CHAPTER 6 – The Truth About Noah
Emma tore the note from above the empty crib.
Her hands trembled so violently she could barely read the words written on the back.
"The answers are beneath the ashes."
Before anyone could react, a deafening explosion echoed through the underground chamber.
The ceiling cracked.
Dust rained down.
Daniel wasn't trying to escape.
He was trying to bury everyone alive.
"Move!" Detective Michael Harper shouted.
The officers rushed Emma toward another tunnel just as concrete crashed behind them.
The hidden passage led directly beneath the ruins of the original Harper house—the part destroyed by the fire twenty-six years earlier.
The air smelled of smoke, even after all these years.
Michael suddenly stopped.
His flashlight illuminated a small metal door hidden beneath charred wooden beams.
A faded plaque read:
PRIVATE ARCHIVE
Inside were shelves packed with journals, medical records, and videotapes.
Emma grabbed the newest folder.
Across the front, written in Daniel's handwriting, were three chilling words:
PROJECT SECOND LIFE
Her heart pounded as she opened it.
Inside were DNA reports.
Blood samples.
Hospital records.
Every page was about Noah.
Emma scanned the final report.
Then the color drained from her face.
"No..."
Michael took the folder.
His eyes widened.
The document read:
Biological Father: Unknown
Biological Mother: Emma Harper
Below that...
Another line.
Genetic Match: 99.98% – Michael Harper.
The room fell silent.
Emma looked at Michael in horror.
"This... this can't be real."
Michael staggered backward.
"I've never even met you before."
Then another envelope slipped from the folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Emma.
Michael.
Standing together at a college charity event...
Eight years earlier.
Both smiling.
Neither remembered the picture.
Written on the back:
"Memory can be rewritten."
Just then, an old television switched on by itself.
Daniel appeared live on the screen.
Not prerecorded.
Live.
He smiled calmly.
"You've finally discovered the first lie."
Emma screamed,
"What did you do to us?"
Daniel folded his hands.
"I didn't create Noah."
"I returned him."
Michael stared at the screen.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel smiled even wider.
"Twenty-six years ago... my brother died in the fire."
"But before he died..."
"...our father was conducting experiments."
"He believed memories, identities... even families... could be manufactured."
"You aren't strangers."
"You were chosen."
Emma felt dizzy.
"My memories..."
Daniel nodded.
"They belong to someone else."
Michael whispered,
"So who are we... really?"
Daniel leaned toward the camera.
"Come to the old chapel."
"I'll show you the people you used to be."
The screen went black.
Seconds later...
A police radio crackled.
"Emergency update!"
"We've found Daniel."
"He's standing outside St. Matthew's Chapel..."
"...holding a child."
Emma's heart raced.
"Is it Noah?"
The dispatcher answered with a trembling voice.
"No."
"It's another little boy..."
May you like
"...and he has Noah's face."
TO BE CONTINUED.
