Chapter 7 - Maren watched the enlarged reflection until the image blurred.Maren watched the enlarged reflection until the image blurred.
Rebecca.
The woman who had packed her lunches.
Taught her to braid hair.
Sat beside her when thunderstorms shook their Vermont farmhouse.
The woman Maren had buried at seventeen.
Alive.
“What if the timestamp was altered?” Maren asked.
Mercer had already considered it.
“We checked metadata against the original Blackthorn server archive. No sign of manipulation.”
“So she survived the fire.”
“Possibly.”
“No.”
Maren shook her head.
“She didn’t survive it. If she walked away, then she let me believe she was dead.”
Celestine said nothing.
Maren turned on her.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“How?”
“Guardian used a woman called Rebecca North.”
Maren’s hands shook.
“You met her?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
Maren wanted to hit something.
“You saw my mother seven months ago and said nothing?”
“I didn’t know she was your mother then.”
“What did she do?”
“She delivered instructions from Executor Three.”
The room became silent.
Mercer leaned forward.
“Rebecca is connected to Three?”
Celestine nodded.
“She may be Three.”
Maren laughed bitterly.
Naturally.
The dead mother.
The stolen identity.
The forgotten husband.
The missing daughter.
Why not?
Her life had become an archive of impossible facts.
“Where can we find her?”
Celestine shook her head.
“She appeared once. Hotel conference room in Portland. No phone. No car registered in her name.”
“What instructions?”
“To move Iris.”
Maren’s heart stopped.
“From where?”
“Her foster placement.”
“So Iris didn’t disappear because of Gabriel.”
“No.”
“Guardian took her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Celestine hesitated.
“Because Kellan wanted to restart Phase IV.”
Maren stared.
“What is Phase IV?”
Celestine looked sick.
“The siblings.”
Maren thought of Elodie and Iris.
“No.”
“Everett believed related subjects could be used to test whether manipulated memories transferred through shared narratives.”
“That sentence means nothing to me.”
“They put children together. Told them different versions of the same event. Tested which version became dominant.”
Maren’s face went numb.
“You’re telling me they were experimenting on my daughters together.”
“Yes.”
Maren turned away.
Mercer’s voice sharpened.
“How many children?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
“At least twelve over the years.”
Mercer called federal authorities.
Within hours, the investigation expanded.
Blackthorn was sealed.
Guardian-linked clinics were identified in three states.
But every location had been abandoned.
Computers wiped.
Records removed.
Someone knew police were coming.
Someone with access.
Maren returned home in the afternoon.
Adrian was sitting on the floor playing blocks with Elodie.
She watched him through the doorway.
He looked tired.
Human.
He built a tower.
Elodie knocked it down.
He pretended to be shocked.
She laughed.
Maren had not heard that laugh in so long she had almost forgotten it.
Adrian looked up.
Their eyes met.
He knew from her face there was more.
He sent Elodie to choose a movie.
Then stood.
“What happened?”
“My mother is alive.”
He stared.
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently we need a new definition of impossible.”
She showed him the photograph.
Adrian leaned against the counter.
“She was at Blackthorn.”
“The night your father died.”
His face tightened.
“Do you think she killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does this have to do with Iris?”
“Everything.”
Maren told him about Phase IV.
Adrian sat slowly.
“They experimented on the girls?”
“Yes.”
“While Elodie was living with me.”
“Yes.”
The words hit him hard.
He pressed both hands over his face.
“I brought her there.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
Maren remembered how many times she had begged him to believe her.
She could have punished him with those words.
Instead she said,
“Now you know.”
He looked up.
“What do we do?”
“We find Iris.”
“And your mother.”
“Yes.”
At four thirty, Mercer called.
They had found a vehicle connected to the red backpack delivery.
Rental car.
Fake identity.
But traffic cameras captured the driver removing his cap.
Gabriel Shaw.
Maren’s heart twisted.
“Where?”
“Heading north.”
“Alone?”
“Unknown.”
“Can you track him?”
“We lost him near Route 1.”
Maren sat down.
Gabriel was real.
Alive.
Close.
Her body remembered him even when her mind didn’t.
That frightened her almost as much as wanting to see him.
At six, Elodie fell asleep on the sofa.
Adrian made coffee.
Maren opened the old files again.
She searched for Gabriel.
Dozens of photographs.
Then videos.
A beach.
A restaurant.
