Chapter 15: The Mother Who Came Back From the Grave
Lily stared down the barrel of the gun.
For a moment, the entire cemetery seemed to stop breathing.
Rain slid down her mother's face.
She looked exhausted.
Older than Lily remembered.
But unmistakably alive.
“Mom…”
Her mother's hand trembled.
“Don't come closer.”
Victor immediately stepped between them.
“Lower the gun.”
Lily's mother looked at him.
“You're still protecting her.”
“Yes.”
“You don't know what she is.”
Victor didn't move.
“I know exactly who she is.”
“No.”
Her mother's eyes filled with tears.
“You know who she believes she is.”
Lily's heart tightened.
“Mom, why are you pointing a gun at me?”
Her mother swallowed.
“Because if I don't…”
She looked at Ethan.
“…they'll take him.”
Cain suddenly stepped forward.
“You're too late.”
Her mother looked at him.
“You're alive.”
Cain smiled bitterly.
“So are you.”
She lowered the gun slightly.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought you killed me.”
“I didn't.”
“Then who did?”
She looked toward Victor.
“His father.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“My father?”
“He ordered the attack.”
Cain laughed.
“Everyone always blames him.”
He stepped closer.
“But you knew.”
Her mother looked at him.
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
Lily couldn't take it anymore.
“Stop.”
Everyone turned.
Lily stepped forward.
“Everyone keeps talking about my life as if I'm not standing here.”
Her voice trembled.
“You say you protected me.”
“You erased me.”
“You say you saved Ethan.”
“You kidnapped him.”
“You say Victor betrayed me.”
“You say Cain is his father.”
She looked at each person.
“I don't know who to believe anymore.”
Silence.
Then Lily looked directly at her mother.
“But you're alive.”
Her mother nodded.
“Yes.”
“You watched me grow up?”
“I watched from a distance.”
“You knew where I was?”
“Yes.”
“You knew I thought you were dead?”
Her mother's eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
Lily's voice broke.
“And you never came back?”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why?”
Her mother lowered the gun.
“Because every time I tried…”
She looked at Victor.
“…someone died.”
Victor frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father.”
She looked toward the mausoleum.
“He had people everywhere.”
“He found anyone who helped me.”
“My husband.”
“Your friends.”
“Doctors.”
“Lawyers.”
“Even children.”
Lily froze.
“Children?”
Her mother nodded.
“The Black Wolf program didn't begin with Ethan.”
She looked at Cain.
“It began with him.”
Cain's face hardened.
“And it almost killed me.”
Lily looked at Cain.
“What did they do to you?”
Cain slowly removed his coat.
Scars covered his arms.
Old surgical marks.
Burns.
Deep lines around his wrists.
Lily covered her mouth.
Her mother whispered:
“They tried to turn him into a biological key.”
“For what?”
“The vault.”
Victor frowned.
“But Lily opened it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why Cain?”
“Because Cain was the first.”
She looked at Lily.
“You were the second.”
“And Ethan?”
“The final piece.”
Lily looked at Ethan.
The baby was still staring at her.
His red crescent mark glowed faintly.
Her mother took a shaky breath.
“The Black Wolf wasn't a person.”
She pointed toward Ethan.
“It was a genetic sequence.”
Victor stepped closer.
“And Ethan carries it?”
“Yes.”
Cain interrupted.
“Not just him.”
He looked at Lily.
“She carries it too.”
Lily stared at her wrist.
The mark appeared again.
Black.
Then red.
Then black.
Her mother nodded.
“That's why they erased your memories.”
“To stop me?”
“No.”
“To activate you.”
Lily frowned.
“What?”
“They couldn't activate the sequence without fear.”
Lily's face went pale.
“What does that mean?”
Her mother answered:
“Every time you lost someone…”
“The mark grew stronger.”
Lily suddenly remembered.
Her father.
The orphanage.
The loneliness.
Ethan.
Victor.
Every loss.
Every betrayal.
Every moment she had been terrified.
She looked at her wrist.
“So all of this…”
Her mother nodded.
“Was designed.”
Lily whispered:
“My pain was designed.”
“Yes.”
Victor stepped toward Lily.
“No.”
He looked at her mother.
“You don't get to call her pain a design.”
Her mother stared at him.
“You still don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
“The Black Wolf system needed one thing.”
“What?”
“Someone who could survive betrayal.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“And that was her.”
A gunshot suddenly cracked through the cemetery.
Everyone ducked.
Lily's mother fell.
“Mom!”
Lily rushed toward her.
Victor fired toward the trees.
“Sniper!”
Cain grabbed Ethan.
“Get down!”
Another bullet struck the mausoleum.
Men appeared between the graves.
Black suits.
Masks.
Dozens of them.
