Chapter 10 - For several seconds, nobody spoke.For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Maren stared at Iris.
“I’m not Elena?”
Rebecca moved first.
“That’s a lie.”
Daniel looked less certain.
“Becca.”
“No.”
Rebecca stood.
“Helena is manipulating her.”
Maren turned.
“You told me I was Elena.”
“You are.”
“Do you have proof?”
“Birth records.”
“Created by Everett’s network.”
Rebecca went quiet.
“DNA?” Mercer’s voice came through Maren’s hidden transmitter.
Everyone looked at the small device clipped beneath her collar.
Daniel cursed.
“You brought police.”
“Yes.”
Mercer entered with officers minutes later.
No one resisted.
She looked at Maren.
“DNA solves part of this.”
Samples were collected from Maren, Rebecca, Daniel, Iris, Elodie and Adrian.
Gabriel, recovering from the gunshot, agreed from the hospital.
Helena remained a ghost.
While expedited testing began, police transported everyone to a secure federal facility.
Kellan was still missing.
Lenora had been detained at Blackthorn.
Celestine entered witness protection temporarily.
The first DNA results returned sixteen hours later.
Iris was Maren’s biological daughter.
Gabriel was her father.
Elodie was also Maren’s biological daughter.
Adrian was her father.
Maren cried when she saw both results.
Not because she had doubted loving either child.
Because for once a piece of paper told the truth.
Then Rebecca’s result arrived.
Rebecca was not Maren’s biological aunt.
No biological relationship at all.
Maren stared.
Rebecca looked shattered.
“That’s impossible.”
Mercer slid the report across the table.
Daniel whispered,
“Then who is she?”
Rebecca’s hands trembled.
“I was told Helena was my sister.”
“By whom?” Mercer asked.
“Everett.”
Of course.
Maren laughed weakly.
Every road led back to a dead man.
Another result arrived.
Maren was biologically related to Helena Voss.
Parent-child relationship probability greater than 99.9%.
Rebecca exhaled.
“So she is Elena.”
Mercer shook her head.
“Not necessarily.”
Maren understood.
Helena could have more than one daughter.
They searched sealed hospital archives.
Two births.
Helena Voss had delivered identical twin girls.
Elena.
And Elise.
One infant was listed as deceased after birth.
Elise.
Maren stared at the names.
“Which one am I?”
No one knew.
DNA could not distinguish identical twin lineage without original samples.
The surviving child in Everett’s records had always been called Elena.
But if the records were altered—
Helena could be telling Iris the truth.
Maren might be Elise.
The baby everyone believed died.
“What happened to Elena?” Maren asked.
Mercer said,
“That’s what we need to find out.”
A security analyst recovered more footage from Blackthorn.
One file dated twenty-eight years ago showed two little girls.
Not one.
Identical.
Both about six.
Maren stopped breathing.
One wore a blue dress.
One yellow.
Kellan entered.
“Which one is Elena?”
The girls pointed at each other.
He laughed.
Then separated them.
The footage ended.
Maren felt sick.
“They experimented on both.”
Mercer nodded.
Another file.
SUBJECT E.V.-03.
Another:
SUBJECT E.V.-04.
One record indicated “integration failure.”
Another:
“identity consolidation successful.”
“What does that mean?” Adrian asked.
Rebecca whispered,
“They tried to merge their histories.”
Maren turned.
“You knew?”
“No. But I know the theory.”
The idea was monstrous.
Two children raised through alternating reinforcement until one identity dominated.
What happened to the other?
A recovered audio file answered part of it.
Helena screaming at Everett.
“You made Elena believe she was Elise!”
Everett answered calmly.
“The names are irrelevant.”
“They are my daughters!”
“They are subjects.”
Maren covered her mouth.
Helena screamed,
“Where is the other girl?”
The audio ended.
Maren stared.
So Helena herself had lost track of which daughter was which.
That meant Iris’s statement—“you replaced Elena”—could be something Helena believed without knowing the truth.
Mercer received another update.
A woman matching Helena’s appearance had been seen entering a private nursing facility in New Hampshire for years under the name Dr. Helen Vane.
Federal agents raided it.
She was gone.
But they found one long-term patient in a locked memory-care wing.
Female.
Thirty-four.
No public identity.
The same age as Maren.
Maren stared at the photograph sent from the raid.
The woman looked exactly like her.
Not similar.
Exactly.
Maren dropped the phone.
“My sister.”
Her twin.
Alive.
Mercer arranged immediate transport.
The facility was six hours away.
Maren refused to wait.
When she arrived, the woman sat by a window.
Hair shorter.
Body thinner.
Eyes distant.
She turned when Maren entered.
For a moment, neither moved.
It was like looking into a broken mirror.
Maren whispered,
“Elena?”
The woman flinched.
Then said,
“That’s not my name.”
“What is?”
“Elise.”
Maren’s throat tightened.
“Do you know who I am?”
The woman stared.
Then smiled faintly.
“You’re the one who got away.”
Maren began crying.
Elise touched the glass.
“They told me you were dead.”
“They told me you were dead too.”
Elise nodded.
“They always do that.”
Maren sat.
“Who kept you here?”
“Mother.”
“Helena?”
Elise’s eyes filled with fear.
“She isn’t our mother anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“She became Everett.”
Maren felt cold.
“Elise, is Helena Executor Three?”
The woman stared toward the doorway.
Then shook her head.
“No.”
“Who is?”
Elise whispered,
“Me.”
Maren stopped breathing.
“No.”
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“They made me sign things.”
“You were a prisoner.”
“I sent orders.”
“Under coercion.”
“I don’t know.”
Elise began shaking.
“I don’t know what memories are mine.”
Maren reached for her hand.
Elise recoiled.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
Elise stared at her.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“Why?”
“Because now she knows where you are.”
A hospital alarm sounded.
Mercer appeared in the doorway.
“Lockdown.”
Maren stood.
“What happened?”
“Security breach.”
Lights flickered.
Then every television in the ward turned on.
Dr. Helena Voss appeared.
Older.
Elegant.
Alive.
She looked directly into the camera.
“My daughters.”
Maren felt Elise grab her hand.
Helena smiled.
“Twenty-eight years ago, Everett stole one of you from me.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Tonight, I’m taking her back.”
The feed changed.
Security footage of the federal facility where Elodie and Iris were staying.
A masked team entered through a service corridor.
Maren screamed,
“No!”
Mercer grabbed her radio.
Then Helena’s voice returned.
“But I only need one daughter.”
Maren stared at the screen.
“To get your children back,” Helena said, “you must finally answer the question Everett spent his life trying to erase.”
A childhood photograph appeared.
Two identical girls.
Blue dress.
May you like
Yellow dress.
“Which one of you is Elena?”
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