I stood by her coffin, hands shaking, trying to be a “strong husband” while my unborn child slept inside her. “Just… let me see her one last time,” I whispered. The room went silent as I leaned in—and her belly shifted. Not a shadow. Not my grief. A real movement. “Did you see that?” I gasped. Someone screamed, “Call the doctors—NOW!

I knew I couldn't protect Elena alone. The police were corruptable, and Vale Pharmaceuticals owned half the city’s politicians. I needed leverage. I needed someone who hated the Vale family as much as I did.

I made a phone call to a man named Arthur Pendelton. He was the former Chief Financial Officer of Vale, fired by Vivian five years ago when he tried to blow the whistle on their offshore money laundering.

Two hours later, Arthur met me in the hospital chapel. He was an older man with gray hair and sharp, analytical eyes, wearing a trench coat soaked from the rain.

"I saw the news, Daniel," Arthur said, sitting in the pew beside me. "A miracle. Or a curse, depending on who you ask."

"They tried to poison her again tonight, Arthur," I said, handing him the syringe wrapped in a sterile cloth. "I need this analyzed. And I need to know what Project Lazarus is."

Arthur’s face drained of color. He stared at the syringe as if it were a venomous snake. "Lazarus... they actually went through with it. It’s a synthetic peptide, Daniel. It induces a state of profound catatonia—lowers the heart rate to three beats per minute, stops brain waves from registering on standard EEG machines. To any normal doctor, the patient looks dead."

"Why Elena?" I asked, my fists clenching. "She's Vivian’s daughter. Marcus's sister."

"Because Elena was going to dissolve the board of directors next week," Arthur explained. "She had proof that Vivian and Marcus were embezzling hundreds of millions to fund illegal human trials in Eastern Europe. If Elena died before the board meeting, her shares would automatically revert to a trust controlled by... Vivian."

"And the baby?"

Arthur looked at me with deep pity. "The baby is the ultimate prize. The peptide they gave Elena has a side effect. It crosses the placental barrier. If the fetus survives, her blood will contain the natural antibodies against the toxin. The baby's umbilical cord blood is worth billions on the black market as a universal antidote."

A cold, murderous rage washed over me. They didn't just want Elena dead; they wanted to harvest our unborn daughter.