Chapter 8 - The Second Laura
Everyone moved away from Laura.
Daniel did not.
He stood between her and the armed agents, uncertain whom he was protecting from whom.
Emily held the silver key tightly.
“She came to my room,” the girl said.
“When?” Daniel asked.
“At the hospital.”
“The woman in the red coat?”
Emily shook her head.
“She looked like Mommy.”
Daniel turned to Laura.
Laura’s voice trembled.
“I was beneath the lake.”
Reed asked Emily, “Did the woman say anything?”
“She said Daddy would find the notebook. She told me to hide the key in my sock.”
“Why?”
“So the wrong Mommy couldn’t take it.”
Laura recoiled as though struck.
Daniel knelt beside Emily.
“Do you think this is the wrong Mommy?”
Emily looked at Laura for a long moment.
Then she touched the small scar above Laura’s eyebrow.
“No.”
Laura began to cry.
“Mommy got this when I dropped the blue bowl,” Emily said. “She fell while catching me.”
Daniel remembered that day.
No one outside the family knew about it.
Reed did not appear convinced.
“Physical resemblance and private memories can both be manufactured.”
Daniel stood.
“Enough.”
Agent Reed ordered a secure transport to take Laura and Emily to a federal medical facility.
Daniel refused.
Reed showed him the emergency authority documents.
Ortiz quietly pulled Daniel aside.
“Do not fight them here.”
“You think I should let them take my family?”
“I think twenty armed agents will take them whether you agree or not. Go with them. Watch everything.”
Daniel looked toward the windows.
The ambulance where Voss had escaped remained surrounded by officers.
“How did he overpower two guards while unconscious?”
“He had help.”
“From the federal team?”
Ortiz did not answer.
Daniel accompanied Laura and Emily in the transport vehicle. Reed rode in front.
They traveled south for forty minutes, then turned onto a private road leading through dense forest.
The facility looked like a rehabilitation center. Low buildings surrounded a central garden. Cameras covered every entrance.
Inside, doctors separated Laura and Emily for examinations.
Daniel objected, but Laura squeezed his hand.
“Let them test me.”
“What are they looking for?”
“The same thing you are.”
She walked through the medical door.
Whether she was truly Laura.
Daniel remained with Emily.
The girl sat on a couch drawing circles on a piece of paper.
“Why did you write that Mommy was alive?”
“Because she talked through the wall.”
“At our house?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Emily pointed to a ventilation grille.
“There was a phone behind it.”
Daniel remembered the equipment in the red room.
“What did she tell you?”
“To pretend I forgot her.”
“Why?”
“So Grandma would stop asking questions.”
“Did she tell you about the notebook?”
“She told me to write everything Grandma did.”
“Did she tell you about the freezer?”
Emily stopped drawing.
“No.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Had Grandma locked you there before?”
Emily nodded.
“How many times?”
“Three.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“And Taylor?”
“She opened it the second time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Grandma gave you tea. Then you said I had a bad dream.”
Daniel turned away, unable to let her see his face.
The damage Evelyn had done was not limited to forgotten days. She had taught Emily that even telling the truth could not save her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
Emily continued drawing.
“Mommy said that too.”
Daniel looked down.
“What is that?”
She had drawn two identical women on opposite sides of a red door.
“One Mommy is inside,” Emily said. “One Mommy is outside.”
“Which one is real?”
“They both think they are.”
Before Daniel could ask more, the facility alarm sounded.
Metal shutters descended over the windows.
Reed entered with two agents.
“Stay here.”
“What happened?”
“We have an intruder.”
The lights switched to emergency red.
Emily whispered, “The man with the scar.”
Daniel took the silver key from her.
The examination room door opened down the hall.
Laura appeared in a hospital gown, running toward them.
“Daniel, get Emily out.”
Behind her, another woman stepped from the room.
She had Laura’s face.
The same eyes.
The same scar above her eyebrow.
She wore a dark coat and held a pistol.
Daniel could not move.
The second Laura aimed at the first.
“She is not your wife.”
The Laura in the hospital gown stopped beside Daniel.
“She’s lying.”
The armed woman’s eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel, ask her what happened the night Emily was born.”
The woman beside him said, “There was a storm. The elevator stopped. You carried me down six flights of stairs.”
The armed woman answered, “That happened when I was six months pregnant, not during the birth.”
Daniel remembered both events.
Emily had been born during a rainstorm, but the hospital elevators had worked.
The Laura beside him stepped back.
Her expression became empty.
Then she grabbed Emily.
Daniel caught her wrist.
The armed Laura fired.
The bullet struck the false Laura in the shoulder.
She released Emily but did not cry out.
Agents rushed into the corridor.
The wounded woman moved with unnatural speed, smashing an agent into the wall before disappearing through a service door.
The armed Laura dropped her pistol and raised her hands.
Reed ordered her to the ground.
Daniel stared at her.
“Who are you?”
She looked at Emily.
“I’m the woman Evelyn pulled from the burning car.”
Daniel felt the corridor tilt.
“The body?”
She nodded.
“I was supposed to become Laura after she died.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Laura survived.”
Agents restrained her.
Daniel turned toward the woman in the hospital gown, but she was already gone.
A nurse lay unconscious beside the service door.
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On the floor was a blood trail.
It ended beneath a red ventilation grille.
