Chapter 9 - Rose Behind the Walls)
They reached Caesar’s bedroom through a hidden servant passage.
Daniel stood near the fireplace.
Beside him was a fourteen-year-old girl.
This one did not look like the teenager at the gate.
She had dark blonde hair.
Gray-green eyes.
Amelia’s eyes.
When she saw Amelia, she stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Amelia stared.
Rose ran into her arms.
Amelia collapsed to her knees and held the girl.
Caesar watched.
He wanted to touch his daughter.
Wanted to ask where she had been.
Wanted to apologize for fourteen years he had not known existed.
But Rose did not look at him.
Not once.
When she finally released Amelia, she turned toward Clara.
“Aunt Clara.”
Clara cried openly.
“You know me?”
“Mom told us about you.”
Us.
Caesar caught the word.
“Who is us?”
Rose looked at him for the first time.
“You are Caesar.”
Not Dad.
Caesar swallowed.
“Yes.”
“You look different from the recordings.”
“What recordings?”
“The ones Orpheus made.”
Marcus closed the hidden panel behind them.
“Explain why you were living in the walls.”
Rose glanced toward the bookshelf.
“There are observation spaces throughout this house.”
Caesar frowned.
“No.”
She walked to a carved wooden panel and pressed a decorative flower.
A narrow section of wall opened.
Inside was a passage barely wide enough for one person.
Wires.
Cameras.
Old microphones.
Caesar stared.
“My father watched us.”
Rose nodded.
“For years.”
Amelia looked horrified.
“Even when we lived here?”
“Yes.”
Rose entered the passage and returned with a small box.
Inside were dozens of memory drives.
“Orpheus recorded everyone.”
Caesar picked one up.
A handwritten date.
His wedding anniversary with Amelia.
Another.
Evelyn’s first birthday.
Another.
The night Amelia disappeared.
“Did you watch these?”
“Some.”
“Why?”
“I needed proof.”
“Of what?”
“That the Directorate killed Dr. Vale.”
Vanessa gasped.
“He is dead?”
Rose nodded.
“Two months ago.”
Vanessa sat down heavily.
“He was the only one who knew Samuel’s formula.”
Rose looked at the baby.
“No.”
She approached Clara.
“He was not.”
Clara tightened her arms.
“Stay back.”
Rose stopped.
“I am not going to hurt him.”
“How do you know the formula?”
“Because they made me memorize it.”
Caesar studied her.
“Who are ‘they’?”
“The people who raised us.”
“Orpheus?”
Rose shook her head.
“After Vittorio disappeared, Orpheus split into two groups.”
“The Directorate and?”
“The Keepers.”
Amelia frowned.
“Which side raised you?”
“The Keepers.”
“What do they want?”
Rose gave a small, humorless smile.
“They say they want to protect us.”
“Do you believe them?”
“No.”
That answer sounded older than fourteen.
Caesar crouched slightly so he was not towering over her.
“Rose, I need to know what is happening.”
She studied him.
“You really do not know.”
“No.”
“They told me you controlled Orpheus.”
“I did not know it existed.”
“They said you donated children.”
“I did not.”
“They said you knew about all of us.”
“I did not.”
Rose looked toward Amelia.
“She believes him?”
Amelia nodded.
Rose finally looked uncertain.
Caesar reached slowly into his pocket and removed his phone.
He showed her a photograph.
Evelyn sitting on his shoulders at the beach.
Another.
Samuel asleep on Caesar’s chest.
Another.
Amelia’s grave.
“I buried your mother.”
Rose stared at the image.
“I visited that grave every Sunday for a year.”
Her expression shifted.
Caesar continued.
“If I knew she was alive, I would have torn the world apart to find her.”
Rose’s eyes filled.
“But you never looked for me.”
“I did not know you existed.”
She turned away.
Pain had already taught her not to trust easy answers.
Caesar did not blame her.
Rose opened one of the memory drives.
“I came here because the recording from the night Mom disappeared proves who took her.”
The screen showed grainy footage from a hidden camera.
Amelia entered Caesar’s bedroom four years earlier.
She was frightened.
She opened a safe.
Removed a blue file.
Then the bedroom door opened.
Vanessa entered.
Amelia spun around.
Present-day Amelia stared at the screen.
“I remember this.”
Vanessa whispered, “So do I.”
On video, Vanessa pleaded with Amelia.
There was no audio at first.
Then sound appeared.
“You need to leave,” Vanessa said.
Amelia replied, “You knew.”
“I just found out.”
“You carried one of our children.”
Vanessa began crying.
“I did not know whose embryo it was.”
“Where is she?”
Vanessa looked toward the hidden camera unknowingly.
“They moved the girl last night.”
Present-day Rose stopped the recording.
“That was me.”
Caesar looked at Vanessa.
“You carried Rose?”
Vanessa nodded.
Tears rolled down her face.
“Yes.”
Caesar looked from Vanessa to Rose.
The woman he married had given birth to his daughter years before they met.
Rose continued the footage.
Past Vanessa whispered, “They know you found Orpheus. Vittorio ordered them to take you.”
Amelia shook her head.
“Vittorio is dead.”
“He is not.”
Then another person entered the bedroom.
Caesar leaned closer.
The face was hidden.
The person injected Amelia in the neck.
She collapsed.
Vanessa screamed.
The attacker turned.
Rose froze the video.
Caesar stared at the face.
It was Caesar.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
Same height.
Almost the same face.
But not quite.
The second baby.
MOR-2.
Caesar whispered, “My brother.”
Rose nodded.
“His name is Adrian.”
A voice sounded behind them.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Vittorio stood in the doorway.
He had somehow entered the mansion.
He leaned on his cane.
His eyes remained fixed on Caesar.
“His name is Caesar.”
Silence.
May you like
Vittorio looked at the man he had raised as his son.
“And yours is Adrian.”
