I won’t let that happen to Nessa.
Even if it means facing Vael again and telling him she never existed.
Later that night, I sit by the sink with a cup of tea gone cold and stare at the readout on my handheld scanner.
The last spike came three hours ago.
Right when Nessa’s fever peaked.
Right when the lights flickered and the air recycler shorted for eight seconds.
Electromagnetic anomaly.
Localized.
Strong enough to trip half the medbay’s automated alert systems.
And if anyone checks the logs…
I scrub a hand down my face, pulse spiking.
She’s not just growing. She’smanifesting.
That’s not supposed to happen. Not this early.
I knew the Vakutan genes would kick in eventually.
I prepared for that. I planned, I trained, I built an entire life out here on the edge of nowhere just to buy us time.
But five years old? That’s too soon.
And I’m running out of excuses.
The school already flagged her eyes in the last scan.
They think it’s an anomaly.
An error.
They haven’t looked twice yet.
But theywill.
And when they do, I won’t have time to explain.
I press the scanner to the table and exhale slowly through my teeth.
Vael.
He’s not the same man I left behind.
And I’m not the same woman who loved him.
That woman died in a bunker with a broken comm and blood on her hands.
This one?
She’s just trying to keep her daughter alive.
