Chapter 7 - I couldn't hear anything after that.Created it?
Me?
The woman in the photograph looked nothing like the person I remembered being.
She was younger.
Confident.
Standing beside Daniel with a folder in her hand.
Lucas drove through the city while I stared at the photograph.
“Tell me what this means.”
“You don't remember because the memory was removed.”
“By Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“You're saying my own husband erased my memories?”
“He believed he was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Lucas glanced at me.
“From yourself.”
I almost slapped him.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
“Then listen.”
He pulled into an underground parking garage.
“There are two versions of Project Orpheus.”
“What are they?”
“The first was financial.”
“Moving illegal money?”
“Yes.”
“And the second?”
“Deleting people.”
“Why?”
“To create new identities.”
“For criminals?”
“For anyone.”
He handed me a file.
Inside were photographs.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Judges.
Witnesses.
People who officially died decades ago.
Yet some appeared in recent photographs.
Living under new names.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Lucas turned another page.
A blueprint.
A neural memory procedure.
“This was the real Orpheus.”
I stared.
“Memory manipulation?”
“Not exactly.”
“It doesn't erase memories.”
“Then what?”
“It suppresses them.”
A cold chill ran over me.
“Who developed it?”
“You.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“You were a neuroscientist.”
“I studied accounting.”
“After the second accident.”
I looked at him.
“You know too much.”
“I know everything.”
“What happened to me?”
Lucas took a breath.
“Seven years ago, you discovered that Orpheus was being used on unwilling subjects.”
“Who?”
“Witnesses.”
“Why would anyone need to erase witnesses?”
“Because the people behind Orpheus weren't just criminals.”
He opened the final page.
A list of names.
At the top:
JONATHAN VALE.
My father.
Under him:
MICHAEL CARTER.
Then:
DANIEL HAYES.
Then:
RENEE HAYES.
My name was crossed out.
I stared.
“Why was mine crossed out?”
“Because you escaped.”
“From who?”
“Your father.”
That night, Lucas brought me to a safehouse.
I refused to sleep.
At 3:14 a.m., the door opened.
Daniel walked inside.
Alive.
Bruised.
Bandage across his neck.
Madison ran to me.
I hugged her so hard she cried.
Then I looked at Daniel.
“You're alive.”
He nodded.
“I am.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You erased my memory.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe we had only been married once.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him.
But when he looked at Madison, something in his face broke.
“I was trying to keep you both alive.”
“What really happened seven years ago?”
Daniel sat down.
“You found out your father was using Orpheus on people.”
“And?”
“You tried to destroy the system.”
“What happened?”
“Michael stopped you.”
“He attacked me.”
“Yes.”
“You said I almost died.”
“You did.”
“And Madison?”
Daniel looked at our daughter.
“She was born three weeks before the attack.”
I swallowed.
“You were pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did everyone say Madison was born after?”
“Because we had to make you disappear.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Your father knew Madison existed.”
Silence.
“He believed your daughter carried something.”
“What?”
“A gene marker.”
My skin prickled.
“Why would he care?”
“Because Orpheus wasn't only about memory.”
Daniel stood.
“It was about inheritance.”
“What inheritance?”
He looked at Madison.
Then at me.
“The ability to resist the procedure.”
Suddenly the safehouse lights went out.
Madison screamed.
A red laser dot appeared on the wall.
Then another.
Then another.
Daniel grabbed me.
“Down!”
Gunfire exploded through the windows.
Lucas shouted from the hallway.
“Move!”
We ran toward the basement.
But before we reached the stairs, Daniel stopped.
He stared at Madison.
A terrified expression appeared on his face.
“What?”
May you like
He whispered:
“They found her.”
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