Chapter 24 - THE MOTHER WHO RETURNEDHarper could not move.
The woman stepped from the elevator.
She looked older than Laura’s recordings, but every detail was familiar.
The curve of her smile.
The small mole near her left eye.
The way she folded one hand over the other when nervous.
Bennett whispered, “Laura?”
She looked at him.
“I am sorry.”
He moved toward her, but Evelyn blocked him.
“Do not touch her.”
Harper stared.
“Why?”
Evelyn’s eyes remained on the woman.
“Because I watched Laura die.”
The woman’s expression did not change.
Daniel raised the weapon.
“Then who is she?”
“She is Patient 07-LH,” Evelyn said. “But that does not mean she is Laura.”
The woman looked at Harper.
“I remember the butterfly cake.”
“Anyone could watch the recording.”
“You hid under the library piano after breaking the blue vase. Your mother sat beside you for forty minutes before you admitted it.”
Harper remembered.
No camera had been in the room.
At least none she knew about.
Bennett approached again.
The woman touched his face.
“You wore the wrong cuff links at our wedding.”
He began crying.
Evelyn remained unmoved.
“Memory transfer.”
Laura had participated in Victor’s early neurological research.
Before her staged death, Victor copied portions of her memory into a substitute.
The woman might possess Laura’s memories without being Laura.
Adrian stepped closer.
“What is your name?”
She looked at him.
“Laura.”
“What was your name before?”
Pain crossed her face.
“I do not know.”
Evelyn opened Patient 07’s file.
The original subject had been a woman named Rebecca Voss.
She suffered severe memory loss after an accident.
Victor used her as a continuity vessel for Laura.
Harper felt hope and grief collide.
The woman might love her with Laura’s memories.
But Laura might still be dead.
Rebecca removed a butterfly pendant from her neck.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Harper recognized her mother’s writing.
Rebecca, if you wake believing you are me, find Harper. Tell her I chose the river.
Bennett looked at Evelyn.
“The flooded chamber.”
Evelyn nodded.
Laura had hidden something beneath the river before disappearing.
Not evidence.
A body.
Rebecca looked at Harper.
“I need to know whether it is mine.”
A loud impact shook the archive.
Victor’s men entered the underground level.
Daniel aimed toward the corridor.
Victor’s voice came through the speakers.
“Patient Seven belongs to me.”
Rebecca turned toward Harper.
Then she whispered something only Laura would have known.
May you like
“The ninth candle was never the last one.”
“There is a tenth.”
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