The safehouse was buried in Old Naledi, the one place no billionaire's drone would bother to scan. A rusted gate. A crumbling fence. The kind of silence that wrapped around you like a warning.
Melissa stepped inside and locked the door behind her. The room smelled like dust and burnt paraffin. No cameras. No glass walls. Just brick, shadows, and memories.
This was where Naledi, the old her had once lived.
She lit a single candle and sat cross-legged on the floor. Her fingers trembled as she pulled out the manila file she'd stolen from Max's private study before leaving. She hadn't even known what she was looking for until she saw her name on a classified envelope sealed with government tape.
She opened it.
What she found nearly made her vomit.
DOCUMENT 1: BOTHO FAMILY DOSSIER;CLASSIFIED
Subject: Boago Botho
Status: Deceased
Cause of death: Unconfirmed
Last known asset transfer: Avery Khumo Holdings via proxy
Melissa blinked. The elder Botho had funneled money into the same company Avery now ran?
Conflicting reports suggest a covert partnership was formed between Boago Botho and Thuso Khumo (Avery's father) involving government land misappropriation, illegal mining licenses, and human trafficking.
Her stomach twisted.
An attempted assassination of Thuso Khumo was ordered by an unknown party in 2007. The hit failed. Thuso died in a staged accident months later. Only survivor: Avery.
Melissa's hands clenched. The war hadn't started with her but had started with a cover-up.
DOCUMENT 2: OPERATION RED WOMB
She flipped to the next file. That title made her stomach knot.
Objective: Implant a civilian asset within the Botho line through seduction or accidental conception. Subject Melissa Kgomotso identified as high potential candidate.
She gasped, her pregnancy had been planned?, a set up? Her hands shook.
"Subject shows psychological resilience, strategic aptitude, and natural influence over Max Botho. We recommend moving forward with conception operation." Operative D.
Her vision blurred. She remembered now. That first week with Max. The way he'd shown up with tequila, the slip in his eyes, the moment she thought he was just drunk and emotional.
Had he known?
Had they drugged him?
Or had he chosen to go along?
The door creaked.
Melissa spun, hand on her revolver. But it wasn't an intruder but it was Naledi's mother.
A woman with tired eyes and a crooked back, standing barefoot in a faded nightgown, staring at her like she was a ghost.
"I knew you'd come," the old woman whispered. "You always do."
Melissa couldn't speak. She barely breathed.
"You don't know the whole story," the woman said, stepping inside. "But the past… it always finds its way home."
Melissa lowered her weapon, but not her guard.
"What do you know?" she asked.
The woman looked down, tears threatening. "They took everything from you. Everything. And now you're the only one who can finish what she started."
Later that night, Melissa sat at a makeshift desk, going over every file, every photo, every coded message. Each name connected to a bigger machine politicians, shell companies, hospitals that didn't exist.
Everything circled back to one moment: the birth of a child that had disappeared.
Naledi's child.
Melissa felt her breath catch. Could the child still be alive?
She opened another document and her entire world cracked.
PHOTOGRAPH
An incubator.
Tag: Infant Kgomotso. Status: Transferred to Facility D6. Project I.A.R.A.
Handwritten note: "High psychic resonance. Mother terminated. Memory extraction failed. Rehost possible."
Melissa gripped the table, her vision spinning.
Project I.A.R.A; Infant Ascension and Reanimation Architecture.
They had tried to extract Naledi's consciousness. When it failed, they shoved Melissa's soul into her body instead.
She wasn't just reborn, she was engineered! A knock came at the door.
Three short taps.Then silence as Melissa stood slowly, revolver in hand. She opened the door a crack and froze.
Max!
Hair drenched in rain. Shirt torn. A cut across his eyebrow.
"I followed the trail," he said softly. "Please. You need to hear me out." She stared at him.
Torn between the man she loved and the monster she feared.