Chapter 12 - The Woman Who Raised Me
The Person I Called Mom Might Have Been Someone Else Entirely
I couldn't breathe.
I looked at Mom.
She looked at Dad's message.
Then she started crying.
“It's not true.”
“Then tell me who you are.”
“I am your mother.”
“Prove it.”
She couldn't.
Rowan stepped between us.
“Enough.”
“No.”
I stepped around him.
“I'm done being lied to.”
Mom sank onto the concrete.
“I don't know what he knows.”
“What does that mean?”
She whispered,
“I found you after the crash.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Elena died.”
“You just said she was alive.”
“I thought she was.”
“And now?”
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“What happened seventeen years ago?”
Mom took a shaky breath.
“There were two cars.”
“Two?”
“The first was Elena's.”
“The second?”
“Mine.”
The room went silent.
She continued.
“I found you in the wreckage.”
“But my adoption papers…”
“Were created later.”
“By who?”
“Caleb.”
I turned toward Daniel.
He looked stunned.
“That means…”
Mom nodded.
“Lyra may never have legally belonged to anyone.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“She was registered three times.”
“Three?”
“Once as Elena's daughter.”
“Then?”
“As a deceased infant.”
“And the third?”
Mom looked at me.
“As my daughter.”
I couldn't speak.
Rowan finally asked,
“Why erase her twice?”
Mom answered.
“Because the system needed to hide the original key.”
Ivy whispered,
“So everything about our family was fake?”
Mom looked at her.
“No.”
“Was Dad fake?”
“No.”
“Was Lyra?”
“No.”
Mom took my hand.
“You were the only thing that was always real.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Then Daniel interrupted.
“We need to move.”
“Why?”
He pointed to the garage entrance.
Cars were arriving.
Rowan counted.
“Six.”
I thought about the water plant.
“Dad told me to bring the key.”
“What key?” Rowan asked.
I touched my chest.
“This.”
The biometric marker.
The genetic authorization.
Daniel shook his head.
“You can't surrender yourself.”
“I won't.”
“Then why are we going?”
“To rescue Dad.”
Rowan stared.
“You're not trained for this.”
“I don't care.”
Ivy stepped beside me.
“I'm coming too.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Ivy.”
“You said we're sisters no matter what.”
I looked at her.
She was terrified.
But she didn't move.
Rowan finally nodded.
“We go together.”
The old water plant sat outside the city.
Abandoned.
Fenced.
Dark.
We entered through a broken service door.
A loudspeaker crackled.
Caleb's voice filled the building.
“Welcome, Lyra.”
Dad shouted somewhere in the darkness.
“DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!”
The lights turned on.
Dad was chained to a chair.
Caleb stood behind him.
Helen stood beside the control panel.
And someone else stepped into view.
A woman.
Older.
Gray hair.
Scar across her cheek.
She looked at me.
My knees nearly gave out.
Because I knew her face.
She was Elena.
Alive.
Caleb smiled.
“Now you understand why your father told you not to trust anyone.”
Elena looked directly at me.
May you like
And said:
“Lyra… your father is the traitor.”
