(Antagonist's POV)
The city slept, blanketed in mist and neon.
From the penthouse overlooking the skyline, Dr. Adrian Vale watched the glow of ambulance lights fade into the distance straight toward the hospital where Sebastian Kane had been just hours ago.
He smiled faintly.
So, the Kane heir was finally rattled. Good.
He lifted his glass of scotch, the liquid catching the light like liquid fire. The reflection staring back at him from the window wasn't the man the world thought he was charming biotech visionary, humanitarian investor, the quiet genius behind one of the most powerful research conglomerates in the world.
No.
That was his mask.
The real Adrian Vale was something else entirely.
A creation of his own making a survivor of Project Eden.
He traced the rim of his glass thoughtfully. "You always were predictable, Sebastian," he murmured. "Fall in love. Break your own rules. And let that woman be your undoing."
On the massive screen beside him, live feeds flickered from hidden cameras across multiple properties one of them the Kane mansion. The east wing camera still showed static interference.
That door.
The one Sebastian kept locked.
Vale's lips curved. "Still hiding her, are we?"
He walked across the room, where a holographic projection of files shimmered into view the original Eden documentation, dated six years ago.
Each file bore the Kane Holdings insignia and the tagline: "Perfection through precision."
He swiped through the data lazily genome sequences, failed test subjects, redacted patient names.
Then came one name that hadn't been redacted.
Evelyn Kane.
He paused.
She hadn't been supposed to die. She'd been promised.
He remembered her face vividly elegant, curious, desperate to matter. Evelyn had wanted to be more than just Sebastian's fiancée. She'd wanted to be the key.
And for a time, she had been.
Until she'd learned what he was doing with her DNA.
Until she'd threatened to expose him.
Vale's jaw tightened. He hadn't killed her out of malice. He'd done it because perfection demanded sacrifice.
The fire that consumed her lab had erased all evidence or so he'd thought. But when Sebastian shut down Eden, when he buried every trace of it under offshore shell companies and sealed archives, Vale had understood something else:
Sebastian hadn't destroyed Eden.
He'd stolen it.
Vale poured another drink, staring down at the latest report from his informant.
SUBJECT: Isabelle Lane
Status: Alive. Pregnant. Under Kane's protection.
DNA marker sequence: identical match to Evelyn prototype line.
A low laugh escaped him.
So that's what you've been hiding, Sebastian.
He'd known Sebastian had taken one of the genetic samples years ago, but he hadn't expected him to use it not like this. Not to create life.
A child born of the same experimental gene code that had killed Evelyn.
Perfection reborn in human form.
He leaned back in his chair, the glass dangling from his fingers. "You thought you could outplay me, old friend," he whispered. "But all you did was build me a legacy."
A soft beep interrupted his thoughts.
Vale turned as the elevator doors slid open, revealing a woman in a sleek black coat, her heels echoing sharply across the marble floor.
"Sir," she said, her voice low. "We tracked their vehicle. They're heading toward the north estate. He's putting her back in the old safehouse."
Vale's smile widened. "Perfect. That place has more ghosts than guards."
The woman hesitated. "What should we do about her?"
"Isabelle Lane?"
"Yes."
He rose slowly, setting down his drink. "For now, nothing. Let her think she's safe. Let Sebastian think he's winning."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a murmur. "When the time comes, we'll take them both. The woman and the child."
The agent nodded, but she didn't move. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
Vale's eyes narrowed. "Granted."
"Why her?" she asked. "She's just a woman. If you want revenge on Kane, why not destroy his company instead?"
"Because," Vale said softly, "revenge isn't the goal. Continuation is."
He turned toward the window again, watching the distant lightning split the clouds. "Eden was never about power, or profit. It was about evolution rewriting the human code itself. Evelyn understood that. But Sebastian"
He stopped, his expression darkening.
"Sebastian fell in love. And love is the one flaw evolution cannot correct."
(Scene shift – Vale's private lab)
Behind the mirrored glass of the subterranean facility, a row of containment pods glowed faint blue. Inside each one floated something both beautiful and terrible translucent forms suspended in artificial amniotic fluid, half human, half engineered perfection.
Subjects labeled E-12 through E-15.
Only one pod was empty.
The one marked E-16: Terminated.
Vale's reflection wavered on the glass as he stared at it, his jaw set.
"You could have been everything," he whispered. "But you ran."
He turned to his assistant, a quiet man in a lab coat typing frantically at a console.
"Status on the retrieval sequence?"
"We've confirmed the genetic link, sir. If the fetus matches the E-line parameters, the subject's offspring could be the stabilizing variable we lost in the last phase."
"In other words," Vale said, smiling coldly, "the perfect heir to Eden."
He looked down at the digital image of Isabelle's ultrasound. A grainy, fragile miracle.
"She carries the future Evelyn died for," he murmured. "And Sebastian doesn't even realize it."
(Meanwhile – Kane Mansion Surveillance)
The screen beside him flickered security feeds blinking from static to focus.
There she was. Isabelle Lane.
Alive. Vulnerable. Sitting by the hospital bed with one hand over her stomach.
Vale studied her face carefully. She looked nothing like Evelyn. Softer. Stronger, perhaps. But her eyes those eyes held the same fire Evelyn once had before fear dimmed it.
He zoomed in on the image until her features blurred into pixels.
He remembered how Evelyn had screamed his name the night the fire started. How she'd begged him to stop the experiment, to shut down Eden before it consumed them all.
But genius demanded cruelty.
And cruelty had no place for mercy.
"She should thank me," he said quietly to the glass. "Without me, she'd never have been born at all."
The assistant hesitated. "Sir?"
Vale turned. "Prepare the extraction team. I want Kane's network infiltrated. When the time comes, we'll take the prototype alive. But if she resists"
He smiled thinly. "Then we remind Sebastian what it feels like to lose the woman he loves."
(Cut – Surveillance Operator POV)
In the control room below the penthouse, a young technician watched the feed from the Kane Holdings network and swallowed hard. He wasn't supposed to see or hear any of this his clearance was limited to diagnostics, not private briefings.
But as Vale's words replayed in his head, dread pooled in his stomach.
They're going to take her.
He hesitated only a moment before opening a private channel one he'd never dared to use.
TO: Unknown Secure Address
SUBJECT: E-16
MESSAGE: She's alive. He's coming for her. Protect the child.
He hit send and deleted the file instantly.
Then he looked up at the flickering screen showing Vale's cold smile and whispered, "God help them."
(Back to Vale – closing scene)
The storm outside was growing stronger now thunder rolling low, rain streaking down the glass like blood on a mirror.
Vale stood alone, watching the city lights blur through the downpour.
He lifted his hand and touched the glass, his reflection staring back older, sharper, more monstrous than he'd ever meant to become.
But it didn't matter anymore. Monsters were what the world needed to evolve.
And if Sebastian Kane wanted to protect his imperfect little family, he'd have to face the truth.
He was the one who created the monster standing in that glass.