Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be DeadThe old facility was hidden beneath an abandoned psychiatric hospital.
Evelyn arrived with Mara, Noah and investigators.
The building had been closed for decades.
Inside, the walls were damp.
The lights flickered.
A locked door stood at the end of the corridor.
Lena entered the code.
The door opened.
A woman sat beside a window.
Gray hair.
Thin shoulders.
Eyes that looked exactly like Evelyn's.
Evelyn stopped.
Her mother turned.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then the woman whispered,
“Evelyn?”
Evelyn began crying.
“Mom.”
Her mother stood.
She was weak.
But she walked toward her daughter.
Evelyn crossed the room.
They embraced.
Seven years of grief disappeared in one second.
“I thought you were dead.”
Her mother held her tightly.
“I had to disappear.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“No.”
Evelyn pulled back.
“To protect me from what?”
Her mother looked toward Noah.
Then she understood.
“You found him.”
Evelyn nodded.
“My son.”
Her mother smiled through tears.
“Daniel would be proud.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Victor kept you here.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he kill you?”
“Because I knew where the original research was stored.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Where?”
Her mother pointed toward a wall.
“There.”
They opened a hidden compartment.
Inside was a small metal box.
Her mother looked at Evelyn.
“Everything began with a single discovery.”
“What discovery?”
“Victor found a way to influence traumatic memories.”
Mara stared.
“And he used it to control people.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn looked at her mother.
“Why was I the first?”
“Because you resisted him.”
Her mother's eyes filled with tears.
“You were the only one who refused to become what he wanted.”
Evelyn remembered.
She remembered fighting with Victor.
Remembered threatening to expose him.
Remembered her mother telling her to run.
Then the crash.
The drugs.
The hospital.
The wheelchair.
The lies.
Everything fell into place.
Her mother continued.
“There was one thing Victor never understood.”
“What?”
“Memory can be manipulated.”
She reached toward Evelyn's forehead.
“But love can bring it back.”
Evelyn looked at Noah.
The barefoot boy who had asked her to dance.
The child she had been forced to forget.
Her mother smiled.
“He remembered you before you remembered him.”
Evelyn laughed through tears.
Then the lights went out.
Everyone froze.
A voice came from the doorway.
“You found her.”
Victor.
Evelyn turned.
Victor stepped into the room.
Older.
Blood on his shirt.
A gun in his hand.
Noah moved in front of Evelyn.
Victor smiled.
“Still protecting her.”
Evelyn stood between them.
For the first time, she wasn't afraid.
She looked directly at her father.
“You took seven years from me.”
May you like
Victor raised the gun.
“And now I'm taking the rest.”
