man’s voice roared from above. "Do not let her reach the street!"

I burst out the ground-floor exit door into a dark, rain-soaked alleyway behind the library. The cold rain hit my face like needles.

I scrambled toward my car parked under an alley streetlight, my fingers frantically fumbling with my keys.

A dark SUV screeched around the corner of the alley, blocking the exit with a deafening roar of tires. High-beam lights blinded me, throwing my shadow long and dark against the brick wall.

Two men stepped out of the SUV, holding black tactical flashlights.

"Miss Lin," a calm, terrifyingly familiar voice echoed from the front passenger seat.

The tinted window rolled down slowly.

Sitting in the back seat was Arthur Vance Senior. He was holding an ivory-handled walking cane, his silver hair neatly combed back, his face completely devoid of human warmth.

"Give my men the flash drive," Arthur Vance said smoothly over the hum of the engine. "And this entire unpleasant ordeal ends tonight."

I backed up against my car door, clutching the leather bag containing Dr. Rostova’s flash drive to my chest. "You're a monster! You tried to manufacture a human being like a piece of factory machinery!"

Arthur Vance gave a quiet, dismissive laugh. "We build empires, Miss Lin. Empires require continuity. My family built this city’s transport network. Do you really think a jury of twelve ordinary citizens in Chicago is going to convict me based on the word of a rogue Russian doctor and a disgraced floor nurse?"

He gestured to his men. "Take the bag from her."

The two security guards stepped forward, reaching for my arms.

Suddenly, the alleyway erupted with the deafening roar of sirens.

Red and blue light strobed wildly against the rain-slicked brick walls as four unmarked police cruisers screeched into the alley, blocking the rear entrance.

A high-powered spotlight clicked on from the roof of the lead cruiser, illuminating Arthur Vance’s SUV in blinding white light.

"STATE POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE HOOD!" a bullhorn blasted through the alley.

A black sedan pulled up right behind the police cruisers. The door flew open, and Julian Ross stepped out into the pouring rain, accompanied by Agent Sarah Lin and two federal marshals holding arrest warrants.

Julian ran toward me, stepping directly between Arthur Vance’s security guards and my body.

"Are you okay?" Julian asked, his voice raw with panic as he looked at my trembling frame.

"I have it," I sobbed, holding up the leather bag. "I have the complete lab files, Julian! I have everything!"

Agent Sarah Lin walked up to Arthur Vance’s window, pulling a federal indictment document from her coat.

"Arthur Vance Senior," Agent Lin announced loudly over the rain. "You are under arrest by the United States Department of Justice for operation of an illegal medical research facility, federal wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit medical exploitation."

Arthur Vance’s calm facade finally cracked. His eyes widened in shock as a federal marshal opened the door of his SUV, pulling the elderly billionaire out into the rain and snapping heavy steel handcuffs onto his wrists.

"You can't do this!" Arthur Vance roared, his voice cracking with rage. "I own Vance Capital! I built this city!"

"You didn't build this city, Mr. Vance," Julian Ross said, standing tall in the rain, his arm wrapped firmly around my shoulders. "You just bought a lot of people who were too afraid to fight back. But that ends tonight."

Across the alley, as the police led Arthur Vance away in handcuffs, I looked up at Julian through the pouring rain.