Chapter 15 - The Father Who Wasn't ThereLinda finally confessed.
She had built the digital reconstruction.
Not because she wanted to bring Nathan back.
Because she needed his research.
For years, she'd tried to destroy Project Lullaby.
But she couldn't.
So she did the only thing she believed would work.
She recreated the man who had started it.
Every recording.
Every voicemail.
Every medical scan.
Every fragment of Nathan's memory was turned into a model.
The result was an artificial intelligence trained to behave like him.
“Why?” I asked.
“To find the shutdown code.”
“What shutdown code?”
“The one Nathan hid before he died.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Victor has searched for it for twenty-five years.”
“Where is it?”
Linda looked at me.
“Inside you.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
She nodded.
“You don't remember because Nathan designed it to activate only when you became a father.”
I thought about the dreams.
The headaches.
The fragments of red doors.
The strange flashes.
My entire life had been a locked room.
And Ethan's birth had given me the key.
Mara pulled out a small device.
“We need to wake the memory.”
“That's safe?”
“No.”
“What happens if it fails?”
“You could lose your mind.”
Emily stepped between us.
“Then we're not doing it.”
I looked at her.
“If we don't, Victor takes Ethan.”
“And if we do?”
“We might stop him.”
Mara looked at me.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“The shutdown code isn't just a memory.”
“What is it?”
“A person.”
I stared.
“Who?”
She looked at Ethan.
“The person who carries the final sequence.”
Emily went pale.
“What are you saying?”
Mara looked at her.
“Your son isn't the key.”
“He's the lock.”
I didn't understand.
Then the television turned on by itself.
Static.
A man's face appeared.
Victor.
“Very good.”
Mara reached for her gun.
Victor smiled.
“You've found the room.”
The screen changed.
A live video appeared.
The hospital.
The maternity ward.
Then our old bedroom.
Then the nursery.
Then an image from the night Ethan was born.
Emily froze.
Victor's voice came through the speakers.
“Daniel, you have one hour.”
“One hour for what?”
“To decide whether your wife or your son comes with us.”
The screen went black.
May you like
Then a final message appeared:
THE CHOICE WAS MADE BEFORE HE WAS BORN.
