Chapter 14 - The Memory Sophie Feared
Sophie woke screaming at 3:17 in the morning.
Emily found her in the clinic’s old operating room, curled beneath the examination table.
“Don’t turn on the light,” Sophie whispered.
Emily sat on the floor.
“All right.”
Moonlight entered through the blinds.
“What did you dream about?”
“It wasn’t a dream.”
Emily waited.
Sophie pressed both hands against her temples.
“I remember you.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“You saw me at Lake Armitage.”
“Before that.”
“That’s not possible.”
“They showed me memories.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Emily moved closer.
“What did you see?”
“A room with yellow walls. You were holding me.”
The manufactured family photographs from the lake house flashed through Emily’s mind.
“That did not happen.”
Sophie began crying.
“You told me you were sorry.”
“Sophie…”
“You put me in the machine.”
Emily stopped.
A fragment broke through her memory.
She was nineteen.
She stood in Larkhill Women’s Center.
A newborn cried in her arms.
Dr. Vale waited beside a glass chamber.
Emily heard herself say, “Do it before I change my mind.”
No.
The memory could not be real.
She had been told Sophie died.
She had mourned her.
She would never have surrendered her willingly.
But the image continued.
Vale asking, “Do you consent to memory separation?”
Emily answering, “Yes.”
She touched her daughter’s forehead.
Then she placed the baby into Vale’s arms.
Emily backed away from Sophie.
“No.”
Daniel entered.
“What happened?”
Sophie pointed toward Emily.
“She remembers.”
Emily left the room and pushed through the rear door into the cold night.
Daniel followed.
“Talk to me.”
“I gave Sophie to them.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I saw it.”
“You saw a memory produced by people who specialized in manufacturing memories.”
“What if it’s real?”
Daniel stood in front of her.
“Then we find out why.”
Emily looked toward the dark mountains.
“I said I consented.”
“Were you drugged?”
“I don’t know.”
“Threatened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was someone else in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
The uncertainty was unbearable.
Vale stepped outside using a metal crutch.
“I know.”
Emily turned.
Vale’s face was exhausted.
“You came to Larkhill voluntarily,” she said.
Emily struck her.
Vale fell against the wall.
Daniel did not interfere.
Emily grabbed Vale’s coat.
“Why?”
“Because Meridian had Micah.”
Micah appeared in the doorway.
Vale continued.
“They told you he would be killed unless you cooperated.”
Micah’s face hardened.
“I was in South America in 2015.”
“You were in a Meridian detention facility outside Bogotá,” Vale said. “Your memories of those months were replaced.”
Micah stared at her.
Vale looked at Emily.
“You agreed to the pregnancy monitoring and the initial neural mapping. You did not agree to surrender Sophie permanently.”
“Then why did I place her in your arms?”
“They showed you a live feed of Micah being tortured.”
Micah looked ill.
Emily released Vale.
“You erased my memory.”
“You asked me to.”
“Why?”
“Because you believed Sophie would be safer if you could not reveal where she had been taken.”
Emily remembered leaving the clinic.
Blood on her hospital gown.
A woman guiding her into a car.
Vale whispering, “Your daughter died.”
The lie had been part of Emily’s own plan.
She had chosen grief over the risk of leading Meridian back to Sophie.
But Meridian had kept the child anyway.
Sophie stood inside the doorway.
“You gave me away to save him?”
Emily walked toward her slowly.
“I believed they would let you live somewhere safe.”
“You chose him.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Micah stepped back.
“Sophie, she didn’t know.”
“You’re my father,” Sophie said.
Micah’s eyes filled with pain.
“Yes.”
“Did you choose her?”
“I didn’t know you existed.”
Sophie looked between them.
“You both forgot me.”
She ran into the clinic.
Emily started after her.
A phone rang inside the main room.
Ruiz answered.
His expression changed.
“It’s the governor’s office.”
Daniel frowned.
“At this hour?”
Ruiz placed the call on speaker.
A news anchor’s voice came through instead.
“This is an emergency broadcast. Documents released within the past ten minutes appear to identify senior government officials, military officers, and corporate leaders as members of a secret international organization known as the Meridian Circle.”
Emily stared at the phone.
Evelyn had begun releasing the directory.
The anchor continued.
“Multiple officials have denied the allegations. Markets in Asia have suspended trading. Several embassies are reportedly being evacuated.”
Daniel turned on the television.
Every channel showed breaking news.
Names scrolled across the screen.
Some were Meridian members.
Others were active intelligence officers Emily had deliberately excluded from Adrian’s transfer.
Evelyn was releasing everything.
A message appeared on Emily’s phone.
WATCH WASHINGTON.
Live footage showed Vice President Caldwell leaving a government building surrounded by security officers.
A reporter shouted a question.
Caldwell looked directly into the camera.
Before he could speak, the vehicle behind him exploded.
The broadcast went black.
Seconds later, Emily received another message.
May you like
ONE SEAT REMOVED.
ELEVEN REMAIN.
