Chapter 28 - THE ORIGINALBennett ran toward the chamber.
The glass remained sealed.
Laura’s body appeared older and dangerously thin.
A breathing tube covered her mouth.
Rebecca stood beside Harper.
“I remember dying.”
The other vessels began speaking at once.
“I remember the river.”
“I remember Victor.”
“I remember Harper’s birthday.”
“I remember waking after the funeral.”
The memories contradicted one another.
Victor had planted false endings inside each vessel so none could identify the original.
Adrian accessed the medical readings.
“The woman inside is alive.”
“That does not prove who she is,” Evelyn said.
The chamber required the original butterfly cake recording to open.
Daniel removed the drive from his coat.
Victor’s voice entered through the system.
“Insert it, and you activate the assembly.”
Bennett took the drive.
Harper stopped him.
“Mom warned me to find the real Bennett first.”
“You did.”
“Did I?”
Daniel looked at his brother.
The replacement program could have placed another Bennett inside the hidden room.
The man beside Harper had passed one guilt test.
That did not establish his identity.
Bennett opened his shirt.
A surgical scar crossed his chest.
Harper remembered Laura once saying Bennett had never undergone surgery.
Evelyn examined it.
“Retinal access implant.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Victor could have copied the eyes.”
Bennett looked devastated.
He no longer knew whether he was Bennett.
The patient records had been altered so many times that even biological evidence could not be trusted.
Laura’s chamber opened its internal speaker.
Her weak voice emerged.
“Harper.”
Harper approached.
“Which Bennett is real?”
Laura looked toward both men.
“Neither.”
Daniel laughed once in disbelief.
Laura continued.
“Bennett Hale died in Geneva.”
The room went silent.
“The man who replaced him was Daniel,” Laura said. “The man imprisoned below Hale House was Benjamin Crest.”
Margaret staggered.
There had not been only twins.
There had been three brothers.
Bennett.
Daniel.
Benjamin.
The man Harper had rescued was Benjamin, trained as an emergency replacement but never deployed.
Benjamin looked at his hands.
“Then who am I?”
Laura’s eyes filled with tears.
“The only one who tried to save Harper.”
Victor appeared on the upper bridge.
He held a remote trigger.
“The original Bennett died because Laura chose the recording over him.”
Laura looked at Harper.
“No.”
Victor pressed the trigger.
Explosives armed beneath all ten chambers.
May you like
Laura whispered:
“He died because he discovered who Harper’s real father was.”
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