Chapter 12 - Mercer reopened every childhood file.Mercer reopened every childhood file.
DNA became the key.
If Maren and Elise were identical twins, modern testing could establish near-perfect genetic identity.
The results came back.
They were not twins.
They were not sisters.
They were not biologically related at all.
Maren read the result three times.
Rebecca whispered,
“Oh God.”
Elise’s claim had been true.
Someone had replaced one of Helena’s daughters with another child.
Maren was biologically Helena’s daughter.
Elise was not.
That meant Maren was either Elena or the supposedly dead biological twin.
And Elise was somebody else.
“Who?” Maren asked.
No one knew.
They ran Elise’s DNA through missing-person databases.
A match appeared.
Elise was born Amelia Grace Kellan.
Daughter of Thomas Kellan.
Reported missing at age five.
Maren stared.
“Kellan used his own daughter?”
Mercer nodded grimly.
“Apparently.”
The files began making terrible sense.
One of Helena’s twins likely died or disappeared.
Everett and Kellan substituted Amelia as a control subject.
Then conditioned both girls until even the adults around them lost certainty about identity.
Maren felt physically ill.
“What happened to Helena’s other biological daughter?”
Mercer said,
“We found something.”
An old pediatric DNA sample from a research hospital.
It belonged to Helena’s second twin.
The profile did not match Maren.
Meaning Maren was one twin.
The other had existed separately.
They searched databases.
No exact match.
But one close familial match appeared.
Elodie.
Maren stared.
“That’s because she’s my daughter.”
The geneticist shook his head.
“Not this pattern.”
He explained.
The sample belonged to someone who had later contributed maternally to another tested individual.
Maren struggled to understand.
Mercer understood first.
“The second twin had a child.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
The geneticist turned the screen.
A partial match from an old juvenile medical record.
Celestine Hart.
Maren stopped breathing.
“No.”
Mercer immediately summoned Celestine.
She arrived under protection.
When told, she stared at the documents.
“I’m Helena’s daughter?”
“Possibly.”
Maren looked at Celestine differently.
Same age?
No.
Celestine was thirty-five.
Maren thirty-four.
Close enough for records to be manipulated.
DNA testing confirmed it.
Celestine was Helena Voss’s biological daughter.
Maren’s identical twin.
The women stared at each other.
Now that Maren knew, she saw it.
Not obvious.
Different hair.
Different weight.
Different styling.
But the eyes.
Jaw.
Hands.
Celestine whispered,
“That’s why Everett brought me into the family.”
Maren’s heart twisted.
“How long have you known them?”
“Since I was nineteen.”
“You thought it was random?”
“I thought Lenora sponsored me through university.”
Maren laughed bitterly.
Guardian never did random.
They tested deeper.
Maren and Celestine were monozygotic twins.
Elena and Elise by birth.
Elise—the nursing-home patient—was actually Amelia Kellan.
Three girls had been made into two identities.
Maren looked at Celestine.
“Which one are you?”
Celestine shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“And does it matter?”
“No.”
For the first time, Maren genuinely meant it.
But Helena would think it mattered.
Then something else became clear.
Celestine had almost married Adrian.
Maren’s twin had almost married the man Maren had divorced.
Everett had recreated the pairing.
Again.
Adrian looked sick when he learned.
“I didn’t know.”
Celestine laughed through tears.
“Neither did I.”
Maren suddenly remembered the wedding.
Seeing another woman act like Elodie’s mother.
The resemblance had never registered consciously.
But perhaps that was why Elodie trusted Celestine.
Somewhere in her young mind, Celestine looked like Maren.
Mercer said,
“Helena may have positioned Celestine deliberately.”
“To replace me,” Maren whispered.
Celestine shook her head.
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
Celestine began crying.
That sentence mattered.
The investigation shifted.
Helena had not been searching for her missing daughter.
She had been placing both daughters back into the same family structure.
Testing them.
Maren had Adrian first.
Then Celestine.
Elodie became the shared emotional anchor.
It was another experiment.
At 4 p.m., Gabriel was cleared for limited questioning.
Maren visited him.
He looked exhausted.
“You found your twin,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Celestine.”
He closed his eyes.
“So Everett did it.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected there was another biological daughter.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because every time I tried to give you too much, you collapsed.”
Maren hated the answer because there was truth in it.
She sat.
“Did you know Amelia?”
Gabriel frowned.
“No.”
“She’s the woman we thought was Elise.”
“Kellan’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked stunned.
Maren leaned forward.
“Tell me what you know about Helena.”
“She wants Everett’s work destroyed.”
“That doesn’t fit.”
“She also wants to prove it worked.”
“That fits better.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Maren, Helena spent her career opposing Everett publicly inside the program. But privately, she believed memory could be reconstructed.”
“So she thinks she can fix us.”
“Yes.”
“By continuing the experiment.”
“Yes.”
Maren stood.
Gabriel caught her hand gently.
She froze.
Her body recognized the touch.
A flood came.
Rain against windows.
Gabriel laughing.
Iris kicking inside her.
A hospital corridor.
Screaming.
Then—
Helena.
Holding a syringe.
Maren gasped and pulled away.
“What?”
She stared at Gabriel.
“I remember her.”
“Who?”
“Helena.”
“From when?”
“The night Iris was born.”
Gabriel went pale.
“What did she do?”
Maren closed her eyes.
Memory returned in broken flashes.
Helena standing over her.
Everett arguing.
A newborn crying.
Helena saying,
This is the only way to save her.
Then Maren heard herself screaming,
Take Iris!
The memory shifted.
She saw another woman holding the baby.
Celestine.
Young.
Maybe twenty.
Maren opened her eyes.
“She took Iris.”
“Helena?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Celestine.”
Gabriel stared.
Maren ran from the room.
Celestine was still at the federal facility.
Maren confronted her.
“You were there when Iris was born.”
Celestine went white.
“I don’t remember.”
“You held her.”
“No.”
“I saw you.”
Celestine grabbed her head.
“I said I don’t remember.”
Then she collapsed.
Doctors rushed in.
When Celestine woke, she began speaking a name repeatedly.
“Elena.”
Maren sat beside her.
“Who is Elena?”
Celestine looked at her.
“I am.”
Then she screamed.
A buried memory surfaced.
Celestine at nineteen.
Helena telling her she was Elena Vale.
Giving her baby Iris.
Telling her:
Your sister stole your life. One day, you will take it back.
Celestine cried uncontrollably.
“I thought Iris was mine.”
Maren’s heart broke.
“For how long?”
“Three days.”
“What happened?”
“They took her away.”
“Who?”
“Kellan.”
Celestine covered her face.
“That’s why I joined Guardian.”
Maren understood.
Celestine had spent fifteen years believing Guardian knew where her stolen child was.
Then years later she discovered Iris was actually Maren’s.
Helena had weaponized motherhood against both daughters.
A message appeared on every phone in the building.
Video.
Helena.
Behind her sat Amelia.
And beside Amelia—
Iris.
Maren stood.
“No.”
Helena smiled.
“Now we have all three girls again.”
She meant Maren.
Celestine.
Amelia.
The original experiment.
Iris sat restrained but unharmed.
Helena continued.
“Bring Celestine to Blackthorn tomorrow at sunset.”
Maren’s heart pounded.
“No police.”
Helena smiled sadly.
“This began with three little girls in one house.”
The camera pulled back.
Blackthorn House.
May you like
Somehow Helena had returned despite the police seal.
“It ends the same way.”
