CHAPTER 11: THE CHILD WHO SPOKE
The hospital went completely dark.
No emergency lights.
No monitors.
No hallway signs.
Nothing.
Only the sound of alarms screaming somewhere beneath us.
And one word.
“Mommy.”
I couldn't move.
The baby in my grandfather's arms had spoken.
Not babbled.
Not cried.
Spoken.
Clearly.
My grandfather looked at me with a strange satisfaction.
“You hear her.”
I stared at the baby.
She looked no more than a few hours old.
But her eyes were wide open.
Watching me.
Studying me.
“Bring her to me.”
My grandfather laughed.
“You still think you can command this room?”
I took one step forward.
“Give me my daughter.”
“She isn't yours.”
“She called me Mommy.”
“She knows your voice.”
“How?”
“Because we've been teaching her.”
My blood ran cold.
“Teaching her what?”
“To recognize you.”
A violent tremor shook the floor.
Claire screamed.
“Mommy!”
I grabbed her.
“Stay close.”
Adrian moved beside us.
“Everyone stay together.”
Daniel appeared through the darkness carrying two babies.
“Where's Dr. Hayes?”
I looked back.
“She injected herself.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“She said she was ending the system.”
My grandfather laughed.
“She didn't.”
“What?”
“She only shut down the primary interface.”
He pointed toward the floor.
“The backup system is still running.”
A mechanical hum began beneath us.
Daniel's face changed.
“That's not possible.”
My grandfather smiled.
“Everything is possible when you own the hospital.”
I stared at him.
“You don't own it.”
“Not legally.”
He paused.
“But I own the people who run it.”
Suddenly the emergency lights returned.
Red.
Everything was bathed in crimson.
Then the operating theater doors opened.
A figure stood inside.
White coat.
Surgical mask.
Head lowered.
I couldn't see the face.
My grandfather looked toward the figure.
“Prepare the chamber.”
The figure nodded.
I grabbed Adrian's arm.
“Who is that?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
The figure raised one hand.
A small metal device flashed.
Every monitor around us turned on.
Then I saw something that made my blood freeze.
A live video.
My bedroom.
At home.
My house was empty.
But the camera was pointed toward the nursery.
A second camera.
The nursery door opened.
A woman entered.
She was carrying something.
A baby monitor.
Then the image zoomed in.
I recognized the woman.
Eleanor.
She was alive.
She had escaped the mansion.
And she was standing inside my house.
I looked at Adrian.
“She knows where we live.”
He nodded.
“We have to get there.”
“No.”
My grandfather stepped forward.
“You're not going anywhere.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor has something you need.”
“What?”
He smiled.
“The original birth certificate.”
I froze.
“The real one?”
“Yes.”
“Where did she get it?”
“She stole it from me.”
My grandfather's expression darkened.
“She thinks it can destroy the family.”
“Can it?”
“Yes.”
“What does it prove?”
He looked directly at me.
“That you weren't the mother they selected.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“You were the replacement.”
My blood ran cold.
“Replacement for who?”
He didn't answer.
The masked figure stepped forward.
Then slowly removed the mask.
I stopped breathing.
It was Adrian's father.
The man who had supposedly been dead.
The man whose voice had haunted every secret in this house.
He looked at me.
“You've grown up.”
My father raised his gun.
“You.”
Adrian stared.
“Dad?”
His father smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
“I know.”
“Everyone thought you were.”
“That was the point.”
He looked toward my grandfather.
“We're running out of time.”
My grandfather nodded.
“The system is unstable.”
Adrian stepped in front of me.
“You're not touching her.”
His father looked amused.
“You still don't understand what she is.”
“She is my wife.”
“No.”
He pointed at me.
“She is the key.”
I was beginning to hate those words.
Everyone called me a key.
A carrier.
A mother.
An asset.
Never a person.
I stepped forward.
“I am not your property.”
He smiled.
“Then prove it.”
He pressed a button.
A door behind us opened.
Inside was a small room.
A chair.
Metal restraints.
And a glass wall.
Behind the glass were medical machines.
I knew exactly what that room was for.
“No.”
My grandfather looked at me.
“You have seventeen minutes.”
“I'm not going in there.”
“You don't have to.”
He pointed toward Claire.
“If you don't…”
A monitor appeared.
It showed Claire's medical file.
Then Emily's.
Then the third baby's.
Each file had the same warning.
TRANSFER PENDING.
I felt sick.
“What are you doing?”
“Transferring their genetic signatures.”
“To where?”
“The system.”
“Why?”
“To activate the trust.”
“And if I refuse?”
My grandfather looked at Claire.
“Then the system will treat them as failed subjects.”
I stared at him.
“You'd kill your own grandchildren.”
“They aren't grandchildren.”
He looked at me.
“They're experiments.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I stepped toward the chair.
Adrian grabbed my hand.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“If I don't…”
“I'll find another way.”
“There isn't time.”
“There is always another way.”
My father interrupted.
“There might be.”
Everyone turned.
He walked toward the main control panel.
“I know how to access the original system.”
My grandfather's face changed.
“You don't.”
“I do.”
“You were removed.”
