Chapter 12 - Rafe returned to the surface before dawn.The rain had stopped.
The city looked exhausted.
He didn't.
He felt hollow.
He had been given too many identities.
Elias.
Rafe.
Noah.
Mercer.
Vance.
He didn't know which one belonged to him.
Anna was waiting outside.
Rafe walked toward her.
"You knew."
She stared.
"Knew what?"
"About Noah."
Anna shook her head.
"I knew only what Victor told me."
"That's not enough."
"I know."
Rafe stopped.
"Who is my mother?"
Anna looked at him.
"I don't know."
"Who has my scar?"
Anna's face changed.
"What?"
"The message."
He showed her the photograph.
Anna stepped backward.
"No."
"What?"
"That can't be."
"You recognize it."
She touched her own face.
Then whispered:
"Your mother had it."
Rafe stared.
"Where?"
Anna closed her eyes.
"At the fire."
"She was there?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't I see her?"
"Because she disappeared before the police arrived."
Rafe thought for a moment.
"Where would she go?"
Anna's voice became faint.
"Somewhere nobody would look."
"Where?"
Anna said a single word.
"Church."
Rafe frowned.
"Which church?"
"The one your father built."
Rafe knew immediately.
St. Gabriel's.
An abandoned stone church on the city's north side.
He rode there alone.
The doors were unlocked.
Inside, dust covered the pews.
Moonlight entered through broken stained glass.
At the altar stood a wooden box.
Rafe opened it.
Inside was a collection of photographs.
He pulled out the first.
His mother.
Young.
Smiling.
Holding a baby.
Him.
The second showed another woman.
Same scar beside the eye.
The third showed Lena.
The fourth showed Mara.
Then the fifth.
A woman Rafe had never seen.
She stood beside all four children.
Her hand rested on his shoulder.
Rafe turned the photograph over.
His breathing stopped.
Mother of the Vance Children:
Isabella Vance.
He whispered the name.
"Isabella."
A voice came from the darkness.
"You finally remembered."
Rafe spun.
A woman stepped out from behind a pillar.
She was elderly.
But her face carried the same eyes.
The same cheekbones.
The same scar.
Rafe couldn't speak.
The woman smiled.
"Hello, Noah."
He stared.
"You're Isabella."
She nodded.
"My mother."
"Yes."
"Anna said you were dead."
"I know."
"Daniel said you were alive."
"He was right."
"Where have you been?"
"Hiding."
"From Victor?"
"From Gabriel."
Rafe's heart sank.
"Why?"
Isabella looked toward the altar.
"Because your father isn't the man you think he is."
Rafe swallowed.
"Gabriel?"
She shook her head.
"Neither Gabriel nor Daniel."
"Then who?"
Isabella looked directly at him.
"Your real father died before you were born."
Rafe frowned.
"Then how could Gabriel be my father?"
"He isn't."
"Then what am I?"
Isabella stepped closer.
"You are not one of the Vance children."
Rafe stared.
"What?"
She whispered:
"You are their brother."
"That's the same thing."
"No."
She shook her head.
"The four children weren't born to me."
Rafe's blood ran cold.
"They were adopted?"
"No."
She looked toward the door.
"They were created."
Rafe's face went blank.
"What does that mean?"
Isabella began crying.
"They weren't children rescued from Victor."
She whispered:
"They were part of Victor's experiment."
Rafe stared.
"Experiment?"
"Memory."
"Faces."
"Behavior."
"Identity."
She lifted her eyes.
"And you were the only one who survived."
A gunshot shattered the stained glass.
Isabella collapsed.
Rafe caught her.
Blood spread across her dress.
She whispered:
"Don't trust the man who saved you."
Rafe looked toward the doorway.
A silhouette stood there.
May you like
Holding a gun.
Daniel.
