Chapter 25 - LUCYThe girl’s hands did not shake.
Someone had trained her well.
Her dark hair had been cut just below her jaw. Her eyes were unmistakably Nathaniel’s, but the hard, assessing expression belonged to Amelia.
“Put the weapon down,” Nathaniel said gently.
The girl shifted the barrel toward him.
“You are the stranger.”
Amelia remembered the title under which Nathaniel had first entered her life after her memory block.
The stranger who called her his wife.
“What did they tell you about us?” Amelia asked.
“That you abandoned me.”
“Who told you?”
“Mother.”
The nurse moved toward the hidden door.
Elias stopped her.
The girl’s gaze sharpened.
“Let her go.”
Amelia lowered her weapon and placed it on the floor.
“My name is Amelia.”
“I know.”
“I was told you died.”
“You were supposed to think that.”
“Why?”
“So you would do what Father wanted.”
Nathaniel’s face tightened.
“Who is Father?”
The girl looked toward the hallway.
Victor entered carrying the composite device.
“I am.”
Nathaniel moved, but red targeting lights appeared across his chest.
Automated weapons emerged from the ceiling.
Victor stood behind Lucy.
“She has known me since she could speak.”
Amelia kept her eyes on the child.
“His name is Victor.”
“He saved me.”
“He stole you.”
Lucy looked uncertain for the first time.
Victor placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Your biological parents chose their war over you.”
Amelia saw the conditioning clearly. Every sentence had been built to survive contradiction.
She did not argue.
Instead, she removed the vial labeled Successor A and placed it on the floor.
“This was taken from me when I was seventeen.”
Lucy glanced at it.
“Orpheus has collected pieces of all of us. Blood. memories. choices. It turns those pieces into cages.”
Victor activated the composite device.
The hospital lights brightened.
Lucy’s weapon became linked to the targeting system.
“Come with me,” Victor told Amelia. “Or Lucy fires.”
Amelia looked at the girl.
“Did he give you the order?”
Lucy’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then decide whether it is yours.”
Victor pressed the device.
Lucy’s finger began tightening against the trigger.
She fought it.
The weapon contained a motorized control.
Nathaniel stepped forward despite the targeting lights.
“Look at me.”
Lucy did.
“You do not know me,” he said. “But I know exactly what it is to love someone whose memories were taken.”
He moved closer.
“If the gun fires, it is not your choice.”
Victor activated the override.
The weapon discharged.
Nathaniel fell.
Amelia ran toward him.
Lucy screamed and turned the gun on Victor.
The targeting system refused to fire.
Victor smiled.
“You cannot act outside the program.”
Lucy threw the weapon aside.
Then she pulled the fire alarm.
Sprinklers erupted.
The electrical targeting system shorted.
Elias attacked Victor.
Amelia pressed both hands against Nathaniel’s wound.
His eyes opened.
“Vest,” he whispered.
The bullet had not penetrated.
Across the room, Victor dropped the composite device.
Lucy picked it up.
May you like
She looked at Amelia.
Then she ran through the hidden door.
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