Chapter 14 - Helena ran.Helena ran.
Mercer’s team secured Iris and Amelia while Maren and Celestine were pulled behind cover.
One Guardian guard surrendered.
The other fired.
Officers returned fire.
He went down.
Helena disappeared through a maintenance passage.
Maren tried to follow.
Mercer caught her.
“No.”
“She knows who I am.”
“And she has a gun.”
“I need the truth.”
“You need to stay alive.”
Celestine was crying.
“Mara?”
Maren touched her head.
The drug had opened something.
Not a full memory.
Fragments.
A different house.
Rebecca calling her Mara.
Daniel carrying her on his shoulders.
Before Vermont.
Before Maren.
She looked at Celestine.
“If I’m not your twin…”
Celestine swallowed.
“Then who are you?”
DNA had already proven Maren was Helena’s biological daughter.
So how could she be neither Elena nor Elise?
Unless Helena had another child.
Records uncovered in the original lab gave the answer.
Helena had undergone IVF before the twins.
A third embryo had been frozen.
Everett secretly implanted that embryo into a surrogate years later.
Mara was born six years after Elena and Elise.
But Maren’s childhood memories placed her beside the well at six.
The dates didn’t fit.
Until Mercer found another altered birth certificate.
Maren was not thirty-four.
She was forty.
Six years of her legal age had been erased.
The revelation stunned everyone.
Adrian sat beside her.
“You’re forty?”
“Apparently.”
He almost smiled.
“You look good.”
She stared.
He immediately raised his hands.
“Bad time.”
She laughed despite herself.
It was absurd.
And somehow necessary.
The truth reconstructed itself.
Helena first had twins Elena and Elise.
Elise died at six during the well incident.
Kellan’s daughter Amelia was substituted for Elise.
Then Everett created a second-generation subject from Helena’s frozen embryo: Mara.
Mara was raised near the older girls and used as an observer-control.
Rebecca—real Amelia—eventually helped Mara escape.
Years later, Everett altered Mara’s age, history and identity into Maren Cole.
Celestine was almost certainly Elena, the surviving twin.
DNA age markers confirmed she was approximately forty-one despite records listing thirty-five.
Celestine stared at the report.
“So I’m Elena.”
“Probably,” Mercer said.
“And Maren is my biological younger sister.”
“Yes.”
Celestine looked at Maren.
Then laughed helplessly.
“We almost married the same man.”
Adrian groaned.
“Could we retire that sentence?”
For the first time since the wedding, all three laughed.
Then Mercer’s radio crackled.
Helena had reached the cliff tunnels beneath Blackthorn.
Maren stood.
“You’re not going,” Adrian said.
“Yes, I am.”
“Maren.”
“Mara.”
He stopped.
She looked uncertain.
“I don’t know.”
He softened.
“What do you want me to call you?”
She thought.
“Maren.”
It was the first identity she had chosen herself.
Not assigned.
Not recovered.
Chosen.
“Maren,” Adrian said, “don’t go after her.”
“I’m not going after her.”
“What are you doing?”
“Ending this.”
She followed Mercer to the cliff entrance.
The tunnel opened onto a narrow stone ledge above the sea.
Helena stood near the edge.
Gun in hand.
Wind tore at her coat.
Mercer raised her weapon.
“Put it down.”
Helena laughed.
“You think arresting me ends Guardian?”
“No,” Maren said.
Helena turned.
Maren stepped closer.
“Everett built a system where everyone believed somebody else held the full truth.”
Helena stared.
“Kellan thought Lenora controlled it. Lenora thought you controlled it. You thought Everett controlled it.”
“And you?”
“I think nobody did.”
Helena’s expression shifted.
Maren continued.
“The system survived because all of you kept obeying it.”
“You know nothing.”
“I know enough.”
“You don’t even know your real name.”
Maren smiled faintly.
“Yes, I do.”
Helena frowned.
