CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: THE MOTHER WHO WAS STILL ALIVE
1477 Words
Sophia couldn't take her eyes off the screen.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU.
Her mother's words remained in the room long after the recording ended.
Eleanor was the first to speak.
“We have to leave.”
Sophia turned toward her.
“No.”
Eleanor stopped.
Sophia's voice was calm now.
“We've spent my entire life running from the truth.”
She looked at the dark screen.
“I'm not running anymore.”
Victor stepped forward.
“You don't understand what you're walking into.”
“I understand enough.”
“You don't.”
His expression was desperate.
“Your mother disappeared twenty-one years ago. If she is alive, there is a reason she stayed hidden.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Then I'll ask her.”
Daniel checked the ammunition in his weapon.
“Where is the recording location?”
Adrian moved toward the console.
“It's encrypted.”
“Can you break it?”
“Not from here.”
He examined the screen.
“But whoever sent it left something behind.”
“What?”
Adrian pointed.
A series of numbers appeared beneath the message.
51.5034
0.1276
Sophia recognized them.
“Coordinates.”
Adrian nodded.
“London.”
Cassian suddenly spoke from behind them.
“That's impossible.”
Everyone turned.
He was standing in the doorway.
Sophia rushed toward him.
“You're alive.”
Cassian gave her a tired smile.
“Barely.”
She hugged him before she could stop herself.
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
Then Sophia pulled away.
“Who shot you?”
Cassian glanced at Adrian.
“His replacement.”
Adrian frowned.
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Cassian looked toward the screen.
Then his expression changed.
“Who is that?”
“My mother.”
Cassian stared at the photograph.
“Clara?”
Sophia nodded.
“You know her?”
“No.”
He paused.
“Your mother saved my life once.”
Sophia's eyes widened.
“When?”
“Twenty-one years ago.”
The room fell silent.
Cassian continued.
“I was seventeen. My family had already been targeted. My father was trying to get Daniel out.”
He looked at Daniel.
“I thought my brother was dead.”
Daniel said nothing.
Cassian continued.
“Your mother found me after the attack.”
Sophia stared at him.
“What did she do?”
“She took me somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
Cassian shook his head.
“I don't remember.”
Sophia looked at him carefully.
“You don't remember?”
Cassian touched his temple.
“They did something to me.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Memory conditioning.”
Cassian nodded.
“They erased the location.”
Sophia felt a strange pressure behind her eyes.
Then a memory surfaced.
A room.
A woman.
Cassian, much younger, lying unconscious on a table.
Clara standing beside him.
And another person watching through the glass.
Sophia gasped.
“I remember.”
Everyone turned.
Sophia closed her eyes.
“She didn't just save you.”
Cassian stared at her.
“What did she do?”
“She hid you.”
“From whom?”
Sophia opened her eyes.
“Your grandfather.”
Cassian's face hardened.
“My grandfather?”
Sophia nodded.
“Clara was protecting you from Noah Black.”
Adrian looked at the coordinates.
“If Clara is alive, she may have spent twenty-one years trying to destroy him.”
Victor shook his head.
“She wouldn't survive that long alone.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“She wasn't alone.”
Victor's expression changed.
“What do you mean?”
Eleanor looked toward Sophia.
“Your mother had help.”
“From whom?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Helena.”
Sophia stared at her.
“Helena helped my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Helena was afraid of Noah.”
Sophia's mind raced.
For years, she had believed Helena was the monster at the center of everything.
But perhaps Helena had been hiding from someone too.
“Where is Helena now?”
No one answered.
Then Daniel pointed toward the doorway.
“She's here.”
Everyone turned.
Helena stood at the end of the corridor.
No guards.
No weapon.
Just an old woman looking exhausted.
Sophia raised her gun.
“You have five seconds to explain why I shouldn't shoot you.”
Helena looked at her.
“Because your mother is alive.”
Sophia's finger tightened around the trigger.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew all these years?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Noah would have killed her.”
Sophia lowered the gun slightly.
“Where is she?”
Helena looked at the coordinates.
“She is waiting for you.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows what Noah plans to do.”
Sophia stepped closer.
“What does he want?”
Helena's eyes met hers.
“You.”
Sophia's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Project Echo failed.”
Helena looked toward the screen.
“You were supposed to remember other people's identities.”
Sophia said nothing.
“But instead,” Helena continued, “you learned to recognize manipulation.”
Sophia understood.
“They couldn't control me.”
“No.”
Helena's voice became quieter.
“So they decided to control everyone around you.”
Sophia looked at Eleanor.
At Victor.
At Lily.
At Daniel.
At Cassian.
Then she looked at Adrian.
“What happens if Noah gets me?”
Helena answered without hesitation.
“He gets access to every memory you have.”
Sophia went still.
Every face.
Every identity.
Every secret.
Every location.
The entire network.
Project Echo wasn't trying to make her a weapon.
It was trying to make her a key.
A key that could unlock the world's most carefully protected identities.
Sophia looked at the coordinates again.
“Then we're going to London.”
Victor shook his head.
“You can't.”
Sophia turned.
“Why?”
“Because that's exactly what he wants.”
Sophia smiled coldly.
“Good.”
She picked up her coat.
“Then we'll give him what he wants.”
Cassian stepped beside her.
“You're not going alone.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
Daniel checked his weapon.
“Neither am I.”
Lily joined them.
“Me too.”
Eleanor looked at Sophia.
“I'll come.”
Sophia studied her for a moment.
“You're my mother.”
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
Sophia nodded.
“Then stay close.”
They began walking toward the exit.
Victor remained behind.
Sophia stopped.
“You're coming.”
Victor looked surprised.
“You still trust me?”
“No.”
She held his gaze.
“But I need the truth.”
Victor nodded.
They walked out together.
Behind them, Helena remained in the underground room.
Adrian stopped beside her.
“You knew this day would come.”
Helena looked at him.
“I knew Sophia would eventually find Clara.”
“Will she survive?”
Helena looked toward the dark screen.
“That depends on whether Sophia learns the final truth.”
Adrian frowned.
“What final truth?”
Helena's face became pale.
“Clara isn't the only person waiting for her in London.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Who else?”
Helena whispered:
“Noah.”
The lights went out.
Far away, in a dark London apartment, a woman stood before a window.
She watched the city below.
On the table beside her lay a photograph.
A young Sophia.
A young Lily.
A young Daniel.
And a little boy with a scar above his eyebrow.
The woman picked up the photograph.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“My daughter is coming home.”
Behind her, a man stepped out of the shadows.
Older.
Calm.
His eyes were fixed on the photograph.
“Not yet.”
The woman turned.
“Noah.”
He smiled.
“She still has one more memory to recover.”
The woman shook her head.
“You won't touch her.”
Noah walked closer.
“I don't need to.”
He pointed toward the photograph.
“She will come to me willingly.”
The woman stared at him.
“Why?”
Noah's smile disappeared.
“Because she still believes she knows who her father is.”
The woman's face changed.
Noah leaned closer.
“She doesn't.”
And across the ocean, Sophia suddenly stopped walking.
A memory she had never seen before had just begun to return.
A man's hand on her newborn head.
A voice whispering:
You are my daughter.
Then another voice answered:
No. She is mine.
Sophia opened her eyes.
And for the first time, she knew exactly whose voices they were.
One belonged to Victor.
The other belonged to Noah.
And neither man was telling the truth.
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