Their courthouse wedding.
Maren watched herself look at Gabriel.
She had never looked at Adrian that way.
The realization hurt.
Not because she suddenly loved Gabriel.
She didn’t know him.
But because the woman in the video did.
That woman was her.
Or had been.
Gabriel smiled into the camera.
“Mrs. Shaw, any regrets?”
Maren on screen laughed.
“One.”
“What?”
“We should’ve done this sooner.”
He kissed her.
Present-day Maren shut the laptop.
Adrian stood behind her.
He had seen it.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He shook his head.
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“We were both handed a lie.”
“That doesn’t mean none of it was real.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
The sadness in his face was worse than anger.
“Our marriage was real to me.”
“To me too.”
“Even if it shouldn’t have happened?”
Maren swallowed.
“Yes.”
Adrian nodded.
That seemed to matter.
Then all the lights went out.
Maren froze.
Adrian moved instantly.
“Elodie.”
They reached the sofa.
Empty.
“Maren.”
Panic exploded.
“Elodie!”
No response.
The apartment was dark.
Adrian used his phone flashlight.
The balcony door stood open.
Maren’s heart stopped.
“ELODIE!”
They ran outside.
Nothing.
Then a tiny voice came from the bedroom.
“Mommy?”
Maren nearly collapsed with relief.
Elodie stood in the doorway.
“Why are you yelling?”
Maren hugged her.
“Where were you?”
“Bathroom.”
Adrian checked the apartment.
No intruder.
The power returned.
Maren’s new phone buzzed.
Unknown text.
LOOK OUTSIDE.
She approached the window.
A black car sat across the street.
Driver’s door open.
A man stood beside it.
Tall.
Dark coat.
Even from the fourth floor, Maren knew him.
Gabriel.
Her heart recognized him before her face did.
He looked up directly at the window.
Maren couldn’t move.
Then he held up both hands.
Showing he was unarmed.
Adrian came beside her.
“Is that him?”
Maren nodded.
Gabriel pointed toward the building entrance.
Then disappeared beneath the awning.
Adrian said,
“Call Mercer.”
“I am.”
Minutes later police surrounded the lobby.
But Gabriel had not entered.
Instead they found an envelope taped inside the front door.
Maren opened it under Mercer’s supervision.
One sentence.
IF REBECCA FINDS OUT I CONTACTED YOU, SHE WILL MOVE IRIS AGAIN.
Underneath was an address.
Abandoned summer camp.
Forty miles north.
And four words.
COME BEFORE SUNRISE. ALONE.
Mercer said immediately,
“You’re not going alone.”
Maren stared at the address.
“If he has Iris—”
“We don’t know that he does.”
Adrian stood beside her.
“You’re not going.”
Maren looked at him.
“I lost one daughter because everyone decided what was best for me.”
“That isn’t what I’m doing.”
“It sounds familiar.”
Adrian flinched.
Maren regretted it.
But she did not take it back.
At 4:15 a.m., Mercer created a plan.
Maren would go.
Not alone.
Police would maintain distance.
Tracking device hidden in her shoe.
Backup teams outside the camp perimeter.
At 5:26, Maren drove through heavy fog toward the abandoned property.
Her hands shook on the wheel.
At 5:54, she stepped inside the main cabin.
“Gabriel?”
Silence.
Then footsteps.
A man emerged from the shadows.
Older than the photographs.
Scar along his jaw.
Gray at his temples.
His eyes filled with tears when he saw her.
“Maren.”
Her chest hurt.
She knew that voice.
He took one step.
Stopped himself.
“I won’t touch you.”
She stared.
“You were my husband.”
“Yes.”
“I loved you.”
His face crumpled.
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember.”
“I know.”
Maren swallowed hard.
“Where is Iris?”
Gabriel looked toward a closed door.
“She’s here.”
Maren’s knees weakened.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see her?”
He nodded.
Then something changed in his expression.
Fear.
“Before you do, you need to understand why Rebecca took her.”
Maren stared.
“Rebecca is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Is she Executor Three?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“No.”
“Then who?”
A floorboard creaked behind Maren.
She turned.
A woman stood in the doorway.
Silver hair.
Older.
But unmistakable.
Rebecca.
Maren’s mother.
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“My baby.”
Maren couldn’t move.
Then Rebecca raised a gun.
Not at Maren.
May you like
At Gabriel.
And fired.
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