CHAPTER 23 — LYDIA’S OFFER
The coordinates led to an abandoned train platform beneath the city.
Emily left the board convoy two blocks away.
She carried no weapon.
Vanessa’s data key rested inside her pocket.
Lydia waited beside an old passenger car.
Emily’s biological daughter slept in a carrier at her feet.
Emily moved toward the child.
Lydia raised one hand.
“Stop.”
“You said she was safe.”
“She is.”
“Then give her to me.”
“When you know everything.”
Emily looked around.
“Where is Helena?”
“Preparing the board.”
“Where is the man who escaped the lighthouse?”
Lydia’s expression remained unreadable.
“Closer than you think.”
Emily looked at her daughter.
“Why did you take her?”
“Because Helena ordered the duplicate to bring her to the board chamber.”
“You intercepted him?”
“I helped him.”
Emily stared at her.
“You are working with the duplicate.”
“I worked with all of them.”
“How many?”
“At least three men have worn Nathan Bennett’s identity since the boat explosion.”
Emily struggled to process the words.
“One was Nicholas. One was Silas.”
“And one may have been Nathan.”
“May have been?”
“The original Nathan survived the explosion. Helena transferred him to a private recovery unit. Six months later, he disappeared.”
“Did he escape?”
“No one knows.”
Emily’s voice trembled.
“The man who married me…”
“Could have been Nathan. Could have been Nicholas. Could have been someone carrying their memories.”
Emily wanted to reject it.
But every certificate, biometric scan, and genetic test had been controlled by the Bennett network.
Lydia crouched beside the carrier.
“The children were created because Helena no longer trusted the adult heirs.”
“You agreed to carry one.”
“I was told the embryo belonged to Nathan.”
“Did it?”
“I still don’t know.”
Emily looked at Lydia’s face.
“For once, tell me why you are doing this.”
Lydia’s eyes lowered to the baby.
“My sister worked at Bennett House East.”
Emily waited.
“She discovered Project Mirror. She tried to expose Helena. Three days later, she disappeared.”
“What was her name?”
“Laura Shaw.”
Charles had once mentioned Laura.
He claimed she had stolen medical records and left the country.
Lydia continued.
“I entered the program to find out what happened to her. By the time I understood the trust, I was already pregnant.”
“And now you want your child recognized.”
“I want my child free.”
“Then help me destroy the trust.”
Lydia looked up.
“That is why I brought you here.”
She held out a small black device.
“The board’s biometric network can be erased from one place.”
“The board chamber?”
“The original Bennett nursery beneath it.”
Emily took the device.
“What will it do?”
“It will remove the children from the succession registry.”
“And the adults?”
“It may erase every Bennett identity connected to the network.”
Emily thought of bank accounts, legal records, medical access, property ownership, and citizenship documents.
“People could disappear on paper.”
“Yes.”
Including Nathan.
If he was alive.
Emily looked at the sleeping child.
“I will not destroy the only evidence that could help me find him.”
“Then Helena will own the children.”
A sound came from the tunnel.
Lydia stood quickly.
“You were followed.”
Emily looked toward the stairs.
Claire appeared first.
Grant came behind her with two officers.
Emily’s anger rose.
“I told no one.”
Claire did not look at her.
“I could not let you come alone.”
Lydia reached for the carrier.
Grant raised his weapon.
“Step away from the child.”
A man emerged from the darkness behind Lydia.
Nathan’s face.
He pressed a weapon against Lydia’s back.
“Give Emily the baby.”
Emily looked at him.
“Who are you?”
He smiled.
“You already asked me that at the clinic.”
He was the man who had escaped the lighthouse.
The one who had entered carrying NB-01.
The one who called himself Nathan.
Lydia slowly moved away from the carrier.
Grant ordered the man to lower his weapon.
Instead, the duplicate looked at Claire.
“You sent the coordinates exactly as instructed.”
Emily turned toward Claire.
Claire’s face went white.
The man smiled.
“You did well.”
Before anyone could move, the train car doors opened.
Armed board security officers stepped onto the platform.
Helena’s voice came through the station speakers.
“Thank you for gathering the necessary witnesses.”
Emily looked at Claire.
“You led them here.”
Claire whispered, “I thought I was sending the location to Grant.”
May you like
The duplicate laughed.
“No. You sent it to me.”
