Chapter 35 - THE OTHER HARPERLily did not wear Harper’s face through surgery.
She resembled Harper naturally.
Victor had selected her mother partly because of the resemblance between the two families.
Years of behavioral training completed the illusion.
Lily walked into the room.
“You received the house, parents and birthday.”
Harper looked at her.
“You received the punishments meant for me.”
Lily smiled without warmth.
“I received whatever helped them understand you.”
Laura stepped between them.
“Lily, Victor used you.”
“So did you.”
Laura fell silent.
Lily had been present at the eighth birthday.
She carried the tenth phrase of the master sequence.
Victor needed both girls to open the archive.
Lily inserted the original recording into the center console.
The butterfly cake appeared on every screen.
Ten children’s voices began singing, though only Harper and Lily were visible.
The other voices belonged to adults slowed and altered digitally.
Laura had hidden the sequence inside the harmony.
Lily sang her phrase.
The system waited for Harper.
“Do not,” Nolan said.
Lily raised a remote.
At the protected location, Margaret and the nine Laura vessels appeared on a monitor.
Explosives surrounded them.
Victor had found the safe house.
“If you refuse,” Lily said, “they die.”
“Where is Victor?”
Lily’s expression flickered.
“He promised to come after the archive opens.”
“You do not know where he is.”
“He trusts me.”
“No. He sent you into the room he plans to destroy.”
Lily tightened her grip.
Harper approached her.
“He gave you my life only when it hurt.”
“He gave me a purpose.”
“He gave you a cage shaped like me.”
Lily’s eyes filled with anger.
Harper began singing.
Nolan stepped forward, but Laura stopped him.
The sequence completed.
The master archive opened.
Files spread across the screens.
Medical crimes.
False identities.
Bribed judges.
Stolen children.
Beneath them was another folder.
BUTTERFLY SUCCESSION
It contained two names.
HARPER HALE — PRIMARY
LILY SHAW — CONTINGENCY
The entire program was designed to pass to one of them if Victor died.
Lily stared.
“He said I would be free.”
Harper opened the termination panel.
The archive required both successors to agree.
Lily looked at the explosives surrounding Margaret.
Victor’s timer began.
Thirty seconds.
Lily made her choice.
She pressed TRANSFER AUTHORITY.
The system asked:
TRANSFER TO WHOM?
Lily entered Harper’s name.
Then she whispered, “Now it is your cage.”
The archive recognized Harper as the sole owner.
May you like
The explosives stopped.
But every criminal network Victor controlled now belonged to Harper.
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