Chapter 34 - The Mark of the Highborn Syndicate
Arthur opened the dossier with trembling hands.
The documents inside were watermarked with the official seal of the Sterling Trust dating back forty years.
Attached to the yellowed pages were dozens of surveillance photographs of young girls, all bearing an uncanny resemblance to Clara.
Wide eyes, high cheekbones, delicate frames.
"They weren't brides," Clara said, stepping closer, her voice dropping into a deadly whisper. "They were prototypes."
Arthur flipped through the pages, his stomach churning violently.
Each girl had an identification number, blood type, genetic markers, and an estimated market liquidation value.
"My father is a philanthropist," Arthur said, though the words sounded hollow even to his own ears. "He raised me to believe in public service."
"He raised you to be the clean face of the syndicate," Clara corrected coldly. "The honorable heir who asks no questions while the money pours into offshore accounts."
She stabbed a finger onto a photograph taken twenty years ago.
The picture showed Arthur's father, Marcus Sterling, standing beside an open shipping container at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Inside the container were rows of secured cryo-cases bearing the pharmaceutical logo of Sterling Biomed.
"They weren't just trading art and political favors at that masquerade tonight, Arthur," Clara said. "They were bidding on synthetic genetic patents harvested from children raised in black-site orphanages."
Arthur stared at the photograph of his father.
The man had smiled at him over breakfast every Sunday of his life.
The man who had given him his first pocket watch and told him that integrity was a gentleman's only true currency.
"And you?" Arthur looked up at Clara, his voice cracking. "What were you in all of this?"
Clara pulled the collar of her shirt aside, revealing the hollow of her collarbone.
Burned deep into her flesh was a circular branding mark.
May you like
A three-headed serpent.
"I was Lot Number Seven," she whispered. "And I was designed from birth to marry you."