“I was.”
“But you don't have the access code.”
My father smiled.
“I don't need it.”
He pulled a small device from his coat.
“The code is genetic.”
Daniel stared.
“You've had it all this time?”
“Yes.”
My grandfather stepped forward.
“Stop him.”
The masked man raised his gun.
Adrian fired first.
The shot struck the man's shoulder.
He fell.
Chaos erupted.
My father ran toward the control panel.
Daniel grabbed Claire.
I grabbed Emily and the third baby.
Adrian fired again.
My grandfather disappeared behind a column.
Then the entire building shook.
The floor cracked.
A pipe exploded.
Water sprayed across the corridor.
The monitors flashed.
16:02.
15:59.
15:58.
Daniel shouted,
“The system is collapsing!”
My father yelled,
“That's what we want!”
“No!”
I stared at the monitor.
“Why?”
“Because the original laboratory is underneath us.”
I froze.
“What happens if it collapses?”
“Every record is destroyed.”
I looked at him.
“And the babies?”
He shook his head.
“They're connected to the system.”
My heart stopped.
“If it collapses…”
“They die.”
I looked at the three babies.
Then at Claire.
Then at the timer.
I had fifteen minutes.
I needed to save my daughters.
And twenty-three other children.
And somehow stop a hospital from exploding.
Then I remembered the envelope my mother had given me.
The bracelet.
WHEN THE THIRD CHILD RETURNS, THE MOTHER MUST REMEMBER.
I looked at it.
Something clicked.
My mother hadn't been talking about the children.
She had been talking about me.
I closed my eyes.
A memory surfaced.
Six years ago.
The hospital.
The delivery room.
I was lying on the bed.
Someone stood beside me.
A woman.
My mother.
She was crying.
She leaned toward me.
And whispered:
“Don't forget who you are.”
I had forgotten.
Because someone had erased the memory.
But now I remembered something else.
A door.
A number.
Room 317.
I opened my eyes.
“Room 317.”
Adrian looked at me.
“What?”
“The original laboratory.”
My father froze.
“How do you know?”
“I've been there.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
My father stared.
“You weren't conscious.”
“I was.”
I remembered.
Not everything.
Just fragments.
A corridor.
A red door.
A baby crying.
And a woman holding my hand.
My mother.
She had whispered a number.
I looked at my father.
“You didn't rescue me.”
He went pale.
“You hid me.”
He couldn't answer.
“You didn't protect me from the Whitmores.”
I stepped closer.
“You protected the project.”
My father shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand now.”
The masked man suddenly stood again.
Blood covered his shirt.
He raised his gun.
“You're remembering too much.”
He fired.
Adrian shoved me aside.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He collapsed.
“ADRIAN!”
I caught him.
Blood soaked my hands.
He looked at me.
“Run.”
“No.”
“Emma…”
“No!”
He grabbed my wrist.
“Room 317.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Your mother left something there.”
“What?”
His eyes closed.
“A recording.”
The countdown continued.
12:41.
12:40.
12:39.
I looked toward the elevator.
Room 317.
The original laboratory.
The place where my memory had been erased.
I picked up Claire.
Daniel carried the other babies.
My father grabbed Emily.
We ran.
Behind us, my grandfather shouted:
“STOP HER!”
But nobody could stop me now.
I knew where I was going.
For the first time in six years, I wasn't running away from the truth.
I was running toward it.
The elevator doors opened.
We rushed inside.
I pressed 3.
Nothing happened.
I pressed again.
Still nothing.
Then Claire whispered,
“Mommy.”
“What?”
She pointed at the buttons.
“There isn't a three.”
I looked.
She was right.
The elevator only had floors 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.
No 3.
My father suddenly whispered,
“Because Room 317 isn't on the third floor.”
I stared at him.
“Then where is it?”
He pointed downward.
“Below the hospital.”
The elevator began descending.
Past the basement.
Past the parking levels.
Past the underground foundation.
The numbers on the screen changed.
B1.
B2.
B3.
Then disappeared.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
A long corridor stretched ahead.
At the end was a red door.
Room 317.
My heart pounded.
I stepped forward.
Then the door opened by itself.
A recording began playing.
My mother's voice.
“If you're hearing this…”
I froze.
“…then I failed to protect you.”
A pause.
“I'm sorry.”
I started crying.
Her voice continued.
“Your grandfather will tell you that you were chosen.”
The lights flickered.
“He is lying.”
I stared into the darkness.
“You were never chosen, Emma.”
The recording crackled.
“You were created.”
My blood froze.
Then my mother's final words echoed through the corridor:
“And the man you call your father…”
A pause.
“…isn't your father.”
The recording stopped.
Behind me, my father whispered:
“Emma…”
I slowly turned toward him.
He was crying.
I looked at him.
“Then who am I?”
He didn't answer.
From inside Room 317 came a woman's voice.
My own voice.
Older.
Terrified.
“Don't ask him.”
The door slowly opened wider.
Inside stood a woman who looked exactly like me.
And she was holding a photograph of three newborn babies.
One of them had my face.
The second had Claire's.
May you like
The third...
was Emily.
