Chapter 12 - The Evidence Against Mia
Mia was questioned for nine hours.
Valeria was not allowed inside.
She waited in a protected hospital room with Evelyn and Detective Bell while investigators examined the message.
The blood belonged to the missing girl.
No unknown fingerprints were recovered.
The security cameras outside the room had been disabled remotely.
Mia had been in a police interview room at the time.
She could not have physically removed the girl.
But the warning did not say Mia had taken her.
It said not to trust her.
Bell placed a folder in front of Valeria.
“I need to show you something difficult.”
“How much more difficult can it get?”
Bell opened the folder.
Inside were copies of messages recovered from Novagen’s internal archive.
The sender used the designation V-6.
The messages had been transmitted over the past six years.
They contained observations about Valeria.
School schedules.
Medical symptoms.
Arguments with Daniel.
Friendships.
Private fears.
One message described the exact location of the hidden phone inside the calculator.
Valeria stopped reading.
“Mia knew.”
“We have not proven she sent these.”
“The sender is Six.”
“That could be deliberate.”
“She knew the rhyme. She was in the photographs.”
“She may also have been monitored.”
Valeria read another message.
Seven suspects her father is reading her phone. Recommend increasing social isolation through peer reinforcement.
The date matched the week rumors had spread at school that Valeria lied for attention.
Another message read:
Seven has begun recording conversations. Mercer should search the bedroom before Friday.
Valeria pushed the papers away.
“She told them everything.”
“Or someone used her identity.”
“She found me in the restroom.”
“She said you had missed class.”
“She called the nurse.”
“You needed medical help.”
“She made sure my father was called.”
“The school secretary called him.”
“Because Mia alerted the school.”
Bell waited.
Valeria hated the doubt inside her.
Mia had been the only person who consistently defended her.
If that friendship was manufactured, Valeria did not know which parts of her life belonged to her.
Evelyn sat beside her.
“Trauma makes uncertainty feel like proof.”
Valeria looked at her.
“You think I’m wrong?”
“I think someone wants you to feel alone.”
“The girl wrote the warning.”
“A girl who woke after years of medical imprisonment and then disappeared from a guarded room.”
“You think she lied?”
“I think we do not know who wrote the message.”
Valeria looked at Bell.
“Where is Mia?”
“With her mother.”
“Is Teresa under arrest?”
“She is cooperating.”
“She worked for Meridian.”
“She also removed Mia from the program and hid her for years.”
“After another child died.”
“Yes.”
Valeria stood carefully.
“I want to talk to Mia.”
Bell shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“You don’t control who I speak to.”
“Right now, I am responsible for keeping you alive.”
“You did a great job with the other girl.”
Bell accepted the accusation without reacting.
Valeria regretted it immediately, but she did not apologize.
A knock came from the door.
Simone entered holding a tablet.
“The backup finished decrypting.”
Bell moved closer.
“What did you find?”
“Video files. Financial records. Genetic reports.”
“Anything identifying V-0?”
Simone placed the tablet on the table.
“The files do not describe V-0 as a person.”
Valeria remembered the rescued girl’s words.
Zero is not a girl.
“What is it?”
“A cell line.”
Bell frowned.
“Explain.”
“V-0 refers to the original genetic material used to create the embryos.”
“Whose genetic material?”
“The identity is redacted.”
Valeria looked at the complete circle tattoo in the photograph of the missing girl.
“Then who was she?”
Simone opened another file.
A medical intake photograph appeared.
The rescued girl sat against a height chart.
Beneath the image was a designation.
V-8.
“Eight,” Valeria said.
Simone nodded.
The final iteration.
The one who was never supposed to have been transferred.
The girl who should not have existed outside the laboratory.
“Why did Eight say I left her?” Valeria asked.
“We found a shared memory trial.”
Bell turned.
“A what?”
“Meridian experimented with memory conditioning. They exposed multiple children to the same recorded experiences to determine whether artificial memories could influence attachment.”
Valeria thought of the table.
The promise.
The red door.
“Maybe I never met her.”
“Or you did,” Simone said. “The records are incomplete.”
“What about Mia?”
Simone opened the message logs.
“The reports from V-6 were not transmitted from Mia’s devices.”
“Then where?”
“A terminal registered to Daniel Mercer.”
Valeria stared at the screen.
“My father pretended to be Mia.”
“For years.”
“To make me doubt her.”
“Yes.”
Valeria sank into the chair.
Daniel had not only controlled her memories.
He had prepared evidence to destroy the one relationship she trusted.
A guard opened the door.
Mia stood outside.
Her face was swollen from crying.
Bell began to object.
Valeria shook her head.
“Let her in.”
Mia entered.
Neither girl spoke at first.
Then Valeria pushed the printed messages across the table.
“My father used your number.”
Mia read the first page.
Her hands began to shake.
“He made you think I was watching you.”
“I almost believed it.”
“You should have.”
Valeria frowned.
Mia looked toward Bell.
“There is something I didn’t tell you.”
Bell closed the door.
Mia reached into her pocket and removed a small silver pendant.
A broken circle.
“My mother gave me this when I was seven.”
Teresa had told her never to open it.
During questioning, Mia discovered a seam along the edge.
Inside was a memory card.
On it was one video.
The video showed Daniel Mercer carrying a child into the lake house.
The child was not Valeria.
It was Eight.
May you like
And Daniel was saying:
“Make her look enough like Seven that Elena won’t notice the exchange.”
