Chapter 61

A month passed in a blur of shadows and half-truths.

Elias and I spent every waking moment chasing leads, poring over old files, whispering through grainy phone calls and unmarked folders. Ana kept her distance. She was quieter now, more watchful. Sometimes she helped, sometimes she disappeared for days. We were all chasing ghosts—Grayson's, his family's, and now maybe even Ana's.

Then, one night, it happened.

I was alone in the dorm study room, highlighter in hand, buried in a file about one of Grayson's early shell companies, when my phone buzzed. The number was unknown.

Unknown: You should test Ana's DNA.Her mother may not even be her mother.

I stared at the message, blinking.

The phone slipped from my hands.

It couldn't be real. Not after everything. Not another secret.

I called Elias immediately. "Come to the south wing. Now. I got something."

His voice sharpened. "What is it?"

"I'll show you when you get here."

Ten minutes later, we were walking the quiet halls, tension like static between us. I showed him the message.

He frowned deeply. "That's impossible. Even with everything we've seen, something like this—"

Then came the sound.

Footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate. Too heavy to be a student.

My breath caught. Elias grabbed my wrist and we ducked into a classroom near the end of the hall—a door barely cracked open, marked only with a small silver plaque:

Authorized Access Only – B-4 Genetic Sciences

"This isn't a normal classroom," I whispered.

Elias nodded. "This building used to be a private research school before the dorms were installed."

We pushed inside and shut the door quietly behind us. The room smelled like bleach and old plastic. Cold blue lights flickered overhead. Computers lined the walls. There were microscopes, trays, even a temperature-controlled freezer humming in the corner.

A lab.

But not just any lab.

On the back wall, near the file drawers, were shelves labeled:

DNA Manipulation Studies – Confidential Subjects

My stomach dropped.

We moved in sync. Elias went for the cabinet, while I scanned the room for signs of a camera or alarm. Nothing. Too old-school. Whoever used this room hadn't expected visitors.

He pulled out a folder labeled: Subject: A-13 – Anastasia V.

I stepped beside him, eyes darting over the pages.

And there it was.

"DNA Pattern: Sample overridden with Subject S-01 (Scarlett V.) at age 7. Targeted Chromosomal Replacement. Origin erased. Psychological molding advised."

"Scarlett…" Elias said, voice hoarse. "They replaced her genetic profile. With yours."

I covered my mouth with my hand. My pulse roared in my ears.

"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."

"He didn't just stalk you," Elias continued, flipping to a page with charts, blood scans, even notes from a doctor's office I didn't recognize. "He tried to recreate you."

"Erase Ana's mother," I breathed, barely able to stand. "Not just kill her… rewrite her child to become me."

Elias turned to me, eyes wide. "This is next level obsession. This isn't just control, Scarlett—this is god complex stuff. He tried to clone your identity."

My knees buckled slightly, and I leaned on the table. "He made her live a lie. He stole her biology."

We stood in the dark silence of the lab, surrounded by documents and cold machines meant to rewrite fate.

Everything about Ana's pain suddenly made a horrible kind of sense.

And for the first time in a long time—I wasn't sure who I was supposed to protect.

Her?

Or myself?