For several seconds, Ciro did not move.He stared at Dr. Hale, trying to determine whether the man was deliberately provoking him or whether he genuinely believed the words he had just spoken.His sister wasn’t supposed to wake up until the Herb was destroyed.The statement made no sense, yet the fear in Hale’s eyes was too genuine to dismiss. This was a man who had spent years hiding from the consequences of something that happened at Blackwood, and whatever he knew about Natasha had finally become too dangerous for him to keep pretending that he was simply a concerned medical specialist.Ciro released his arm.“Explain yourself.”Hale rubbed his wrist and glanced toward Gregory, who remained near the door.“Not here.”Ciro’s expression hardened.“You have been standing in front of me for the past twenty minutes, telling me what I should and shouldn’t do with my sister. You knew about the Herb before I mentioned it, you knew about Blackwood, and you arrived at this hospital carrying

Catherine had spent seventeen years believing her mother was dead, and in less than ten minutes, everything she thought she knew about that loss had been turned upside down.She stood beside the consultation table, staring at Gregory as though she expected him to take back his words and tell her there had been a mistake. Her mother had disappeared when she was young, leaving behind unanswered questions, a grieving family, and a story about a laboratory accident that nobody had ever been willing to explain.Now there was evidence that Evelyn Shaw had been alive yesterday, treating Natasha in secret, and that someone had used another woman’s body to make the world believe she was dead.“Show me the footage,” Catherine demanded.Gregory unlocked his phone and handed it to her.The video showed the entrance of a small private clinic. A woman wearing a long coat and a dark hat walked out shortly after sunset, carrying a leather bag in one hand. Her face was partially obscured, but her move

For several seconds, nobody moved.Catherine stood in the middle of the study, staring at the doorway as though she was afraid that blinking would make the woman standing there disappear. Seventeen years was a long time to grieve someone, and an even longer time to convince yourself that the grief had finally become a part of your life. She had buried her mother in her mind so many times that the possibility of seeing her again felt almost cruel.Yet Evelyn Shaw was standing at the entrance to the study.She looked older than the woman in the photographs, naturally, but there was no mistaking her face. Her dark hair had a few strands of grey, and exhaustion showed beneath her eyes. She wore a plain black coat over a dark dress, and one hand remained inside her pocket as she studied the people in front of her.Her gaze settled on Catherine.For the briefest moment, something broke through her composure.“Catherine.”The sound of her mother’s voice seemed to take the strength out of Cat

Ciro stared at the photograph for a long time, unable to convince himself that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.The man standing behind his father was the same person who had appeared in the Blackwood photograph, wearing the same silver ring and carrying the same unsettling expression. Yet the photograph in his hand had been taken a week after his father’s funeral, when Ciro was still struggling to understand why the people around him spoke about death in hushed voices.The stranger had been standing outside his family home while Ciro stood beside his father in the picture.Someone had been there after the funeral, watching the family from a distance.Someone who should have been dead, if the records Evelyn had described were accurate.“Where did you get this?” Ciro asked.Evelyn folded her hands together.“It was among the documents your grandfather gave me before he died. He told me to keep it safe and never allow it to fall into the hands of anyone connected to Blackwoo

“Because the final phase has already begun.”Daniel’s words were almost swallowed by the alarm. Red light swept across Room 17, passing over the glass panels, the cables hanging from the ceiling, and the machine at the center of the chamber. On the other side of the sealed inner door, the voice that sounded like Ciro’s father had gone quiet.Ciro did not move away from Daniel. “Then tell me what it means.”“It means the system has started connecting what it was designed to connect.” Daniel’s eyes flicked toward the machine. “The countdown is not measuring how long we have before it starts. It is measuring how long until the connection becomes stable.”“And what happens when it becomes stable?”Daniel hesitated for a fraction too long.Ciro stepped closer. “You have one chance to give me an answer that makes sense.”“The original subject, the second participant, and the bloodline authorization are being brought into the same process. The Herb was supposed to complete the circuit, but t