CHAPTER 7 – The Boy With Noah's Face
The police surrounded St. Matthew's Chapel within minutes.
Snipers took positions on nearby rooftops.
No one was allowed to move.
In the middle of the abandoned cemetery stood Daniel.
Calm.
Smiling.
Holding the hand of a little boy.
The child looked exactly like Noah.
Same blond curls.
Same blue eyes.
Same tiny birthmark beneath his left ear.
Emma collapsed to her knees.
"Noah!"
The little boy turned.
For one brief second...
His eyes lit up.
"Mommy?"
Emma started running toward him.
"Stop!" Michael shouted.
"It's a trap!"
Before she could reach the child, Daniel raised one finger.
The little boy instantly stopped smiling.
His face became blank.
Expressionless.
Almost... programmed.
Daniel looked at Emma with pity.
"Do you really think you've been chasing the right child?"
Emma froze.
"What?"
Daniel slowly stepped aside.
The chapel doors creaked open by themselves.
Inside...
A dozen children stepped into the light.
Every single one looked exactly like Noah.
Different ages.
Some toddlers.
Some nearly ten years old.
Every face was identical.
Emma couldn't breathe.
"No..."
Michael whispered,
"How is this possible?"
Daniel smiled.
"You're looking at twenty-six years of perfection."
"They aren't clones."
"They're heirs."
He pointed toward the youngest child.
"The one you've been calling Noah..."
"...was Number Twelve."
Emma's heart nearly stopped.
"What did you do to my son?"
Daniel's smile disappeared.
"I protected him."
"You were never supposed to raise him."
A loud voice echoed from behind the altar.
"That's enough, Daniel."
An elderly man stepped out of the shadows.
His white lab coat was stained with age.
Emma stared in disbelief.
The face matched the photographs from the underground archive.
Dr. Samuel Harper.
Daniel's father.
The man everyone believed had died in the fire twenty-six years ago.
Michael tightened his grip on his weapon.
"You're dead."
The old man laughed softly.
"Dead men don't spend twenty-six years correcting their mistakes."
He looked directly at Emma.
"I'm sorry."
"I stole your life."
Emma's legs gave out.
"What... are you talking about?"
Dr. Harper opened a weathered folder.
Inside was Emma's original birth certificate.
Her real name wasn't Emma Collins.
It read:
Emma Harper.
Michael stared at the document.
His blood ran cold.
Dr. Harper looked at them both.
"You aren't husband and wife."
Silence.
"You are twins."
The world seemed to stop.
Emma's memories shattered like glass.
Flashes of a burning house.
A little girl crying.
A boy pulling her toward a hidden tunnel.
A man in a white coat injecting both children.
Michael dropped his gun.
"No..."
Dr. Harper nodded slowly.
"I erased your memories."
"I separated you."
"I gave you new identities."
"I wanted to see whether blood would recognize blood... even after the past had been erased."
Daniel began clapping.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
"One family..."
"...rebuilt from ashes."
Suddenly—
A child's voice echoed from the bell tower above.
"Mom!"
Everyone looked up.
Standing high above the chapel...
Holding onto the broken railing...
Was the real Noah.
Tears streamed down his tiny face.
"Daddy said if I told you where I was..."
"...everyone would die."
At that exact moment...
The ancient church bell began to crack.
The massive bronze bell broke free from its chains—
May you like
And came crashing straight toward Noah.
TO BE CONTINUED...
