CHAPTER 9: THE WOMAN NAMED ANNA
The escape tunnel collapsed behind them.
Adrian fell to his knees.
Smoke poured from the cracks in the stone.
Claire placed a hand on his shoulder.
He pulled away.
“She raised me.”
Claire understood.
Evelyn had manipulated them.
She had arranged their marriage.
She had hurt Claire.
But she had also been Adrian’s mother for thirty-three years.
Grief did not become simple because the person who died was guilty.
Anna led the group through the forest.
Claire studied her.
The woman appeared about fifty, but something about her movements felt younger.
“Who are you?” Claire asked again.
“Subject Zero.”
“The original Helena?”
“No. Helena was created from me.”
Richard stopped walking.
“My wife was a copy?”
Anna looked at him.
“She was a person.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Then you are asking the wrong question.”
Claire Vale moved beside Anna.
“Did you give birth to us?”
“Not in the way you understand.”
Anna explained that Claire and Clara were created using genetic material from one Helena copy and an unknown male donor.
The embryos had been carried by surrogates.
“Who was the donor?” Adrian asked.
Anna looked toward Richard.
Richard stepped back.
“No.”
“Your bloodline was selected for compatibility.”
Claire stared at Richard.
“You’re our biological father?”
“I never agreed to this.”
Anna nodded.
“Your cells were taken during surgery.”
Claire felt anger rising.
Everyone had been used.
Richard.
Evelyn.
Adrian.
The sisters.
Even Helena.
They reached an abandoned chapel beyond the estate.
Miriam Shaw waited inside.
Claire stopped breathing.
The woman who had raised her looked older and thinner, but alive.
“Miriam?”
Miriam opened her arms.
Claire didn’t move.
“You knew.”
Miriam lowered them.
“Yes.”
“You gave me my sister’s name.”
“To hide you.”
“You told me my parents were dead.”
“I believed Richard would find you.”
Richard stepped forward.
“You thought I wanted to hurt her?”
“I watched a man with your face order the girls separated.”
“That was August.”
“I didn’t know there were two of you.”
Claire’s voice trembled.
“Why did you teach me to forget the fire?”
“Because those memories weren’t yours.”
Claire closed her eyes.
August had said the same thing.
Miriam approached carefully.
“Memories were implanted before I took you. You woke screaming about a fire that hadn’t happened yet.”
Everyone stared at her.
“What do you mean?” Claire asked.
“The fire occurred six months after you began remembering it.”
A cold silence filled the chapel.
Claire had not remembered the past.
She had remembered a plan.
Miriam removed a folded document from her coat.
It showed the date of another planned event.
Three days from now.
SECOND FIRE.
The location was not the Vale estate.
It was the city’s largest children’s hospital.
Adrian looked at Claire.
“My company owns that hospital.”
May you like
Miriam nodded.
“And beneath it are two hundred children who look exactly like you.”
