CHAPTER 12 The Second Lily
"Daddy..."
The little girl's voice barely rose above a whisper, yet it struck Ethan harder than any bullet.
The control room fell silent.
Every pair of eyes locked onto the monitor.
The child behind the reinforced glass looked exactly like Lily.
The same chestnut hair.
The same gray-green eyes.
The same crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her left shoulder.
Even the tiny scar on her chin, from the day Lily had fallen while chasing butterflies in the mansion garden, appeared to be there.
Ethan's heart pounded.
"That's impossible..."
Beside him, Lily instinctively reached for his hand.
She stared at the screen with tears filling her eyes.
"I know her..."
Samuel slowly stepped closer to the monitor.
"No..."
"There has to be another explanation."
Victor watched their reactions with quiet satisfaction.
"I've waited seven years for this moment."
He walked toward the frightened girl behind the glass.
She flinched as he approached but didn't run.
Victor gently rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Meet Subject Eight."
The room froze.
Arthur whispered,
"I thought there were only seven..."
Victor smiled.
"That's because I wanted you to think that."
Samuel grabbed the archive file labeled Subject Seven and flipped through it at frantic speed.
Every blood test.
Every neurological scan.
Every genetic sequence.
Then he stopped.
Near the back of the file was a page that had been folded shut with red tape.
Across the top, in bold letters:
TWIN PROTOCOL
His breathing caught.
"There it is..."
Eleanor's face drained of color.
"I destroyed that file."
Victor laughed through the speakers.
"You destroyed one copy."
"I kept the original."
Samuel unfolded the page.
His hands trembled as he read.
Project Eden Phase Two
Subjects 7 and 8
Monozygotic Genome Separation Trial
Daniel frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Samuel looked up slowly.
"It means..."
"...they believed one embryo could be divided."
Silence.
He continued.
"Identical twins."
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
"Amelia only gave birth to one child."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"That's what we allowed you to remember."
Ethan turned toward her.
"What did you say?"
Tears rolled down her face.
"The labor lasted nearly eighteen hours."
"There were complications."
"Amelia lost consciousness."
"When she woke up..."
"...she only remembered holding one baby."
Arthur whispered,
"My God..."
Victor clasped his hands behind his back.
"One child."
"Raised by love."
He looked toward Lily.
"The other..."
He turned toward Subject Eight.
"...raised by purpose."
The little girl behind the glass slowly lifted her face.
She looked directly at Ethan.
"I've waited for you."
Her voice sounded almost identical to Lily's.
But there was something missing.
Warmth.
She spoke with perfect calmness.
Like someone who had been taught exactly what to say.
Lily stepped toward the monitor.
"Do you remember me?"
The other girl hesitated.
Then quietly nodded.
"I remember the songs."
"I remember the rabbit."
"I remember your name."
Lily smiled through her tears.
"What is your name?"
The girl lowered her eyes.
"I don't have one."
No one spoke.
Victor answered for her.
"Names create attachment."
"Numbers create discipline."
Ethan felt his anger boil over.
"You stole her childhood."
Victor shrugged.
"I gave her purpose."
Samuel continued reading the Twin Protocol.
Then he froze.
"This isn't right."
Daniel looked over.
"What?"
Samuel pointed to a paragraph near the bottom.
Only one subject achieved complete synchronization.
He frowned.
"There should have been two successful subjects."
Eleanor whispered,
"There weren't."
Samuel slowly looked toward Lily.
Then toward Subject Eight.
His voice became almost inaudible.
"One of them..."
"...isn't biologically real."
The room erupted.
Ethan stared at Samuel.
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know yet."
"But the records don't make sense."
"The DNA reports are identical."
"Too identical."
Daniel frowned.
"They're twins."
"They should be."
Samuel shook his head.
"No."
"Even identical twins develop tiny genetic mutations after birth."
"But according to this..."
He held up the report.
"Their DNA was tested six months apart."
"Yet every single marker is perfectly unchanged."
Arthur whispered,
"That's impossible."
Samuel nodded.
"It is."
Victor smiled again.
"Now you're beginning to understand."
He walked to a large control console.
"I promised you Project Eden."
"So let me show you."
He pressed a button.
Another screen lit up.
Old laboratory footage.
A nursery.
Two cribs.
Two babies sleeping peacefully.
Then...
A team of scientists entered.
One infant was carried away.
The other remained beside Amelia.
The recording skipped ahead.
Years passed in seconds.
One child learned to laugh.
The other learned to obey.
One learned what love felt like.
The other learned how fear worked.
Victor paused the footage.
"They were my greatest experiment."
Lily suddenly whispered,
"No..."
Everyone turned.
She stared at Subject Eight.
Not with fear.
With sorrow.
"I remember..."
She pressed both hands against her temples.
"There was a mirror."
Samuel frowned.
"A mirror?"
Lily nodded.
"They made us stand together."
"They said..."
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"...they said we had to become one."
The room fell silent.
Victor's smile slowly disappeared.
For the first time...
He looked genuinely surprised.
"You remember that?"
Lily opened her eyes.
"They made us hold hands."
"They kept asking..."
"...which one dreams?"
Eleanor gasped.
"No..."
Samuel looked at his mother.
"What?"
She whispered,
"They weren't comparing genetics."
"They were comparing memory."
Victor looked directly into the camera.
"And now..."
"...the final piece."
He pressed one last button.
The reinforced glass surrounding Subject Eight slid open.
She stepped into the room.
Slowly.
Calmly.
Without hesitation.
She walked straight toward the camera.
Toward Ethan.
Then she smiled.
It wasn't the smile of a frightened child.
It wasn't Victor's cold smile either.
It was Amelia's.
Exactly Amelia's.
She tilted her head and softly said:
"Daddy..."
Then she finished the sentence that made every adult in the room freeze.
"Mommy said you'll recognize the real daughter..."
May you like
"...because only one of us knows where she hid your wedding ring."
END OF CHAPTER 12
