Chapter 32 - Beatrice Revealed Why She Had Chosen LilyBeatrice asked to speak with Lily alone.
They met in Belladonna’s private dining room, the same place where the live feed had first revealed Lucy.
Beatrice remained pale from surgery.
“I was twenty-three when you were born,” she said. “I believed I could destroy the system from inside.”
She had learned Bernadette planned to divide the Carter archive between two infants.
One would be raised by Elena.
The other would remain inside the First House.
Beatrice filed for custody under a false identity, hoping to remove one child before the experiment began.
Bernadette discovered the plan.
“She made me choose,” Beatrice said. “I could take you, or I could help Elena escape with both infants.”
“You chose Elena.”
“I chose the possibility that you would have a mother.”
During the escape, alarms sounded. Beatrice carried one child. Elena carried the other.
At the clinic gate, gunfire forced them apart.
Elena believed one infant had died.
Beatrice returned Lily to her hours later.
The second child remained inside.
Lillian.
“So we are twins?” Lily asked.
“Biologically, yes.”
“Why does she look younger?”
Years of hormone suppression and experimental treatment had delayed her development.
Lillian was not nine.
She was the same age as Lily.
The revelation shattered another layer of Bernadette’s design.
Lillian had been made to live through the same age repeatedly, her environment altered whenever she began questioning the narrative.
Lily thought of her calling Elena “Mother.”
“She remembered.”
“She remembered being held beside you.”
Beatrice placed the custody petition on the table.
“I did not choose you because you were special. I chose you because no child should belong to a project.”
Lily studied her.
“Did you kill Bernadette?”
“No.”
The containment chamber scanner had shown no movement, but the archive contained an emergency medical tunnel.
Beatrice suspected Bernadette had survived.
As if summoned by the thought, Belladonna’s old audio system activated.
Bernadette’s voice filled the restaurant.
“Beatrice always mistook escape for victory.”
Every door locked.
The chandeliers went dark.
On the entrance display, the repaired work log slid aside, revealing a hidden screen.
Bernadette appeared in a hospital bed.
Beside her stood Samuel.
May you like
A gun pressed against his head.
“Bring me the directory,” Bernadette said, “or the old man finally pays for the children he failed to save.”
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