Chapter 14 - The Mother Behind the Glass
The wall opposite them slowly changed.
What Emma had thought was opaque glass became transparent.
A control room appeared beyond it.
A woman stood inside.
Late sixties.
Dark hair streaked heavily with gray.
Sharp green eyes.
Emma recognized them.
Her own eyes.
"Helen."
The woman smiled.
"Elizabeth."
Emma stepped closer.
"My name is Emma."
"I know what they named you."
"What happened to you?"
Helen touched the glass.
"So much."
Rachel pulled Evan behind her.
"Don't listen to her."
Emma turned.
"Why?"
Rachel looked furious.
"Because Helen didn't just create the protocols."
Helen's smile vanished.
Rachel continued.
"She restarted them."
Emma stared at her mother.
"No."
Helen spoke through the intercom.
"I corrected them."
"Corrected what?"
"The program."
"You mean the kidnapping of children?"
"That wasn't my work."
"You designed memory conditioning."
"To help traumatized children."
"And then?"
"They weaponized it."
Emma stepped closer.
"So you rebuilt Black Pine?"
Helen's eyes hardened.
"I rebuilt a network capable of finding the people responsible."
"Using new children."
"Saving them."
Rachel shouted, "She's lying!"
Helen ignored her.
"Elizabeth, there are children being abused every day while courts return them to dangerous homes."
Emma's skin crawled.
"You don't get to steal them."
"I remove them."
"And give them new identities."
"Sometimes."
"You're doing exactly what they did."
"No."
Helen's calm finally broke.
"They sold children. I rescue them."
Emma stared at her.
"Without consent."
"Children cannot always consent to survival."
Jack whispered, "Jesus."
Helen looked at him.
"You."
Jack straightened.
"You murdered my wife."
Helen said nothing.
Jack repeated, "Did you?"
"No."
"Who did?"
"Thomas."
Lydia's father.
Daniel's father.
Jack stepped back.
Emma asked, "Where is Thomas?"
Helen looked almost amused.
"Still looking in the wrong direction."
"Where is Daniel?"
For the first time, Helen hesitated.
Emma saw it.
"Where is my husband?"
"Daniel became difficult."
"What does that mean?"
"He believed destroying everything was the only moral solution."
Emma almost laughed.
"For once, I agree with him."
Helen's eyes saddened.
"He also believed you deserved the truth."
"I do."
"Truth destroys identities."
"My identity already survived you once."
Helen flinched.
Emma continued.
"You called me Elizabeth. I am Emma Carter."
Helen's expression hardened again.
"You are my daughter."
"I am also myself."
Evan looked toward the door.
"Can we do the family reunion later?"
A mechanical hum grew louder.
Gas began flowing through ceiling vents.
Marcus shouted, "Masks!"
There were none.
Rachel ran toward the bathroom.
"Water!"
They soaked towels.
Emma's vision blurred.
Helen remained behind the glass.
"Don't fight it."
Emma stared at her.
"You're drugging your own daughter?"
"I'm protecting you."
Emma laughed despite the fear.
"Everyone who hurts me says that."
She grabbed a metal chair and slammed it against the glass.
Once.
Twice.
The glass held.
Jack joined her.
Marcus fired at the corner.
The reinforced panel cracked.
Rachel kicked.
Evan struck it with the chair.
Finally the glass shattered.
They climbed through.
Helen was gone.
A door at the far side stood open.
Emma followed.
"Emma!" Marcus shouted.
She kept going.
The corridor ended at an elevator.
Doors closing.
Helen stood inside.
Emma reached them.
"Where is Daniel?"
Helen looked at her daughter.
Then whispered:
"Daniel is the reason your car went over the cliff."
The doors closed.
Emma stood frozen.
Evan reached her.
"What did she say?"
Emma could not answer.
An alarm began.
Marcus shouted from behind.
"Building lockdown!"
The floor shook.
Jack looked toward the ceiling.
"They're going to destroy the facility."
They ran.
Rachel knew a service tunnel.
They escaped seconds before explosions tore through the eastern wing.
Outside, Emma watched Cedar Vale burn.
Her mother had escaped.
But Rachel was alive.
The children records had been copied.
And somewhere inside Helen's words was either the worst truth Emma had ever heard or the most calculated lie.
Daniel caused the crash.
Evan asked quietly, "Do you believe her?"
Emma looked toward the flames.
"I don't know what I believe anymore."
Rachel approached.
"I might."
Emma turned.
Rachel took something from inside her coat.
A sealed envelope.
"Daniel gave me this before he disappeared."
Emma stared at her husband's handwriting.
May you like
FOR EMMA ONLY.
IF HELEN FINDS HER FIRST.
