Chapter 14 - The Brother Watching from the Shadows
Security footage from the hospital showed no unauthorized visitor entering the twins’ floor.
The photograph had been taken from inside the room.
Adrian replaced the entire security team and moved the family to a private estate outside the city.
Mara objected.
“Running makes us easier to isolate.”
“Staying makes the boys easier to reach.”
“Julian already reached them.”
Adrian looked through the window at Ethan and Noah playing under the supervision of armed guards.
“I lost twenty years of his life.”
Mara heard the guilt beneath his anger.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It feels the same.”
Mara approached him.
“What did Isabelle’s letter say?”
Adrian hesitated.
“That she had lied about Julian’s father because Gideon Vale threatened her. She believed telling me would put the child in danger.”
“Was Isabelle involved in Orpheus?”
“She worked at Vale Biogenics.”
“So she knew Gideon.”
“Yes.”
“Did Lillian know Isabelle?”
Adrian turned away.
“Lillian knew she existed.”
“But not about Julian.”
“No.”
Mara searched her restored memories.
She remembered finding a photograph in Adrian’s desk years earlier.
A blond woman holding a dark-haired child.
When she asked, Adrian said they were relatives of a former employee.
The memory carried an emotion she had not understood then.
Suspicion.
Lillian had known he was lying.
Maybe she had begun investigating Julian before the plane crash.
“Celeste said I remembered the wrong version,” Mara said.
“She lies.”
“Not always. The most effective lies contain enough truth to control what people question.”
Adrian looked at her.
“That sounds like something you learned as Mara.”
“It is something both women learned.”
That night, Ethan entered Mara’s room.
He carried the wooden airplane.
“I found another message.”
He pulled a narrow strip of paper from beneath the tail.
The handwriting belonged to Lillian.
IF I FORGET, ASK THE BOYS ABOUT THE MAN IN THE MIRROR.
Mara sat beside him.
“Who is the man in the mirror?”
Ethan pointed toward the dressing mirror.
“Sometimes he watched us from there.”
Adrian removed the frame and found a hidden camera connected to an inactive wireless transmitter.
The installation predated Lillian’s disappearance.
Julian, Marcus or Gideon’s network had watched the twins for years.
Technicians recovered fragments from the transmitter.
Most footage had been erased.
One audio file remained.
Lillian’s voice said, “Julian, I know you’re listening.”
Mara closed her eyes as the memory returned.
She had discovered the camera six weeks before the plane crash.
She did not remove it because she wanted to send a message.
The recording continued.
“Your father does not know you are alive. I know what Gideon did to you. I know the identity inside your memory is not yours. Help me expose him, and I will help you find yourself.”
A young male voice answered through the speaker.
“You cannot help me.”
Lillian said, “I survived him.”
“You survived because he chose you.”
“No. I survived because your mother helped mine.”
Silence.
Then Julian asked, “Did Adrian ever look for me?”
Lillian did not answer immediately.
“He didn’t know.”
“He always says that.”
The recording ended.
Adrian sat alone for a long time.
Mara touched his shoulder.
“He believed you abandoned him.”
“Maybe I did.”
“You were deceived.”
“A child does not care why his father is absent.”
The transmitter suddenly reactivated.
A live voice came through.
“You understand more than I expected.”
Julian.
Adrian stood.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“I want to see you.”
“You want to repair what guilt has made inconvenient.”
“I want to know my son.”
“You already have two.”
Mara stepped toward the device.
“Julian, you contacted me.”
“You found the archive.”
“I saw what Gideon did.”
“You saw what he wanted recorded.”
“What does that mean?”
“The Orpheus archive was curated. Memories were edited before storage. Your mother was not trying to rescue you.”
Mara felt cold.
“I remember her carrying me from the fire.”
“You remember the scene Gideon implanted after she betrayed him.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t. Belief is what created Lillian Hawthorne.”
The twins entered the room.
Julian’s voice softened.
“Hello, Ethan. Hello, Noah.”
Noah moved closer to the transmitter.
“Are you the man in the mirror?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you watch us?”
A pause.
“Because you were supposed to become like me.”
Mara gripped the table.
“What did Gideon put inside you?”
Julian laughed quietly.
“Not what. Who.”
The connection ended.
Technicians traced it to the old Hawthorne medical foundation building in Manhattan.
Adrian ordered vehicles prepared.
Mara stopped him.
“He wants us there.”
“Then that is where the answers are.”
When they arrived, the foundation appeared abandoned.
The lobby lights turned on as they entered.
A trail of photographs led toward the central laboratory.
Each showed Lillian during the years before she met Adrian.
In one, she stood beside Julian as a child.
In another, she appeared to be helping Gideon conduct a procedure.
In the final photograph, Lillian held a syringe while Julian was strapped to a chair.
Adrian stared at her.
Mara had no memory of the scene.
May you like
A message was written beneath the photograph.
ASK HER WHY SHE CHOSE HERSELF OVER ME.