“Maren.”
“That was given to you.”
“So was Elena. So was Mara. Every name was given to me.”
Helena’s eyes filled.
“You are Mara.”
“I was.”
“You are my daughter.”
“Yes.”
Helena’s weapon lowered slightly.
“And being your daughter does not make me your subject.”
Helena began crying.
“I tried to find you.”
“You found me.”
“I tried to fix what Everett did.”
“You became him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Helena’s face twisted.
“You don’t understand what he did to me.”
Maren stepped closer.
“I do.”
“You can’t.”
“He took your children.”
“Yes.”
“And you spent the rest of your life taking children from other mothers.”
Helena flinched.
“Iris.”
“Elodie.”
“Amelia.”
“Celestine.”
“All because you wanted pain to become proof.”
Helena shook.
“I wanted the truth.”
“No. You wanted a version of the truth that made your choices necessary.”
Wind roared.
Helena looked down at the ocean.
Maren saw it.
The possibility.
“Don’t.”
Helena laughed through tears.
“Why?”
“Because I won’t let Everett choose the ending either.”
Helena looked at her.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Helena dropped the gun.
Mercer moved forward.
A shot cracked.
Helena jerked.
Blood appeared on her shoulder.
Everyone turned.
Thomas Kellan stood at the tunnel entrance behind them.
Gun raised.
“Helena should have died years ago.”
Mercer fired.
Kellan ducked behind rock.
Chaos erupted.
Maren pulled Helena down.
Another bullet hit stone.
Mercer and officers advanced.
Kellan ran deeper into the tunnel.
Adrian’s voice shouted from above.
“Elodie!”
Maren froze.
No.
She turned.
Adrian came running.
“Elodie’s gone.”
The world disappeared beneath Maren’s feet.
“What?”
“She was with the protective team. One of the agents was Guardian.”
Maren stared toward the tunnels.
Kellan.
He had never come to kill Helena.
That was distraction.
His real target was Elodie.
Mercer’s radio confirmed.
A vehicle had left the estate three minutes earlier.
Child inside.
Maren ran.
They reached the upper grounds.
Iris stood with an officer, screaming that Elodie had been taken.
Maren grabbed her.
“Did you see who?”
Iris nodded.
“Mr. Tom.”
Kellan.
Adrian was already calling security.
Mercer checked traffic cameras.
Kellan’s vehicle headed south.
Then disappeared.
Maren closed her eyes.
Think.
Kellan’s daughter.
Amelia.
Original experiment.
Where would he go?
Rebecca.
Maren turned.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Mercer froze.
Protective detention.
Federal facility.
She called.
No answer.
The surveillance feed appeared.
Rebecca’s room.
Empty.
On the wall, written in lipstick:
I’M TAKING MY DAUGHTER HOME.
Maren felt cold.
“Kellan didn’t kidnap Elodie alone.”
Rebecca had helped him.
Real Amelia.
Thomas Kellan’s daughter.
The woman who raised Maren.
Her mother in every way except blood.
And now she had taken Elodie.
Maren’s phone rang.
Rebecca.
She answered.
“Give her back.”
Rebecca was crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“I spent my life protecting you.”
“Then protect Elodie.”
“That’s what I’m doing.”
“From me?”
“From all of this.”
Maren shook.
“Where are you?”
“You’ll never find us.”
“Mom.”
The word escaped before she could stop it.
Rebecca went silent.
Maren closed her eyes.
“You are my mother.”
Rebecca sobbed.
“You raised me. You loved me. That part was real.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t become Kellan.”
Silence.
In the background, Elodie cried,
“Mommy!”
Maren’s heart shattered.
Rebecca whispered,
“I’m sorry.”
The line disconnected.
But Mercer had the trace.
Port Cedar.
The same station where Gabriel’s letter had begun everything.
May you like
A train was leaving for Montreal in twenty-two minutes.
Maren ran.
