Chapter 13 - The SwitchThe room felt too small for all of us.
Dad stared at the screen.
Mom couldn't stop shaking.
I looked at Evan.
“What do you mean they switched us?”
Evan struggled to sit upright.
“I remember the transfer.”
“What transfer?”
“The day they moved the babies.”
Mara looked at him.
“You were an infant.”
“I know.”
“But I remember.”
His face was pale.
“Not like a normal memory.”
He touched his temple.
“Images.”
“What images?”
“A hallway.”
“Two incubators.”
“A red door.”
He looked at me.
“And someone crying.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Then another memory hit me.
A red door.
A nurse.
A newborn crying.
And a woman shouting:
“That's not him!”
I gasped.
“I remember.”
Everyone looked at me.
“The red door.”
Mara whispered:
“Room Twelve.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“The door had a number.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thirty-four.”
Dad stepped back.
“Room 34.”
He looked terrified.
“That's where they kept the genetic archive.”
Mara opened another system.
“Room 34 was destroyed.”
“When?”
“March 14, 2007.”
I felt a chill.
The day we were supposedly born.
Mara found a surviving file.
INCIDENT 34
Then she read aloud:
“Unauthorized personnel entered neonatal transfer corridor.”
“Two infants missing.”
“Security failure.”
“Dr. Voss instructed staff to falsify birth records.”
My father whispered:
“Two infants.”
I stared at him.
“So both of us were taken?”
“Yes.”
“Then who came home?”
Nobody answered.
Mom looked at me.
“You did.”
“How do you know?”
She started crying.
“Because I remember holding you.”
I shook my head.
“How?”
“You were wrapped in blue.”
My chest tightened.
“The baby in the photograph…”
“The blue blanket,” she whispered.
I looked at Evan.
“What were you wearing?”
He stared at the floor.
“Red.”
Mom closed her eyes.
“No.”
“What?”
She whispered:
“I remember a red blanket.”
Everyone froze.
“You remember both?”
Mom looked at me.
“I remember two babies.”
Dad stared at her.
“You never told me that.”
“I thought it was a dream.”
Mara moved closer.
“It wasn't.”
She opened the incident file.
“Someone switched the infants.”
“Who?”
She scrolled.
A name appeared.
NURSE EVELYN THOMAS
Dr. Brennan had mentioned her.
The nurse who supposedly took the baby.
The nurse who had later died.
But then another file appeared.
EVELYN THOMAS - STATUS: ALIVE
I stared.
“She isn't dead.”
Mara shook her head.
“She disappeared.”
Dad looked at the screen.
“Where?”
Mara opened the final location report.
I read it.
A small town.
Only ninety miles away.
My heart started racing.
“If she's alive, she knows who was switched.”
Dad grabbed his keys.
“We're going.”
Voss's voice suddenly came over the building speakers.
“Of course you are.”
We froze.
His voice continued.
“You finally found the right question.”
The lights flickered.
“But you're still asking it too late.”
A screen turned on.
Voss appeared.
Behind him stood Evan.
No.
Not Evan.
Another boy.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Another Connor.
Voss smiled.
“Come find Nurse Thomas.”
Then he leaned toward the camera.
May you like
“She can tell you which one of you is real.”
The screen went black.
