Chapter 8 - I stood in the underground facility listening to a dead man's voice.Every rational part of me said it was a recording.

Then the voice said something only my father knew.

“When you were six, you broke Mother's crystal clock.”

I stared at Victor.

“That wasn't public.”

“It wasn't supposed to be.”

The speaker continued.

“I told you the clock stopped at 9:17 because time feared you.”

My throat tightened.

That was a private joke.

A ridiculous sentence.

One I had remembered because it made me laugh as a child.

A recording could contain it.

But it could not know what came next.

My father said:

“You asked me why I lied.”

I stopped breathing.

I remembered asking him.

I had forgotten the answer.

Now he gave it.

“Because the first person you trusted betrayed us.”

The lights switched.

A glass room illuminated.

Inside sat an elderly man.

Thin.

White hair.

Alive.

I took a step forward.

“No.”

Victor nodded.

“Yes.”

My father looked at me.

“Hello, Adrian.”

Sophie began crying.

Elena covered Lily's eyes.

I could barely speak.

“You're dead.”

“I became dead.”

“Why?”

“Because people who control governments cannot survive in public.”

I laughed bitterly.

“You kidnapped children.”

My father shook his head.

“We rescued them.”

“You experimented on me.”

“We protected your memory.”

“You killed Elena.”

His expression changed.

“I tried to stop you from killing Elena.”

Silence.

My father pressed a button.

The glass room opened.

He walked out.

He looked older than the photographs.

But his eyes were the same.

“You were manipulated.”

“By whom?”

He looked at Elena.

“Her.”

I turned.

Elena stared at him.

“No.”

My father pointed to Lily.

“She is not your daughter.”

The world stopped.

Sophie looked at me.

Victor closed his eyes.

Claire began sobbing.

I looked at Elena.

“Elena.”

She could not answer.

My father continued.

“Three years ago, Elena tried to destroy the program.”

“Because you were using our children.”

“No.”

He shook his head.

“Because she had learned what Lily really was.”

I walked toward him.

“My daughter is Lily Vale.”

“Yes.”

“Then why say she isn't?”

“Because the child you brought home wasn't the child who left that car.”

Lily stepped away from Elena.

She looked at me.

“Dad.”

My father stared at her.

Then whispered:

“She remembers.”

I knelt.

“Lily, tell me what happened.”

She looked at my father.

Then at Elena.

Then at me.

Her voice trembled.

“I was in the car.”

“Yes.”

“Mom was driving.”

“Yes.”

“Grandma was there.”

My mother.

“She opened the door.”

Lily swallowed.

“Then someone came.”

“Who?”

She pointed at my father.

“You.”

I stared at him.

“No.”

Lily continued.

“Dad came.”

My father smiled.

“No.”

She shook her head.

“Not this Dad.”

Everyone went silent.

Lily covered her ears.

Then screamed:

“THE OTHER ONE!”

A steel door opened at the end of the corridor.

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