Chapter 7 - Which Glen Was My Husband?The man in the doorway smiled.
My husband stared at him.
The stranger stared back.
They looked identical.
Not similar.
Identical.
Same face.
Same shoulders.
Same crooked half-smile.
Same wedding ring.
Ariel began shaking.
“No.”
Both men spoke simultaneously.
“It's okay.”
Ariel screamed.
I pulled her behind me.
Mara raised a gun.
Neither man moved.
“Who is Glen?” she asked.
The man on my left answered first.
“I am.”
The man on my right said:
“So am I.”
Mara cursed.
“Damn it.”
Clara stepped into the laboratory.
My father was behind her.
Alive.
Blood still stained his shirt.
I stared at him.
“You're alive.”
He nodded.
“Barely.”
Then he looked at the two Glens.
And whispered:
“Neither one is the original.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What?”
My father stepped forward.
“The real Glen died six years ago.”
Everything inside me stopped.
I turned toward the man beside me.
He looked devastated.
“That's not true.”
My father continued.
“The company replaced him.”
“What company?”
“Orion.”
Mara nodded.
“Project Mirror was theirs.”
I looked at Clara.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For fifteen years?”
She shook her head.
“I found out eight months ago.”
“Then why did you hate me?”
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
“Because every time I looked at you, I saw the girl your mother begged me to save.”
I couldn't speak.
She stepped closer.
“Your mother discovered Orion when you were fourteen. She found records showing they planned to use you.”
“For what?”
“To create a perfect lineage.”
I stared at her.
My father closed his eyes.
“They wanted a family they could control.”
Mara opened another file.
There were photographs of me at different ages.
School.
College.
Hospital.
Pregnancy.
Every major event in my life had been documented.
Then I saw something that made me sick.
A photograph of Glen standing in our bedroom.
Six years ago.
Except the date on the file said:
ORIGINAL GLEN TERMINATED.
I looked at the two men.
“Which one replaced him?”
Neither answered.
Ariel suddenly walked toward them.
I grabbed her.
“No.”
She pointed.
“That's Daddy.”
She pointed at the first Glen.
Then she pointed at the second.
“And that's Daddy too.”
Mara stared.
“How?”
Ariel frowned.
“They smell the same.”
Then she walked closer.
She looked at their faces.
And whispered:
“One remembers.”
She pointed at the first.
“The other doesn't.”
My blood ran cold.
“What doesn't he remember?”
Ariel looked at me.
“The basement.”
I looked at Glen.
“The basement?”
The first Glen suddenly stepped backward.
The second Glen smiled.
Then he said:
“I remember it.”
The first Glen whispered:
“I don't.”
Mara raised her gun toward the second man.
“What happened in the basement?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked directly at Ariel.
“You really do remember.”
Ariel hid behind me.
He smiled.
“Then we need to fix that.”
He reached inside his jacket.
I screamed.
Mara fired.
The gunshot deafened us.
The second Glen dropped.
Blood spread across his shirt.
For a second, everyone froze.
Then he laughed.
He slowly looked down at the blood.
And smiled.
“Wrong target.”
His hand pressed against the wound.
Underneath the torn shirt wasn't flesh.
Metal glimmered.
Mara whispered:
“Oh God.”
He wasn't human.
Not entirely.
And the first Glen suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Run.”
We fled the laboratory.
Behind us, the mechanical Glen stood.
His eyes glowing red.
May you like
And he said one sentence that followed us into the darkness:
“Tell Ariel her real father is waiting.”
