Chapter 13 - The Father Who Died Twice
Richard entered the room.
Graves raised his weapon.
“Don't move.”
Richard didn't.
He looked at Claire.
“I can explain.”
Claire's voice was cold.
“You're supposed to be at home.”
Richard nodded.
“I was.”
“Then who is the man at home?”
Richard's expression changed.
“I don't know.”
Graves lowered his weapon slightly.
“That's not possible.”
Richard looked at him.
“It is if someone has been impersonating me.”
Claire stared.
“How long?”
Richard didn't answer.
“How long has someone been pretending to be you?”
“Three years.”
Ryan looked shocked.
“Three years?”
Richard nodded.
“Since the first attempt on Claire's life.”
Claire felt sick.
“Then why didn't you tell us?”
“Because the person replacing me knew things only I should have known.”
Graves frowned.
“An intelligence reconstruction.”
Richard nodded.
“Black Meridian developed it.”
Claire stared at the mirror.
“So the person who raised me wasn't my father.”
“No.”
“And the man at the estate?”
“An imitation.”
Claire felt a strange relief.
Then fear.
“If he's an imitation, where is the real Richard?”
Richard looked at her.
“I have been trying to find him.”
Claire's voice broke.
“But you're here.”
Richard nodded.
“I'm here now.”
The lights went out.
Graves immediately moved Claire behind him.
A voice came through the hospital speakers.
“You still don't understand.”
It was Daniel.
“You keep looking for the traitor.”
A pause.
“But the traitor isn't one person.”
The speakers crackled.
“It is a system.”
Claire looked at the mirror.
Nora appeared again.
Her lips moved.
Claire couldn't hear her.
Then Nora wrote something on the glass.
Claire stepped closer.
Three words.
TRUST NO ONE.
The mirror shattered.
Graves pulled Claire backward.
Glass fell across the floor.
Behind the broken mirror was a hidden compartment.
Inside was a small black box.
Richard opened it.
There was a photograph.
Claire's biological mother.
Alive.
Standing beside Nora.
And beside them was a young Colonel Ethan Graves.
Claire stared at the photograph.
Graves's face went pale.
“I have never seen this.”
Richard looked at him.
“You're lying.”
Graves shook his head.
“No.”
Claire picked up the photograph.
May you like
On the back was a date.
The date was yesterday.
