Chapter 10 - The Second MotherNobody moved.
I stared at the woman.
She looked exactly like my mother.
My real mother.
Sarah Hayes.
Yet Sarah stood beside me, trembling.
The woman in the hallway smiled.
“Confused?”
Sarah whispered:
“No.”
The woman looked at her.
“Hello, sister.”
My mother nearly collapsed.
“Sister?”
I stared at both women.
“You have a twin?”
Sarah shook her head.
“I don't.”
The other woman laughed.
“You really believe that?”
She stepped forward.
“I was created from Sarah's genetic material.”
Voss whispered:
“Subject Alpha.”
She turned toward him.
“You failed to mention that she escaped.”
Dad looked at Voss.
“Who is she?”
Voss said nothing.
The woman answered.
“My name is Mara.”
She looked at me.
“And I'm the first successful human clone.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why do you look like my mother?”
“Because she was the donor.”
I looked at Mom.
“Donor?”
She started crying.
“They took my DNA.”
“How?”
“I didn't know.”
Mara smiled.
“You didn't know because you were unconscious.”
She touched her face.
“They made me seventeen years ago.”
I stared.
“You're seventeen?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“I'm thirty-four.”
The room went silent.
Voss looked furious.
“You weren't supposed to survive.”
Mara looked at him.
“Neither was Connor.”
She stepped closer.
“Yet here we all are.”
I felt something strange.
A headache.
A sharp pulse behind my eyes.
Then memories.
A white room.
Lights.
A woman holding my hand.
A voice whispering:
“Don't tell them your name.”
I staggered.
Mom grabbed me.
“Connor?”
“I remember.”
“What?”
“The room.”
Mara's smile disappeared.
“What room?”
I looked at her.
“The room where you were made.”
Her eyes widened.
“You were there?”
I nodded.
“I saw you.”
Mara froze.
“You couldn't.”
“I did.”
My memory sharpened.
I saw a glass chamber.
Mara was inside.
A baby.
No.
A teenager.
She was crying.
Doctors surrounded her.
One of them was my mother.
But beside her stood another woman.
A woman I didn't recognize.
She was pregnant.
Very pregnant.
I gasped.
“That woman…”
Mara stared at me.
“Who?”
“She was pregnant.”
Voss went completely still.
Dad looked at him.
“What?”
I closed my eyes.
The memory became clearer.
The woman was lying on a table.
There was blood.
A newborn baby screamed.
And Voss said:
“Take the baby to Room Twelve.”
Mara whispered:
“What baby?”
I opened my eyes.
“There was another child.”
Voss rushed toward me.
Dad raised his gun.
“Stay back!”
Voss stopped.
I looked at Mara.
“You weren't the first.”
Her expression changed.
“What do you mean?”
“There was another clone before you.”
Voss's face went pale.
I turned toward him.
“Who was he?”
Voss whispered:
“He was never supposed to survive.”
Then the lights went out.
A gunshot echoed.
Someone screamed.
When the emergency lights came back on…
Voss was gone.
So was Evan.
And on the floor where Evan had been lying was a bloodstained hospital bracelet.
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It read:
C-2
