Chapter 23 - Two CelestesThe lower level had once been an operating ward.
Old photographs covered one wall.
Mara pulled down the first.
It showed her beside Victor at a charity dinner eight years earlier.
Victor remembered the night.
Celeste had worn a green dress.
The woman in the photograph was wearing white.
“The date is wrong,” he said.
“The date is correct,” Mara replied.
The silent woman pointed at herself.
Victor stared at her.
“You met me first?”
She nodded.
Mara placed another photograph beside it.
This one showed her and Victor at their wedding.
“You married me,” Mara said.
Ethan looked between them.
“Which one had me?”
Neither woman answered immediately.
The silent Celeste touched her own chest.
Mara closed her eyes.
“She gave birth to him.”
Victor stepped back.
Mara explained.
The woman trained as Celeste had escaped Project Orchard and built a life outside it. August sent Mara to replace her before she could expose the program.
But Mara refused to complete the assignment.
Instead, the two women exchanged places voluntarily.
The real Celeste entered Orchard to collect evidence.
Mara remained beside Victor to protect Ethan.
“You were the woman who came home from the hospital,” Victor said.
“Yes.”
“And Celeste stayed here?”
“She was supposed to leave after one week.”
The silent woman wrote on a medical chart.
MARA LOCKED ME IN.
Mara shook her head.
“August changed the doors.”
Celeste wrote again.
YOU STOPPED LOOKING.
Mara’s face broke.
“I thought you were dead.”
The ward lights turned red.
A recorded voice announced:
“Identity conflict detected.”
Metal shutters descended over every exit.
The old system scanned both women.
A screen displayed two names.
CELESTE WARD — VALID.
CELESTE WARD — VALID.
Then a third line appeared.
DUPLICATE IDENTITIES MUST BE RESOLVED.
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A compartment opened in the wall.
Inside was one syringe.
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