Chapter Nine: Project L.V
1039 Words
The words didn’t make sense at first.
Project L.V.
They hung in the air like something foreign, something that didn’t belong in a marriage, in a mansion, in her life at all.
Lena turned slowly toward Ethan.
Her voice came out thinner than she intended. “What is it?”
Ethan didn’t answer immediately.
That silence was the worst part.
Behind him, Adrian stood perfectly still, watching like he was no longer interested in interruptions—only outcomes.
The monitors flickered again.
Then stabilized.
And the first file began to play.
⸻
A sterile white room appeared on the screen.
Doctors. Machines. A blurred timestamp in the corner.
And then—
A younger version of Lena.
Lena froze so hard it felt like her body forgot how to breathe.
“That’s not…” she whispered.
But it was.
Her.
Attached notes appeared beside the footage.
SUBJECT: L.V. — Longitudinal Viability Candidate
Her hands shook violently.
“No,” she said again, sharper this time. “That’s impossible. I’ve never been in that place.”
Ethan stepped forward quickly. “Lena—don’t look at it like that.”
“Then how am I supposed to look at it?!” she snapped, her voice breaking. “That is me!”
Adrian finally spoke, calm but cutting.
“It’s you, yes.”
Lena whipped her head toward him. “What did you just say?”
Ethan turned sharply. “Adrian, enough.”
But Adrian continued anyway.
“Project L.V. began years before you were married,” he said. “Before Ethan even met you.”
Lena shook her head. “Stop talking like I’m part of some experiment.”
A flicker of something passed across Ethan’s face.
Pain.
Or regret.
Maybe both.
Adrian gestured to the screen.
“You were part of it long before you knew you were involved.”
The footage shifted.
Hospital records.
Genetic profiles.
Financial transactions tied to her mother’s medical history.
Lena felt the room tilt slightly.
“My mother…” she whispered.
Ethan’s voice lowered. “That was real.”
But Adrian cut in immediately.
“It was a trigger.”
Lena stared at him. “A what?”
“A controlled pressure point,” Adrian said simply. “Your mother’s condition wasn’t random. It was part of the selection profile.”
Silence dropped so hard it felt physical.
Lena stepped back.
“No,” she said again, weaker now. “No, you’re lying.”
Ethan moved toward her slowly.
“I tried to stop it,” he said quietly.
That made her freeze.
“You tried?” she repeated.
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Lena let out a bitter laugh. “That’s your defense? You tried?”
“I didn’t approve Project L.V.,” he said sharply. “I inherited it.”
Adrian gave a soft scoff.
“Inherited is a generous word.”
Lena looked between them, her chest tightening painfully.
“You’re both talking like I’m not a person,” she said quietly.
The room went still.
Even Adrian didn’t respond immediately.
Then Ethan said something that made her stomach drop.
“You were never meant to be involved directly.”
Lena’s voice shook. “But I am.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hit harder than any lie.
Lena turned toward the screens again, forcing herself to look.
The files continued.
Observations.
Behavioral tracking.
Emotional response mapping.
Even recorded conversations she had no memory of.
“I was watched,” she whispered.
Ethan didn’t deny it.
“I had to verify you were stable,” he said.
“That’s what you call this?” Her voice rose. “Stability?”
Adrian leaned against the console, watching them both now.
“You’re missing the point,” he said.
Lena snapped her gaze to him. “Oh, I’m missing the point?”
“Yes,” he said calmly. “Because neither of you are asking the right question.”
A pause.
Then—
“Why you?”
Silence.
That question landed differently.
He stepped closer to the screen, pointing at a highlighted file.
“Out of thousands of candidates, Lena Carter was selected for one reason.”
Lena’s throat tightened. “What reason?”
Adrian looked at Ethan.
Not her.
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
And when he opened them again, something in him had changed.
Like a line had been crossed.
“Because,” Ethan said quietly, “your genetic profile matched something we thought didn’t exist anymore.”
Lena felt cold spread through her chest.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan hesitated.
Just once.
Then:
“Compatibility.”
Lena stared at him. “Compatibility with what?”
The monitors flickered again.
A new file opened.
This one labeled:
SUBJECT E — PRIMARY MATCH
Lena’s blood ran cold.
On the screen—
A genetic comparison chart.
Her DNA.
And Ethan’s.
Aligned.
Matched.
Overlapping in impossible ways.
Lena stepped back like the floor had dropped beneath her.
“No,” she whispered.
Ethan didn’t move.
Adrian’s voice was quieter now.
“You weren’t chosen randomly,” he said. “You were matched.”
Lena’s voice broke. “Matched for what?”
Silence.
Even the house felt like it was waiting for the answer.
Ethan finally spoke.
“For survival.”
The word made everything worse.
Lena shook her head rapidly. “That doesn’t make sense. That’s not a reason to—”
“To marry you?” Adrian finished.
She glared at him. “Yes!”
Adrian’s expression softened slightly—but not kindly.
“No,” he said. “It’s a reason to keep you alive.”
Lena froze.
The room was too quiet.
Too still.
Ethan stepped closer again, his voice lower now.
“You’re not in danger because of us,” he said carefully. “You’re in danger because other people know what you are.”
Lena’s breath caught.
“What I am?”
Ethan met her eyes directly.
And for the first time since she met him—
He stopped hiding.
“You are the last viable match to a lineage that was supposed to disappear.”
Silence.
Then Lena whispered:
“What lineage?”
Ethan’s answer came like a crack in the world.
“Mine.”
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