Chapter 12 - Adrian didn't speak.For the first time since I had met him, he looked completely lost.
Leo stared at him.
"Papa?"
Adrian knelt.
"Leo."
"Am I your son?"
The question nearly broke something in the room.
Adrian looked at him.
"Yes."
Leo's eyes filled with tears.
"But she said I'm not."
Adrian swallowed.
"You are my son."
"Then why did she say no?"
"I don't know."
Maya stepped forward.
"I do."
Everyone looked at her.
She took a breath.
"The night Leo was born, Maya..." Adrian stopped himself and looked at her.
"I was there," she said.
"When?"
"Before the delivery."
She looked at Leo.
"Your mother was supposed to give birth to you."
Adrian's face hardened.
"What are you talking about?"
Maya continued.
"There was another baby."
My stomach dropped.
"Another?"
"A woman arrived at the hospital that night."
She looked at me.
"Elena."
My mother's name echoed through the room.
"She brought a newborn."
Adrian stared.
"Whose?"
Maya's eyes filled with tears.
"Alex's."
Silence.
Alex had a son.
A child who had supposedly died.
Maya continued.
"The child was sick. Elena believed Hale would use him as part of Echo."
"So she switched the babies?"
Maya nodded.
"She gave Alex's child to Adrian's family."
Adrian stepped back.
"Leo."
His entire world seemed to crack around the name.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because Hale would've taken him."
"And Maya?"
"I agreed."
Adrian looked at Leo.
"Your mother knew?"
"Yes."
"Then who is his biological mother?"
Maya didn't answer.
I knew.
The woman in the medical photographs.
The one listed as deceased.
But there was something wrong.
I remembered her face.
Not Maya.
Someone else.
I looked at the photograph again.
The woman beside Leo's crib.
The caption.
ELENA BENNETT.
My mother had never been pregnant.
So whose baby had she been holding?
I turned to Maya.
"What aren't you telling us?"
She looked at me.
"Leo isn't Alex's son."
Adrian froze.
"Then whose?"
Maya whispered,
"Yours."
Adrian didn't understand.
"Mine?"
Maya nodded.
"Leo was your biological son."
I stared.
"But the report says..."
"Fake."
"Then why did Elena switch him?"
"Because Alex wanted him."
Adrian's face became pale.
"Why?"
Maya looked at the black drive.
"Because Leo inherited the final genetic key."
The room went silent.
Then the drive activated by itself.
A video appeared.
My mother sat in a chair.
She looked exhausted.
But alive.
"Nora."
I stepped closer.
"If you're watching this, then Alex has found you."
She took a breath.
"Listen carefully."
The screen flickered.
"Leo is Adrian's son."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"But the blood in his body carries information from both Project Echo and something else."
"What?" I whispered.
My mother looked directly at the camera.
"Your father."
I stopped breathing.
My father had died before I could remember him.
I knew only his name.
Daniel Bennett.
My mother had always said he was a mechanic.
The video continued.
"Daniel wasn't a mechanic."
Adrian's eyes opened.
"He was Echo's original security architect."
I stared.
"My father?"
My mother nodded.
"Daniel designed the system."
Then the screen displayed an image of a young man.
My father.
Standing beside Alex.
And the final line appeared.
YOUR FATHER IS STILL ALIVE.
I dropped the remote.
"No."
Adrian looked at me.
And before either of us could speak, the front doors opened.
A man walked inside.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Older.
But unmistakable.
My father's face.
He looked at me.
May you like
Then smiled.
"Nora."
