We followed Dr. Sloan through a narrow corridor.
She moved quickly now.
No hesitation.
No attempt to hide her fear.
That convinced me she wasn't pretending.
“Where are you taking us?” Morales asked.
“Somewhere the surveillance doesn't reach.”
“Does such a place exist?”
“Not for long.”
Sarah stayed beside Ethan's bed.
He was awake now.
His eyes opened when he heard her voice.
“Mom?”
She covered her mouth.
“Oh, Ethan.”
He smiled weakly.
“I knew you'd come.”
Sarah leaned over him.
“I'll never leave you again.”
He looked past her.
“Where's Lily?”
“She’s safe.”
“What about the other girl?”
Sarah froze.
“What other girl?”
Ethan looked at me.
“The one with my face.”
Nobody spoke.
Dr. Sloan stopped.
“What did you say?”
Ethan pointed toward the corridor.
“She was here yesterday.”
Dr. Sloan's face went pale.
“That's impossible.”
“She talked to me.”
“What did she say?”
Ethan frowned.
“She said she wasn't supposed to be alive.”
Sarah looked at me.
The green-banded girl had been listening.
“She was Three.”
Dr. Sloan turned toward her.
“You remember Three?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“They changed her.”
Dr. Sloan closed her eyes.
“How?”
The girl touched her chest.
“They changed what she needed.”
I didn't understand.
Dr. Sloan did.
“They were modifying immune response.”
“For what?”
“To create compatibility.”
“With whom?”
Dr. Sloan looked at Emma.
“With you.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it is true.”
“What makes me so special?”
“You weren't supposed to be special.”
She handed me another file.
The first page contained a medical history.
Mine.
At seventeen, I had suffered an unexplained fever.
Then another.
Then nothing.
At nineteen, the records stopped.
Dr. Sloan explained that someone had altered my medical records.
“Why?”
“To hide the result.”
“What result?”
“That your body rejected almost nothing.”
She said early researchers had become interested in people with unusually adaptable immune systems.
Most candidates failed.
Some became sick.
A few died.
I survived.
“So you experimented on me.”
“I wasn't involved then.”
“But you knew.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel?”
“He joined later.”
Sarah looked away.
I realized she already knew what I was about to ask.
“What was Daniel's role?”
“Data collection.”
My chest hurt.
“He married me.”
“I know.”
“Did he marry me because of this?”
Dr. Sloan hesitated.
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
It was somehow worse than if she'd shouted it.
I thought about every ordinary morning.
Every argument over groceries.
Every birthday.
Every time Daniel had kissed my forehead before leaving for work.
I had believed those things belonged to us.
Now I didn't know which memories were mine.
Emma reached for my hand.
I held it.
Dr. Sloan continued.
“The program eventually moved from observation to replication.”
“The children.”
“Yes.”
“Lily?”
“Natural child.”
“The other girls?”
“Derived from genetic material.”
Sarah whispered:
“Why make children?”
“To test whether your traits could be reproduced.”
I stared at her.
“Then Ethan?”
“Collateral.”
Sarah looked horrified.
“What?”
“Ethan was genuinely sick.”
That was almost a relief.
“His condition brought Mark into the program.”
“And Lily became a resource.”
Dr. Sloan nodded.
Sarah's face collapsed.
“They told me she could save him.”
“They lied.”
“Did she help him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Her cells temporarily improved his condition.”
Sarah covered her face.
“So I wasn't completely wrong.”
“No,” Dr. Sloan said. “But they used your desperation to get consent.”
The green-banded girl interrupted.
“Not consent.”
Everyone turned.
“They made Mommy sign.”
Sarah looked at her.
“What did they make me sign?”
The girl answered:
“They said if she refused, Ethan would die.”
Sarah began crying.
Dr. Sloan nodded.
“That is how they recruited families.”
Morales looked at her.
“Who runs this?”
Dr. Sloan didn't answer immediately.
Then she said:
“A board.”
“Names.”
“I can give you names.”
“Now.”
“Not here.”
A loud metallic sound echoed above us.
Someone had opened the outer door.
Morales checked her weapon.
“How many?”
Dr. Sloan listened.
“Too many.”
The lights flickered.
Ethan suddenly grabbed Sarah's sleeve.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“They found us.”
A red light appeared at the end of the corridor.
The green-banded girl screamed.
“That's the reset light.”
Dr. Sloan ran to a wall panel.
“Everyone behind me.”
The panel opened.
Inside were switches.
She pulled one.
Nothing happened.
Another.
Nothing.
Then she looked at me.
“Your daughter.”
“What?”
“Put her hand here.”
“No.”
“Trust me.”
I didn't.
But there was no time.
I placed Emma's hand on the scanner.
The system beeped.
Every light in the corridor turned green.
Doors unlocked.
Somewhere above us, alarms began screaming.
Dr. Sloan stared at Emma's hand.
“She isn't E-Seven.”
“Then what is she?”
Dr. Sloan whispered:
“E-One.”
The doors opened.
Behind them was a room filled with old files.
Thousands of them.
And on the first shelf was a photograph of me as a baby.
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: The Photograph From My Infancy Revealed a Secret About My Birth That Even Sarah Had Never Been Allowed to Learn
The Small Detail My Daughter Noticed in the Locker Room Turned an Ordinary Weekend Into Something I Couldn’t Explain
Part 6 of 20
