CHAPTER 1 — THE FIRST PROOF
I didn’t take Noah home that night.
Instead, I took the plastic bag from Mara and drove straight to a private lab across town that I had used years ago for corporate forensic work—before Celeste ever entered my life.
The technician didn’t ask questions. He only looked at the contents and frowned.
“What is this?” he asked.
“That’s what I need you to tell me.”
Two hours later, he came back with a sealed report.
His face was pale.
“These are insect larvae fragments,” he said slowly. “But not from contamination. They were introduced… alive.”
My stomach dropped.
“Alive?”
He nodded.
“Engineered digestion species. Lab-modified. They can survive inside food… and react to organic tissue once ingested.”
I didn’t speak.
Because suddenly, Noah’s screams weren’t imagination anymore.
They were a countdown.
When I got back to the car, Celeste had called seventeen times.
I didn’t answer.
But she texted once:
Bring him home. He needs me.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
And for the first time, I didn’t see a wife.
I saw a handler checking if her experiment was still contained.
