CHAPTER 17 — TWO MEN, ONE MEMORY
Grant ordered everyone away from the doors.
The man inside the delivery room raised his hands.
“I am not armed.”
“That does not make you innocent,” Grant replied.
Emily held her newborn closer.
The man on the security screen waited in the corridor with the second infant.
He looked exhausted.
There was dried blood on his collar, and one side of his face was bruised.
Grant spoke through the intercom.
“Put the child inside the examination room and step back.”
“I won’t leave the baby alone.”
“Then you do not enter.”
The man looked directly into the camera.
“Ask Emily what Nathan said the night the eastern balcony collapsed.”
Emily’s breath caught.
No one outside the Bennett family knew about that night.
She had been seventeen.
Nathan had found her sitting beneath the broken balcony after Charles accused her of destroying evidence connected to the family trust.
Nathan had sat beside her until sunrise.
Emily approached the intercom.
“What did you say?”
The man answered immediately.
“I told you broken houses remember who hurt them.”
Emily closed her eyes.
It was exactly what Nathan had said.
Behind her, the man already inside the clinic spoke.
“And you answered that people remember longer.”
Emily turned.
He knew the rest.
The newcomer’s expression tightened.
“They copied my memories.”
The man inside laughed bitterly.
“That is what I was going to say.”
Grant looked at Claire.
“Is memory copying possible?”
“Not like that.”
Charles’s voice suddenly came through Grant’s radio.
His words were broken by static.
“Project Mirror.”
Grant grabbed the radio.
“Charles, where are you?”
A sharp sound interrupted the transmission.
Then Preston’s voice replaced Charles’s.
“Stop wasting time deciding which brother is real.”
Emily stepped toward the radio.
“Where are you?”
“Lydia moved us.”
“Give me the location.”
Preston laughed softly.
“You think she brought us here as prisoners? She brought us here as witnesses.”
“To what?”
“The Bennett board has begun an emergency succession review. You no longer have forty-eight hours.”
Emily looked at the wall clock.
“How long?”
“Until midnight.”
The connection ended.
Grant allowed the second man into the clinic after searching him.
He placed the infant on a clean examination table.
The baby was sleeping.
A faded band circled its ankle.
NB-01.
Claire examined the child.
“Healthy. Approximately five or six weeks old.”
Emily studied the baby’s face.
“Is this Lydia’s child?”
“No genetic test can be completed fast enough to guide us safely,” Claire said.
One of the identical men approached the infant.
The other blocked him.
“Do not touch the baby.”
“You think I would hurt a child?”
“I think you wore my face while my wife nearly died.”
Emily looked sharply at the newcomer.
“Your wife?”
The room became silent.
He looked at Emily.
“I did not mean—”
“You called me your wife.”
“Because you are.”
The man who had been inside the clinic shook his head.
“Emily and Nathan never completed the private marriage registration.”
The newcomer froze.
Emily felt her pulse pounding.
Only Nathan knew the registration had been delayed.
Unless the other man truly had access to his memories.
Grant placed both men against opposite walls.
“Neither of you moves.”
Claire walked toward an old biometric panel.
“There may be one test.”
She pressed her hand against the scanner.
The panel opened, revealing a twin set of sensors.
“Charles designed this clinic to recognize Bennett family cardiac patterns. Identical twins can share DNA, but their heartbeat variations develop differently.”
The first man placed his hand on the sensor.
A green light appeared.
AUTHORIZED: NATHAN BENNETT.
The second man stepped forward.
He placed his hand on the other sensor.
Another green light appeared.
AUTHORIZED: NATHAN BENNETT.
Emily stared at the two screens.
Then a third line appeared beneath both names.
MIRROR ACCESS CONFIRMED.
Claire stepped back.
“What does that mean?”
The clinic speakers activated.
A woman’s calm voice filled the room.
It was not Lydia.
It was Helena Bennett, Charles’s older sister and chairwoman of the Bennett board.
“It means neither man should be trusted.”
Emily looked toward the ceiling.
Helena continued.
“Bring the three children to the board chamber before midnight.”
“There are only two children here,” Emily said.
A soft laugh came through the speaker.
“No, Emily.”
A camera feed opened on the medical monitor.
Helena stood beside a third crib.
May you like
Inside it slept another infant.
“This is the child your family erased.”
