Chapter 14 - We went to St. Vincent's before sunrise.The hospital had been abandoned for years.
Windows boarded.
Halls empty.
Dust covering the floors.
Yet the security system still worked.
The doors opened when Leo approached.
Adrian stared.
"How?"
Leo shrugged.
"Mama told me."
I didn't like the answer.
Too many things had been hidden from him.
Too many things had been hidden from us.
We reached the old maternity ward.
The room at the end of the corridor opened automatically.
Inside stood Maya.
Alive.
Waiting.
"You came."
Adrian's gun remained raised.
"Where is Hale?"
"Not here."
"Alex?"
"Not here."
"Daniel?"
Maya looked at me.
"He is."
My blood ran cold.
"He survived?"
She nodded.
"He wanted you to come."
I stepped forward.
"Where?"
She pointed toward the operating room.
The door opened.
My father sat inside.
Alive.
Bandaged.
And beside him was Alex.
Adrian raised his weapon.
Alex smiled.
"Not tonight."
"You shot him."
"I did."
Daniel looked at me.
"Because I needed you angry."
I stared at him.
"You used me."
"I protected you."
"You lied to me my entire life."
"To keep you alive."
I laughed bitterly.
"Everybody uses that excuse."
Alex stepped closer.
"You want the truth?"
Adrian moved between us.
"Careful."
Alex ignored him.
"Your father built Echo. Your mother tried to destroy it. Hale turned it into an empire."
"And you?"
"I tried to expose them."
"Then why did you disappear?"
Alex looked at Adrian.
"Because your brother stopped me."
Adrian's face hardened.
"You murdered Maya."
Alex stared.
"No."
He looked at Maya.
"She was never Maya."
I felt dizzy.
"What?"
The woman standing before us smiled sadly.
Then she removed a small device from behind her ear.
Her face changed.
Not physically.
But the voice changed.
The expression changed.
The entire person seemed different.
Adrian stared.
"Maya?"
The woman laughed.
"Your wife died six years ago."
Adrian's face went white.
"This is an impersonator."
Alex nodded.
"Hale has been using her face."
I looked at her.
She smiled.
"And you believed every message I sent."
I felt sick.
"The woman in the recordings..."
"Me."
Adrian's hands shook.
"Where is Maya?"
Alex looked at him.
"Dead."
Adrian closed his eyes.
A silence fell over the room.
Then Daniel pushed a button.
The lights around us turned on.
Hundreds of screens activated.
Every screen showed a different person.
Judges.
Police.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Celebrities.
All compromised by Echo.
"The archive," Daniel said.
"It's worldwide."
I looked at him.
"Why bring me here?"
"Because Echo can only be destroyed by the person who carries the master key."
I stepped forward.
"And that's me."
"Yes."
"How?"
"You have to remember."
I shook my head.
"I don't know how."
Daniel walked toward me.
"You do."
He placed a hand on my temple.
The world vanished.
I saw my mother.
My father.
Adrian.
Maya.
Leo.
The night Leo was born.
The warehouse.
The hospital.
The crash.
Then something else.
A room beneath St. Vincent's.
My mother crying.
Daniel shouting.
Alex holding a gun.
And me.
Twenty-one years old.
Sitting in a chair.
A machine attached to my head.
My mother kneeling beside me.
"I'm sorry."
She kissed my forehead.
Then whispered,
"Forget."
The memory changed.
I saw what she had hidden.
A sequence.
Numbers.
Names.
Coordinates.
A final command.
I opened my eyes.
Everyone stared.
"I remember."
Adrian stepped closer.
"What?"
I looked at the screens.
"I know where Echo's master server is."
Alex smiled.
"Where?"
I turned toward him.
"Under Lumina."
His expression froze.
The restaurant.
The place where I had worked for eight months.
The place where the crystal had shattered.
The place where everything began.
Hale had never hired me there by coincidence.
He had been watching the door.
Waiting for me.
I turned to Adrian.
"We have to go."
He nodded.
Then the hospital doors slammed shut.
Hale's voice echoed through the speakers.
"Too late."
Every screen went black.
Then one appeared.
A live video.
Lumina.
The dining hall.
Leo's empty chair.
May you like
And a message.
COME HOME, NORA.
