CHAPTER 7 — SHE WAS NEVER THE VICTIM... SHE WAS THE EXPERIMENT
Margaret couldn't move.
Her own name glowed on the computer screen.
PROJECT EVE — SUBJECT: MARGARET ELIZABETH CALDWELL
Below it...
One sentence appeared.
STATUS: TERMINATION FAILED.
The air inside the tunnel became painfully silent.
Ethan slowly looked up.
"You still don't remember... do you?"
Margaret shook her head.
"What are you talking about?"
Ethan clicked another file.
An old surveillance video filled the screen.
The timestamp read:
March 18, 1991.
The footage showed a young woman lying unconscious inside a hidden laboratory.
Her face...
Was unmistakable.
Margaret.
She looked twenty-five years younger.
Scientists surrounded her.
Doctors in military uniforms.
Men wearing the silver snake emblem.
One doctor spoke into the camera.
"Subject EVE survived the memory-erasure procedure."
"Side effects remain unpredictable."
Another voice replied,
"If she remembers who she really is..."
"...the entire organization collapses."
Margaret stumbled backward.
"No..."
"That's impossible."
Samuel lowered his head.
"I prayed you'd never see this."
Margaret turned toward him, tears streaming down her face.
"You knew?"
Samuel nodded.
"I helped save your life."
"But saving you came with one condition."
"You had to forget everything."
Margaret's breathing became uneven.
"What did I forget?"
Samuel couldn't answer.
Instead...
The mysterious Ashford leader stepped into the tunnel, flanked by armed guards.
He smiled almost gently.
"You forgot who you were before you became Margaret Caldwell."
He pressed a button on a small remote.
A second monitor lit up.
Another classified document appeared.
REAL NAME: EVELYN ASHFORD.
Margaret stared at it in horror.
"No..."
The old man nodded.
"Yes."
"You are my daughter."
The tunnel fell completely silent.
Even Vanessa looked shocked.
Ethan slowly lowered the laptop.
"You and Richard stole secrets from our family..."
"You fell in love..."
"And when you tried to expose the organization..."
"My grandfather ordered your death."
Margaret's legs gave way beneath her.
Every memory...
Every birthday...
Every family photograph...
Suddenly felt like pieces of someone else's life.
Then something unexpected happened.
A sharp pain exploded inside her head.
Images flashed through her mind.
A burning laboratory.
Richard screaming her name.
A little boy crying.
A helicopter lifting off into the night.
And one final memory...
Richard placing a newborn baby into her arms.
He whispered,
"This child isn't ours..."
"But if we don't hide him..."
"They'll kill him."
Margaret gasped.
She looked directly at Ethan.
For the first time...
She remembered.
Richard hadn't adopted Ethan because of pity.
He had rescued him.
As a baby.
From the Ashford Organization itself.
Ethan wasn't planted inside their family.
He had been stolen away to save his life.
The old man's smile disappeared.
"So..."
"You finally remember."
Margaret slowly stood.
The fear in her eyes was gone.
Only anger remained.
She looked at Ethan.
"You've spent your entire life believing I stole your inheritance."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"But your father died..."
"Trying to save yours."
Ethan's face turned pale.
Vanessa immediately shouted,
"Don't listen to her!"
"She's manipulating you!"
Before Ethan could answer...
His laptop suddenly beeped.
A hidden countdown appeared.
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED.
05:00
Samuel's eyes widened in terror.
"Oh, no..."
Margaret looked at him.
"What is it?"
Samuel whispered the words that froze everyone's blood.
"Richard rigged the entire underground vault with explosives."
"If Project EVE was ever reopened..."
"The whole mountain was designed to collapse..."
"...taking every Ashford secret with it."
The timer dropped to...
04:59.
No one had a choice anymore.
To survive...
May you like
Enemies would have to trust each other.
Or die together beneath the mountain.
