"I'm sorry Kyle. Say it again. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time. Start at the beginning."

Kyle rubbed the front of his thighs which I'd noticed he did every time he was feeling a deep emotion. Right now it was probably frustration, but my mind refused to comprehend what he was saying.

"Your father is the lead geneticist at GenTech. He's been working on a secret project for years. It's government funded and someone probably knows about it, but it's so hush hush I don't even know what parts are real and what's just made up. Are you with me so far?"

I giggled, the nervous embarrassed kind of giggle that you get when someone is making you feel small. "Yes Kyle, I'm with you. My dad is a scientist with a secret project."

He rubbed my shoulders and played with the ponytail hanging from my shoulder. "The project was your dad's own personal passion. Genetic cloning. He was an expert, maybe the best there is but cloning isn't legal unless every move is monitored and regulated. And neither he nor my dad wanted that interference."

He got up and paced around the log. I sat statue still, eyes on Buster afraid of what he was going to say.

"Cassie, the thing is. Your father loved you so much. More than I can even imagine someone loving another human. He would have done anything to save you. And he really believed he would." He knelt in front of me and stared straight into my eyes. His Blue ones with specs of gold and brown like confetti so soft and deep.

"Yes. He loved me. I know that Kyle. What are you trying to tell me?"

"He started off trying to reproduce a heart with your own gene sequence. Your DNA. It would have been a perfect match, and ready for transplant. But he was afraid of a gene splice anomaly. There was no way to guarantee the heart would work indefinitely, or if something would go wrong. And he needed it perfect. Proof that it conducted and had the proper rhythm and lifespan, and there was only one way to ensure the heart he would use was functioning."

I tried not to imagine Frankenstein or my father cutting someone open to give me a heart made out of someone else. My mind swam with scenarios of how you could prove a heart worked and none of them seemed pleasant.

"What did he do Kyle? What did my father do?"

Kyle looked at the ground and picked up a leaf. He let out a giant breath and looked around making sure we were alone.

"He made a clone Cassie. A living breathing perfect copy of you with one exception. A perfect heart."

My mouth stood agape and my hands trembled. This was some crazy mistake. A weird science fiction movie of the week where impossible things were possible. I couldn't think of a single good scenario.

Finally after what seemed an endless silence I managed a sentence. "So there's another me walking around somewhere? Is that what you're telling me?"

Kyle sat next to me on the log and took my hand. "Well, she's not exactly walking. But she could someday. If what my dad is whispering about is true, she's a baby Cassie. And my father is trying to find her, and none of the endings I can come up with are good ones. From what I can gather your father said he had the baby in a controlled environment away from the lab where the government wouldn't catch on. They were only aware they were finding the heart itself. But now, after your father..., well, my dad wants that baby."

This time it was me that sprang from the log and starting frantically pacing. "If you're serious Kyle, and I'll be honest, I don't know if you think I'm crazy, or maybe you're crazy, or maybe the whole world is crazy. But if you're telling the truth, we can't let that happen!

"Why doesn't he just leave it where it is? Never say a word about the cloning, just let wherever she is keep raising her and pretend he doesn't know anything?"

"Cassie. It doesn't work like that. She's a clone. She was engineered for a specific purpose. No one knows if your dad planned a kill switch, a glitch, a shutdown. It's unpredictable. She was only made for one thing. And the research is world changing. My dad wants to know about the design, to reproduce it for others, and obviously make millions in government contracts. This baby was created for one thing, but with that kind of knowledge, he could name his price."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Full on, as if a semi ran me over in the middle of the road. My hand flew to my chest and the beating of my perfect heart thumped against my palm. "A heart. She was made to give me her heart."

When I realized the extent my father went to, I ran to the side of the trail and vomited. He made another daughter. To kill. In my mind she was the perfect vision of Snow White. And my father was the Evil Queen asking for her heart.

But she wasn't Snow White. She was me. Every hair, every flake of skin. Eye color, hair color, every single fiber of her being was me. And I was her. I would save her. I would save me. She didn't ask for any of this and despite anything that was planned or any skip my father may have planted or not planned for she would be mine, and whatever the reason for her being, she would now have me to protect her from it all.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, the taste of bile burning my throat. "Kyle. I'm getting that baby. I don't know why you told me any of this, or what you expected me to do, but she is mine. For God's sake she is ME. And we owe her."

His face lit up and his posture relaxed. Despite the place, my freak out session, and the taste of vomit, he leaned his face toward mine and his forehead touched my own. He wound his fingers around my ponytail and kissed me quickly on the lips as if I just gave him a winning Wilie Wonka ticket while the world spun. It was quick and done in the excitement of the moment, but for me, it was my first kiss and despite the circumstances and taste in my mouth I promised myself to remember what it was like.

"I knew you'd be on board, we can't let my dad get a hold of that baby, he's not who he used to be, he's turned into everything I hate, the money, the power, it's already killed the only parts of him I ever liked, and now he's obsessed. But, It's not that easy Cassie. My father and the people who financed it, they aren't going to let her go. She's a liability. She was never supposed to exists in the first place, it was just supposed to be a viable heart, not a human, much less leave the facility and move about on the world. And now they're scrambling, there's a missing piece and a big liability out there, that's why they searched your house. They're missing a piece of the puzzle."

Buster whined as if on cue and we walked back to the car. I knew he was starving by now. It was well past the time I usually fed him and he'd gotten more exercise today than he had in months.

Kyle pulled me to a stop before we got to the truck.

"Cassie. This is big. And I swear I'll help you figure it out, but you've got to be careful. If the government funding is involved then everyone is playing for keeps. Your house, my car, they could be listening anywhere. We have to play safe. You understand that?"

I wanted to tell Kyle he was nuts, but I had seen my house ransacked, my dog injured and the inside of that armed guard fake office. Somewhere in my gut I trusted that he was right. I opened my mouth to answer and then closed it, and nodded instead.

As we drove I silently went through everything I had learned. The truth about my father, the baby, my burglary and even Kyle. It was overwhelming and I just wanted to forget it for a moment, just until I could get it straight.

In the car next to me a man sat smiling in the driver seat. In the back sat a woman smiling while giving her baby a bottle. Her eyes moonstruck with love and hope. Was anyone looking at the baby at the lab like that? Had anyone shown her love at all, or was she a lab rat, untouched. Fed to grow what her scientist/father needed. A heart.

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Mic drop (lol). And this is the chapter that came to me and started the book!! But just because it's been revealed doesn't mean there aren't a few other twists. Because let's face it, there's no fun in figuring out the whole book on chapter ten (laughs evilly). 😬. Let me know what you think....if you want to😊. Thanks everyone.