Chapter 90

Fracture Window

Safe in a remote hideout Lex secured with Siddharth's help—an old farmhouse two hours outside London—Rhea stood at the window, her daughter asleep in her arms. But her reflection wasn't entirely hers anymore.

Her face... shifted in the glass.

Dark hair tied tightly. A cold stare. No softness.

Muri.

She turned away—but something in her mind cracked open like a door.

Suddenly she was back in a white hallway, cold and echoing. She was barefoot, walking toward a red-lit room. A door opened without sound. Inside: a woman—herself—strapped to a neural scanner.

A voice behind her:

> "If she ever remembers, the entire project collapses."

Another voice:

> "Then let her forget. Lock her away. But leave the seed. It will pass on."

Muri—herself—whispered into the scanner:

> "If she ever needs me... I'll come back."

Rhea jerked awake—she hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep sitting upright.

The mirror across the room flickered.

And in it, Muri stared back.

> "I'm still in here."