CHAPTER 5: THE WOMAN WHO LOOKED LIKE EMMA STARED AT HER OWN SON... AND ASKED, "WHO ARE YOU?"
Richard couldn't breathe.
"Emma..."
His voice echoed through the dark hallway.
The pale woman standing beneath the flickering emergency light slowly turned toward him.
Her face...
It was unmistakably his daughter's.
The same blue eyes.
The same tiny scar above her eyebrow from when she fell off her bicycle at age twelve.
The same silver ring still wrapped around her finger.
But her expression was empty.
Cold.
Like a stranger.
She looked at Richard...
Then at little Noah...
And quietly asked,
"I'm sorry..."
"Do I know you?"
Evelyn collapsed into tears.
"No... no... Emma, it's Mom!"
She rushed forward, desperate to hug her daughter.
Before she could reach her—
Emma instinctively stepped back.
Her body trembled.
"Don't touch me!"
The fear in her voice wasn't fake.
She genuinely didn't recognize them.
Sarah Collins quickly examined Emma's eyes.
Her pupils reacted slowly.
She noticed dozens of tiny injection marks along Emma's arm.
Her face darkened.
"They've been drugging her."
"For a long time."
Richard felt his world shatter.
"They erased her memory..."
Emma suddenly grabbed her head.
Fragments of memories flashed through her mind—
A crying baby.
A burning house.
A black SUV.
A man wearing leather gloves.
Needles.
Voices repeating the same sentence over and over.
"Forget your family."
"Forget your son."
"Forget your name."
Emma screamed and fell to her knees.
Noah ran toward her.
Without hesitation, he wrapped his tiny arms around her.
"It's okay, Mommy..."
"I'm here."
For several seconds...
Nothing happened.
Then...
A single tear rolled down Emma's cheek.
Her shaking hand slowly reached toward the little boy's face.
"I..."
"I know your eyes..."
Noah smiled through his tears.
"You always kissed my forehead before bed."
Emma closed her eyes.
Another memory exploded into her mind.
She saw herself rocking Noah to sleep.
Singing the same lullaby every night.
Her lips trembled.
"Noah..."
The little boy burst into tears.
"You remembered!"
Richard and Evelyn held each other, crying as hope finally returned.
But Sarah wasn't smiling.
She had found something hidden inside Emma's hospital gown.
A tiny tracking chip.
Still blinking.
"They're watching us," Sarah whispered.
Before anyone could react...
The steel doors suddenly unlocked on their own.
A calm male voice echoed through the loudspeakers.
"Congratulations."
"Subject E-17 has successfully recovered partial memory."
Richard froze.
Subject?
Not Emma.
A subject.
The voice continued.
"Phase Two may now begin."
Every screen throughout the abandoned hospital flickered to life.
Security camera footage filled the monitors.
Dozens of children.
Sleeping in identical hospital rooms.
Each wearing the same medical bracelet.
Each surrounded by armed guards.
Emma looked at the screens...
Then screamed.
"I know this place!"
"They're not just keeping me..."
"They're keeping all of them!"
Sarah stared in disbelief.
"How many children are there?"
Emma whispered the answer that made every person in the room go silent.
"Not dozens..."
"Hundreds."
Then she looked directly at Richard.
Her face was filled with terror.
"Noah was never the target."
Richard frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Emma grabbed his arm with trembling hands.
"They needed Noah..."
"Because he's the only child who survived the experiment."
Silence.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Then every monitor switched to a live video feed.
A man in a black suit slowly stepped into view.
His face remained hidden in the shadows.
He smiled.
Then removed one black leather glove.
Richard's heart stopped.
On the man's wrist...
Was the Carter family crest.
The same birthmark every man in Richard's bloodline carried.
The stranger looked into the camera and smiled.
"Hello, Brother."
Richard stumbled backward.
His voice barely escaped his lips.
"I buried you..."
The man laughed.
"No..."
"You buried the wrong body."
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END OF CHAPTER 5...
To Be Continued in Chapter 6.
