Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Was Supposed To Be Gone
The elevator doors opened slowly.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The entire hospital lobby felt frozen.
I stared into the dark space inside the elevator.
Waiting.
Trying to convince myself that whatever came out of there couldn't change everything I knew.
But deep down...
I already knew.
The voice from the speakers had been enough.
The voice I remembered from childhood.
The voice that belonged to the person everyone told me I had lost.
A figure stepped forward.
A woman.
Older than the photographs I remembered.
Her hair was shorter.
Her face carried years I had never seen.
But her eyes...
Her eyes were exactly the same.
I stopped breathing.
"No..."
The word left my mouth before I could control it.
Thomas Reed looked at me.
His face was filled with sadness.
Not surprise.
Like he had been expecting this moment.
Colonel Hayes stepped backward.
For the first time since I met him, he looked completely powerless.
The woman looked at me.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Clare."
I couldn't move.
I couldn't answer.
Because my mind was fighting against what my eyes were seeing.
It wasn't possible.
It couldn't be possible.
The person standing in front of me was someone I had buried years ago.
My mother.
Victoria Morgan.
The woman everyone told me had died when I was young.
The woman whose photographs disappeared from our house.
The woman my father refused to talk about.
The woman who was supposed to be gone forever.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered.
Her lips trembled.
"I should have come sooner."
My anger arrived before my emotions could.
"You were alive."
Silence.
That was the answer.
Not a denial.
Not an explanation.
Just silence.
I took a step toward her.
"You were alive this entire time?"
She looked down.
"Yes."
My hands tightened.
"And everyone knew?"
Her eyes moved toward Hayes.
Then Ward.
Then Thomas.
Nobody looked at me.
That hurt more than anything.
Because I realized something.
The secret wasn't just about my father.
It wasn't just about Project Aegis.
It was about my entire life.
"You all lied to me."
My voice was quiet.
But everyone heard it.
Victoria stepped closer.
"I was trying to protect you."
I shook my head.
"Everyone says that."
The words came out bitter.
"My father said it."
"Hayes said it."
"Thomas said it."
"And now you."
I looked at her.
"Everyone protected me from the truth, but nobody protected me from living a lie."
Victoria closed her eyes.
A tear moved down her cheek.
"You have every right to hate me."
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know what I felt anymore.
Anger.
Confusion.
Pain.
Everything was mixed together.
Hayes finally spoke.
"Victoria..."
She looked at him.
"Don't."
One word.
But it carried years of history.
I looked between them.
"You knew."
Hayes lowered his eyes.
"Yes."
I laughed softly.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was unbelievable.
"How many people knew my mother was alive?"
Nobody answered.
Again.
That silence was becoming unbearable.
I turned toward Victoria.
"Why?"
She looked at me.
"Because they were looking for you."
"Who?"
Her face changed.
Fear appeared.
Real fear.
"The people who controlled Project Aegis."
I looked at the file.
"The people who created it?"
She nodded.
"Your father discovered they were no longer using it to protect soldiers."
"Then what were they using it for?"
Victoria looked at me.
"Finding people who could expose them."
I remembered the list.
Priority Protection Subjects.
My name.
My father's warning.
Everything connected.
"So my father hid me."
"Yes."
"And you disappeared."
She nodded.
"Because I was the reason they found him."
The words hit me.
I stared at her.
"What?"
Victoria looked away.
"Your father didn't disappear because he made a mistake."
She swallowed.
"He disappeared because he tried to save me."
The room became silent.
Even Hayes looked down.
I felt something break inside me.
My entire life, I thought my father abandoned questions I deserved answers to.
Now I realized he had been carrying them alone.
"What happened to him?"
Victoria looked at the floor.
"He found proof."
"What proof?"
"The person behind everything."
I looked at her.
"Who?"
She didn't answer immediately.
That scared me.
Because everyone had been afraid of the same name.
Finally, she said:
"The person who created Project Aegis was someone your father trusted."
I looked at Hayes.
But Victoria shook her head.
"No."
My eyes moved back to her.
"Not him."
The room went silent.
"Then who?"
Victoria looked toward the old military file.
"Someone closer."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"Closer than Colonel Hayes?"
She nodded.
"Much closer."
Before I could ask another question, the hospital speakers turned on again.
A different voice came through.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Almost amused.
"Victoria."
Everyone froze.
Her face changed instantly.
She knew the voice.
"After all these years..."
The voice continued.
"You still make the same mistake."
Victoria stepped backward.
"No."
Hayes grabbed his radio.
Nothing happened.
The signal was dead.
The voice continued.
"You thought hiding Clare would protect her."
A pause.
"But you never understood."
The hospital monitors around us turned on.
One by one.
Every screen showed the same image.
A file.
A photograph.
A name.
My name.
Then a second image appeared.
A photograph from my childhood.
My father.
My mother.
And another person standing beside them.
Someone I knew.
Someone I trusted.
Someone who had been part of my life for years.
My breathing stopped.
Victoria looked at the screen.
Her face turned pale.
Because she recognized who it was.
The voice spoke again.
"Clare..."
The speakers crackled.
"The person you have been searching for was never hiding from you."
The screen zoomed in on the photograph.
On the face beside my parents.
The person I had trusted most.
Victoria whispered:
"No..."
I looked at her.
"Who is it?"
She couldn't answer.
The voice from the speakers did.
"Look carefully, Clare."
May you like
The image became clearer.
And then the hospital doors behind us unlocked.
