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CHAPTER 66
The child who was never born was the only one who could authorize the transfer.Adrian read the line twice. Then he looked at the three chairs in the white chamber.A woman sat in the first. A child sat in the second. The third was empty.No doors. No windows. No cameras he could see. Yet the room knew they had come.A red line cut across the words above the entrance.TRANSFER THREE: FINAL AUTHORIZATION PENDING.TIME REMAINING: 10 HOURS, 23 MINUTES.Seraphine stood at his side, her broken pendant sealed in an evidence pouch. Elysra hung back, staring at the woman in the first chair. On Adrian's other side stood the boy.The boy had Adrian's face. That was the first problem.The woman wore the same silver pendant Seraphine used to wear. That was the second.Elysra had stopped breathing. That was the third."Do you know her?" Adrian asked.His mother didn't answer.The woman's head was bowed. Dark hair hid her face. Her hands lay flat on her knees, perfectly still."I know the pendant,"
CHAPTER 65
"I think I chose you."Seraphine's fingers were locked around Adrian's wrist. Cold skin. Real pressure. Real fear.Behind them, the terminal repeated its warning.THE FIRSTBORN WAS NOT THE CHILD WHO WAS CHOSEN.Adrian peeled her hand away, gently."Tell me exactly what you saw.""I was standing behind the third chair." She swallowed. "Two children in front of me. One was crying. One wasn't moving.""Faces?""One face.""Whose?""Yours."His chest tightened. "And the other?""I couldn't see him.""Why not?""I don't know." She stared at the broken pendant in the evidence pouch. "A woman said only one of you could leave. Then I heard myself say, *I choose the one who hasn't been born yet.*""That makes no sense. If I was in the room, how could you choose someone who wasn't born?""I don't *know*, Adrian!"Her voice cracked. The woman who could gut a boardroom in three sentences was gone. In her place stood someone who had just learned her oldest memory might belong to a life she never l
CHAPTER 64
FIRSTBORN: SERAPHINE STERLING.Adrian read the line twice. Then he looked at his wife.Seraphine didn't move. The silver pendant lay open in her palm, three circles nested inside it, the center glowing a faint, sick white."That record is wrong," Elysra said."You haven't even read it," Seraphine said."I know what the transfer was built to do.""Funny. Everyone knows what it was built to do except the two people it was done to."Elysra flinched. Adrian let it land. This was the woman who had cut out his Dragon Core, rewritten his memories, and buried an anchor in his chest. If she was finally running out of answers, he wasn't going to let her hide behind silence."Show the source," he told the terminal.The screen flickered.RECORD SOURCE: ORIGINAL BIRTH REGISTER.WITNESS VALIDATION: SERAPHINE STERLING.IDENTITY VALIDATION: ADRIAN VALE."It's using us to prove itself," Adrian said.Seraphine leaned in. "My recovered memory counts as evidence. Me standing in that room counts as proof.
CHAPTER 63
CONFLICT DETECTED. ONE CLAIMANT HAS BEEN LYING ABOUT WHICH ONE OF THEM WAS BORN FIRST.The warning hung in front of Adrian's eyes. Nobody in the room moved.He turned to the boy in the fourth chair. "How old are you?""You already asked.""I asked how old you look. Now I'm asking how old you are."The boy's jaw tightened. His gaze slid to the hospital cards spilled across the cabinet."Eight."Eight. A child wearing Adrian's face. A black ring burned into his right palm. Eyes that flickered between silver and gold."Eight years since what?""Since I was supposed to wake up."Seraphine edged toward the desk, keeping her distance. "That's not an age. That's an event.""You understand more than she did.""Who?"The boy stared at her pendant. "The woman who chose."Her fingers closed around the chain under her collar. "Which woman?"He didn't answer. He pointed at Adrian instead. "He thinks being born first makes him the original.""I never said that.""You were about to."Pain knifed und
CHAPTER 62
The boy stood up from the fourth chair, and the whole room stopped breathing.He looked eight years old. Pale skin, dark hair, a white hospital uniform Adrian had seen only in broken memories. His eyes slid from silver to gold and back again.On his right palm sat a black ring.It was whole.Adrian raised the witness strip like a blade. "You're older than I thought you'd be.""You're younger than I thought you'd be." The boy gave a tired half smile. "You're counting the wrong thing."Behind Adrian, Seraphine shifted her weight. The pendant was still wrapped in cloth, but silver light leaked through the threads. Elysra said nothing. Adrian noticed that, and filed it away.Then he noticed the shadow. The boy's pointed at the wall. Everyone else's stretched toward the emergency lights.In this building, small wrong things were never small."What's your name?""You know it.""I know the name on the authorization. Adrian Vale."The boy's smile died. "That's *your* name." He tapped his ches
CHAPTER 61
"That's what I said the first time."The voice came from right beside his ear. It was Seraphine's voice, down to the small catch she got when she was angry.But Seraphine stood three steps away, one hand clamped over her wrapped pendant, the other flat against the wall.Adrian didn't turn toward the voice. He looked down.The dust on the floor held three sets of prints. His. Seraphine's. Elysra's.Nothing stood next to him. Yet he could feel breath on his neck."Nobody move."Seraphine froze. Elysra stayed silent. Down the corridor, dozens of phones kept ringing, one long, ugly chorus.He raised the black witness strip. It swallowed the light."Who are you?"A soft laugh. "You used to ask better questions.""Then answer one. Who approved Seraphine's identity?"Every phone stopped at the same instant."You already know.""No." His jaw locked. "I know someone wants me to say her name.""Good." The word came from behind him now. "You're learning."He spun. Empty air.The black ring on hi
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