Chapter 13 - The Mother I BuriedShe Had Been Watching Us for Seventeen Years
She stood in the doorway wearing a gray coat.
No guards.
No weapon.
Just a calm expression.
My body reacted before my mind.
“Mom?”
She smiled.
The same smile.
The one I remembered from childhood mornings.
The one I had seen for the last time beside a hospital bed.
Then she said my name.
“Huy.”
I couldn't move.
Thomas looked at her.
“You shouldn't have come.”
She ignored him.
“You've suffered enough.”
I laughed.
“You're dead.”
“I had to be.”
“You let me bury you.”
“You had to believe it.”
“Why?”
“Because your father found out.”
I stared.
“My father knew?”
“Your father created Halcyon.”
Thomas interrupted.
“And she perfected it.”
My mother's eyes hardened.
“That's unfair.”
“You experimented on your children.”
“I saved you.”
“You destroyed us.”
She looked at me.
“I saved you from the people who wanted to kill you.”
“Then why did Thomas die?”
“He didn't.”
“Why did everyone else die?”
She closed her eyes.
“Because the project was compromised.”
Mara stepped forward.
“You killed Nora.”
My mother looked at her.
“I didn't.”
“Then who did?”
Silence.
She walked to the table and opened a file.
“Your sister wasn't killed by Halcyon.”
Mara's face froze.
“Then who?”
My mother looked at me.
“Your uncle Richard.”
I shook my head.
“He said he was protecting Hollow Pine.”
“He was protecting himself.”
She handed me a photograph.
Richard standing beside Nora.
Years earlier.
Another photograph.
Richard beside Daniel.
Another.
Richard beside our father.
My mother's voice lowered.
“Your father wanted to commercialize Halcyon.”
Thomas spoke.
“Richard wanted political control.”
“And you?”
“I wanted to destroy it.”
I looked at her.
“Then why keep me?”
“Because you were the only subject whose brain rejected the final stage.”
I remembered Mara's words.
Your tremor isn't coming from your hand.
My mother continued.
“Your body was fighting the inhibitor.”
“That's why my hand shakes.”
“Yes.”
“Can it be cured?”
She looked away.
“That isn't the worst part.”
“What is?”
“Someone activated your memory network eight days ago.”
My blood went cold.
“Who?”
“Thomas.”
I turned.
Thomas looked at me.
“I had no choice.”
“You did this to me?”
“You were forgetting everything important.”
“You made me remember.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Thomas's voice cracked.
“Because I'm dying.”
The room went still.
“What?”
He touched his chest.
“The same inhibitor they put in you.”
He coughed.
My mother rushed toward him.
Mara grabbed a medical kit.
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Then he looked at me.
“There's one final piece.”
“What?”
“The vault.”
He reached beneath his chair and pulled out a brass cylinder.
“Inside is the truth.”
My mother whispered:
“Thomas, don't.”
He looked at me.
“Your father didn't die naturally.”
I opened the cylinder.
Inside was a key.
Not brass.
Black.
And a recording.
I pressed play.
My father's voice filled the room.
“If my sons hear this, then Halcyon has failed.”
A pause.
“Your mother will tell you she protected you.”
Another pause.
“She did.”
My breath caught.
“But she will not tell you who she protected you from.”
The recording crackled.
May you like
Then my father's final sentence came.
“It was never Richard. It was me.”
