Chapter 14 - Elena
I spent ten minutes sitting on the basement floor before anyone spoke.
I couldn't stop staring at the photograph.
Two little girls.
Same face.
Same dark eyes.
Same crooked smile.
One named Victoria.
One named Elena.
And I had lived my entire life believing I was the first.
My mother sat across from me.
Reyes stood behind her.
Sarah stayed near the computers.
Emily sat beside me with one hand wrapped around mine.
Finally I asked, “What happened to Victoria?”
My mother answered softly.
“She died.”
“In the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you make me become her?”
“Because the men who caused the fire believed both girls were dead.”
“So I was protected by her identity.”
“Yes.”
“Was Dad right?”
“About what?”
“That they would eventually find me?”
My mother looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
“So everything after that was to keep them away.”
“Not everything.”
She paused.
“After your father tried to shut down the program, the Prescotts took control.”
Reyes spoke.
“The Prescotts weren't just contractors.”
“No.”
My mother looked at him.
“They owned pieces of the companies that handled federal identity security.”
“And Margaret?”
“She worked for them.”
I clenched my jaw.
“What did she do to me?”
“She reported on your behavior.”
“That's it?”
“No.”
My mother looked at me.
“She influenced it.”
Emily sat straighter.
“What does that mean?”
“She arranged situations to see whether Elena would instinctively behave like Victoria.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“To determine whether identity conditioning was successful.”
Sarah nodded.
“My training was based on those reports.”
I looked at her.
“So you learned how to imitate me from Margaret's reports.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever meet me?”
“Twice.”
“When?”
Sarah's eyes dropped.
“When you were seventeen.”
My stomach twisted.
“I don't remember.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
My mother stood.
“We used medication.”
Reyes's voice became cold.
“You drugged your own daughter.”
My mother didn't deny it.
“Yes.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because you were remembering Victoria.”
“The memories.”
She nodded.
“Your twin died in the fire, but you were both together that night.”
“What happened?”
My mother's face changed.
“You saw who started it.”
I stared.
“Who?”
She swallowed.
“Your father.”
Silence.
“My father?”
“He didn't set the fire.”
Her voice broke.
“He tried to stop it.”
“Then why did I see him?”
“Because he was carrying Victoria out.”
I remembered the memory.
Smoke.
Heat.
A man's hands.
My father's voice.
Run.
I had been running behind him.
Then someone else.
A woman.
Blue eyes.
I stared at my mother.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You left us.”
She cried.
“I thought I was saving you.”
“You let Victoria die.”
“Yes.”
“And then you erased me.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“You don't get to call that love.”
My mother looked shattered.
“You're right.”
I walked toward her.
“For twenty-eight years I believed my family abandoned me emotionally because I wasn't good enough.”
She said nothing.
“I thought David was the only person who ever saw the real me.”
My mother closed her eyes.
“He did.”
“Then why did he lie?”
“Because I made him.”
I stared.
“You blackmailed my husband.”
“I threatened you.”
“You used me against him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered what you were.”
“What am I?”
My mother hesitated.
“You are the only surviving person who knows where the original Mirror archive is.”
Reyes frowned.
“What archive?”
“The archive containing every identity ever created.”
I stared.
“How would I know where it is?”
“Because your father hid the location inside your memory.”
I laughed.
It came out broken.
“My memory.”
My mother nodded.
“He knew they would search your records, your body, your home, your computers.”
She looked at me.
“So he hid the key where no one could steal it.”
“In my mind.”
“Yes.”
Sarah stepped toward the computer.
“Then the memory card.”
Emily held it up.
My mother nodded.
“The card isn't the archive.”
“What is it?”
“A trigger.”
Reyes reached for it.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
My mother looked at me.
“Once you activate it, everyone who wants that archive will know you still remember.”
The basement lights flickered.
Sarah spun around.
“We have company.”
A monitor turned on.
A live feed appeared.
Margaret.
She sat in a car.
Blood stained one side of her face.
She looked directly at the camera.
“Victoria.”
I felt a chill.
Margaret smiled.
“I'm sorry, Elena.”
The screen went black.
Reyes immediately pulled his phone.
“She's here.”
My mother whispered,
“She has the Prescotts with her.”
Then every monitor in the room came alive.
A countdown appeared.
My mother looked at me.
“Run.”
“Why?”
“Because they just found the house.”
“And they're not coming for the archive.”
“What are they coming for?”
My mother looked at Emily.
May you like
“You.”
The entire basement exploded into darkness.