Victor's men returned fire.
The cemetery erupted into chaos.
Lily dragged her mother behind a stone monument.
“Mom!”
Her mother was clutching her side.
Blood seeped between her fingers.
“I'm okay.”
“You're not okay!”
“I've survived worse.”
Lily pressed her hands against the wound.
“Who are they?”
Her mother looked toward the attackers.
“The Black Wolf.”
Victor shouted:
“Get Lily out!”
Cain fired from behind a tombstone.
“They're surrounding us!”
Adrian ran toward Victor.
“We need the tunnel.”
“What tunnel?”
“The one beneath the mausoleum.”
Victor looked toward Lily.
“Go!”
Lily refused.
“I'm not leaving my mother.”
Her mother grabbed her wrist.
“You have to.”
“No.”
“Lily.”
Her mother's eyes hardened.
“Listen to me.”
Lily stared at her.
“You're the only one who can stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“The war.”
Lily shook her head.
“I don't know how.”
Her mother pulled the crescent pendant from Lily's neck.
“You do now.”
The pendant began glowing.
The ground beneath them shook.
Everyone stopped.
Even the attackers.
A deep mechanical sound emerged from beneath the cemetery.
Then every gravestone illuminated.
One after another.
Red.
Hundreds of them.
Lily's mother whispered:
“The vault isn't under the mansion.”
Victor stared.
“Where is it?”
She looked down.
“It's under the cemetery.”
Cain's face changed.
“No.”
Victor turned.
“What?”
Cain whispered:
“That's where they buried the original Black Wolf.”
The ground suddenly split.
A massive stone structure rose from beneath the earth.
At its center was a door.
Three symbols appeared.
A crescent.
A wolf.
And a crown.
Lily stepped toward it.
The attackers stopped firing.
Everyone watched.
Her mother whispered:
“Put your hand on the door.”
Lily hesitated.
“What happens?”
“You'll remember everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“Even what happened to Ethan?”
Her mother nodded.
“Especially that.”
Lily placed her palm against the door.
Nothing happened.
Then Ethan reached toward her.
His tiny hand touched hers.
The three symbols ignited.
The door opened.
A blast of cold air swept across the cemetery.
Inside was a circular chamber.
At the center stood a glass container.
Inside it was a newborn baby.
Lily stopped breathing.
“No…”
Victor stepped beside her.
“What is that?”
Lily's mother whispered:
“The first Black Wolf child.”
Cain stared at the chamber.
“That baby is impossible.”
“Why?”
Cain looked at Lily.
“Because that child was born twenty-eight years ago.”
Lily's blood froze.
She looked at the baby.
Then at herself.
Same eyes.
Same tiny crescent.
She turned toward her mother.
“Who is that?”
Her mother began crying.
“Your brother.”
Lily stared.
“I don't have a brother.”
“You did.”
“Where is he?”
Her mother looked toward the glass chamber.
“Right there.”
Victor stepped closer.
“How is he still alive?”
Her mother whispered:
“Because he was never alive.”
Silence.
“What?”
“He was kept in suspended development.”
Lily stared at the newborn.
“Why?”
“To wait for the right moment.”
“What moment?”
Her mother looked at Ethan.
“This one.”
The baby's eyes suddenly opened.
Every light in the chamber went out.
Then a voice came through the speakers.
Not Victor.
Not Cain.
Not Lily's mother.
A child's voice.
“Lily.”
She froze.
The baby inside the glass opened its tiny mouth.
“It's time.”
The glass shattered.
The newborn disappeared.
Everyone screamed.
Lily looked around wildly.
“Where did he go?”
Then she felt a tiny hand touch hers from behind.
She slowly turned.
A boy stood there.
He looked about eight years old.
Same eyes as Lily.
Same crescent mark.
He smiled.
“Hello, sister.”
Lily couldn't speak.
The boy looked at Ethan.
Then at Victor.
Then at Cain.
Finally, he smiled.
“Now we can finish what Father started.”
Victor raised his weapon.
“Who is your father?”
The boy's smile widened.
And he pointed directly at Victor.
“You.”
Victor froze.
The boy continued:
“That's why they erased your memory.”
Lily's blood ran cold.
Because suddenly, she remembered.
She remembered the hospital.
She remembered Ethan's birth.
She remembered Victor holding her hand.
And she remembered one final thing.
The baby in her arms that night wasn't Ethan.
It was the boy standing before her now.
And someone had switched the babies.
Lily whispered:
“Then where is the real Ethan?”
The boy smiled.
“That's the question.”
Behind them, the cemetery gates exploded.
And a familiar voice echoed through the smoke.
“Looking for me?”
Lily turned.
Serena stood in the flames.
Alive.
May you like
Holding Ethan.
And smiling.
