The words refused to settle in Lena’s mind.
You’re connected to it.
The parking garage suddenly felt too small, too loud, too real. Sirens echoed faintly above them, and the blinking emergency lights cast long shadows across Alex’s face.
She stared at him.
Waiting for him to say it was a mistake.
A misunderstanding.
A lie.
He didn’t.
“What do you mean I’m connected?” she asked slowly.
Alex looked away first.
That alone terrified her.
“You need to tell me everything,” she said. “Now.”
He exhaled once, sharply, like a man stepping into a battlefield he had avoided for years.
“Our father,” he began, “believed power wasn’t built. He believed it was inherited.”
Lena crossed her arms tightly.
“Inherited how?”
“Genetics. Psychological conditioning. Neural adaptability.”
The words
