Chapter 23 - The Child They Were Watching
I hit the glass with both hands.
“Noah!”
He screamed my name.
Dad grabbed my shoulder.
“Camila, move!”
“I can't see him!”
Emergency lights flashed.
Red.
Then white.
Then red again.
Through the glass, Noah was standing alone.
A circular pattern of light appeared beneath his feet.
Ethan rushed forward.
“Stop!”
Leah's voice came through the speaker.
“He won't be harmed.”
“You're lying,” I shouted.
“I have never lied to you about the important things.”
I almost laughed.
“You made me think you were my friend.”
“You needed a friend.”
“You wanted access to my son.”
“Yes.”
The honesty was somehow more terrifying.
Richard grabbed the control panel.
“There.”
He pointed.
A small screen displayed a sequence of numbers.
“C-12.”
“C-13.”
“C-14.”
Then another designation appeared.
“N-01.”
I stared.
“Noah.”
Richard nodded.
“The child generation.”
I felt sick.
Leah's voice continued.
“Every generation produced an unexpected result.”
Dad looked at the screen.
“What did you do to my daughter?”
Leah answered calmly.
“We removed certain memories. Increased emotional responsiveness. Isolated attachment patterns. Nothing that couldn't be reversed.”
My mother stepped forward.
“Liar.”
Leah smiled.
“Elena.”
“You killed children.”
“I redirected them.”
“You experimented on them.”
“I studied them.”
“You destroyed families.”
“I studied what happened when they lost each other.”
I screamed.
“You destroyed my life.”
Leah looked directly at me through the glass.
“And yet you built a better one.”
I froze.
“What?”
“You became exactly what they predicted.”
“I survived despite you.”
“No.”
Her smile faded.
“You survived because I needed you to.”
Silence.
Dad stepped toward the speaker.
“Why?”
Leah stared at him.
“Because Carter Ridge had one purpose.”
“What?”
“To identify the person capable of influencing every subject without direct control.”
Richard whispered:
“The anchor.”
Leah nodded.
“Exactly.”
I looked at her.
“And you?”
“I am not the anchor.”
She turned her tablet toward the camera.
A brain scan appeared.
Then another.
Then mine.
Then Noah's.
A pattern connected all four.
I stared.
The lines between my scan and Noah's were nearly identical.
But one line connected Leah.
A second connected my mother.
“What is that?”
Leah answered.
“Genetic inheritance.”
My mother shook her head.
“No.”
Leah's expression hardened.
“You always hated the truth.”
“I hated what you did with it.”
I looked at my mother.
“You knew.”
She nodded.
“I knew what they were studying.”
“Did you know Leah was C-14?”
“Yes.”
“Did Dad?”
“No.”
I turned toward him.
He looked devastated.
“Elena…”
“I tried to tell you.”
“When?”
“The night I disappeared.”
Dad stared at her.
“You disappeared before I got home.”
“Because Carter had already reached the house.”
I looked at him.
“What happened that night?”
He hesitated.
Then he spoke.
“I came home and found fire.”
“What about me?”
“You were gone.”
“Who took me?”
“Elena.”
My mother nodded.
“I took you.”
I stared.
“Why did you give me back?”
“Because you weren't you anymore.”
The words struck like a slap.
“What does that mean?”
“You had been exposed to the treatment.”
“What treatment?”
“Phase Two.”
My heart pounded.
“You said Diane gave me the scar.”
“She did.”
“Why?”
“To hide what they'd done.”
I looked at Leah.
“You knew.”
“Of course.”
“What did they do to me?”
Leah slowly raised the tablet.
“You forgot your mother.”
My chest tightened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You said I was injured.”
“You were.”
“Then why can't I remember?”
“Because the treatment worked.”
I backed away.
Memories crashed through me.
A white room.
A lullaby.
My mother's hand.
A little girl laughing.
A door.
A fire.
Another girl beside me.
Leah.
Only she wasn't called Leah.
A number was written on the glass.
C-14.
I whispered, “We knew each other.”
Leah's eyes softened.
“We loved each other.”
My mother turned away.
Dad looked at her.
“You never told me.”
“She was the only child who reached Camila after the conditioning.”
I stared at Leah.
“You were my friend.”
“I was your sister.”
The room went silent.
“No.”
Leah touched her chest.
“Diane wasn't my mother biologically.”
I shook my head.
“You just said she was.”
“She gave birth to me.”
“Then how are you my sister?”
Leah's voice became quiet.
“Because Carter created the rest.”
My mother's face collapsed.
“Stop.”
Leah ignored her.
“Your father wasn't the only one who donated genetic material.”
Dad stared at her.
“What?”
Leah smiled.
“You want to know why we looked identical?”
I couldn't breathe.
“Why?”
She answered.
“Because half of me came from you.”
My father's knees nearly buckled.
I stared at him.
“You're saying—”
Leah nodded.
“I am your biological sister.”
Dad looked at Elena.
She couldn't meet his eyes.
“How?”
Elena whispered, “Carter used your stored genetic material.”
Dad looked shattered.
“They took samples.”
“Before we knew what the program was.”
I looked back at Leah.
“You knew all this.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you hurt Noah?”
“I didn't.”
“He has your blood.”
Leah smiled faintly.
“He has something else.”
“What?”
“Your mother's.”
My mother stepped forward.
“Camila, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You need to hear this.”
“No more secrets.”
She nodded.
“There is one more.”
I looked at her.
She took a breath.
“Noah isn't the first child they marked.”
My blood froze.
“Who was?”
She looked at me.
“You.”
A buzzer sounded.
The room shook.
The glass door opened.
Noah ran into my arms.
I grabbed him.
Dad pulled Ethan toward us.
Richard stared at the monitor.
“Something's wrong.”
“What?”
“The system recorded the activation.”
“Meaning?”
He turned the screen toward me.
A new file had appeared.
N-02.
I stared.
“Noah isn't N-01.”
Richard nodded.
“N-01 already exists.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
Then at Leah.
Then at my mother.
And finally at the empty hallway.
A man's voice came through the facility speakers.
“Me.”
Dad's face went white.
The voice belonged to someone none of us had expected.
May you like
Michael's brother.
My uncle.
