Chapter 44 - The House Built on LiesThe countdown continued.
09:42
09:41
Every second echoed through the mansion like a heartbeat.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The woman standing in front of me...
The woman with my mother's face...
My mother's voice...
Was finally here.
Alive.
Yet somehow...
I was more afraid than I had ever been.
"Jonathan."
Elizabeth looked toward the ceiling speakers.
Her voice was calm.
Almost tired.
"You always did love dramatic endings."
A cold laugh filled the room.
"You were always too sentimental, Elizabeth."
My blood ran cold.
Hearing my father's voice again after everything...
It felt impossible.
"You were dead," I whispered.
Elizabeth looked at me.
"I wanted you to believe that."
"Why?"
Her eyes filled with regret.
"Because if Jonathan knew you were searching for the truth..."
"You would have become his next target."
I looked at Rose.
The little girl who had spent her entire life hiding.
My sister.
My twin.
"What happened eleven years ago?"
Elizabeth looked down.
For a moment...
She wasn't a powerful woman.
She was just my mother.
A mother who had lost years with her children.
"I discovered Project HEIR wasn't about protecting the family."
"It was about controlling it."
Claire stepped forward.
"Explain."
Elizabeth nodded.
"Jonathan created a system."
"One child would inherit everything."
"The other..."
Her voice became quieter.
"Would be used as insurance."
The room became colder.
"Insurance?"
Eleanor answered.
"If one heir refused to obey..."
"The other could be controlled."
I stared at Jonathan's name appearing on the screens.
My father.
The man who taught me honesty.
The man who told me family was everything.
"Why didn't you leave?"
Elizabeth looked at me.
"I tried."
"Three times."
"Each time he found me."
She touched Rose's hair gently.
"When I realized I couldn't protect both of you alone..."
"I made a choice."
My hands clenched.
"You chose her."
Elizabeth's eyes filled with pain.
"No."
"I chose both of you."
She walked toward me slowly.
"I gave you a normal childhood."
"And I hid Rose where Jonathan could never find her."
"But everyone thought..."
"She never existed."
Rose lowered her eyes.
"I remembered you."
My breath stopped.
"What?"
She smiled faintly.
"Mom showed me pictures."
"She said my brother would come back for me someday."
A loud metallic sound interrupted.
09:00
The mansion shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Claire checked her tablet.
"He's activating the lower system."
Elizabeth immediately changed expression.
"Jonathan isn't trying to scare us."
"He wants us to go underground."
"Why?"
Her face turned pale.
"Because that's where the evidence is."
The basement door had been hidden behind a painting.
A painting of our family.
Four people.
My father.
My mother.
Me.
And an empty space.
Where Rose should have been.
We descended into darkness.
The underground room was not a basement.
It was a laboratory.
Computers.
Files.
Medical records.
Surveillance footage.
Thousands of hours of our lives.
My hands shook as I opened one folder.
SUBJECT ONE: PRIMARY HEIR
My name.
Another folder.
SUBJECT TWO: SECONDARY HEIR
Rose's name.
Claire whispered,
"He was studying his own children."
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
"I found this room the night I disappeared."
"And that's when I learned..."
A hidden monitor suddenly turned on.
Jonathan appeared on screen.
Older.
Calmer.
Almost peaceful.
"I knew you'd find it eventually."
I stepped toward the screen.
"Where are you?"
He smiled.
"Closer than you think."
Then the screen switched.
A live camera appeared.
Showing the mansion entrance.
A man stood outside.
Holding a remote device.
Not Jonathan.
Someone else.
Someone I recognized.
My entire body froze.
May you like
Because standing beside him...
Was Michael.
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