Chapter 12 - The Choice No One Understood
Daniel's words echoed through the observation room.
"Emily, whatever happens next, do not believe what she tells you."
The unconscious woman struggled to lift her head.
Her breathing sounded uneven beneath the oxygen mask.
Dr. Hale folded his arms, watching both of them with unsettling patience.
"You've arrived exactly where I expected," he said to Daniel. "Now let's see which promise you intend to break."
Emily struck the locked door with both hands.
"Open it!"
No one moved.
Daniel never lowered his pistol.
Instead, he kept it trained on the hospital bed.
"I told you years ago this project should have ended."
"And yet," Hale replied, "you married the subject instead."
Emily felt every word driving another crack through the life she thought she knew.
Subject.
Assignment.
Project.
Nothing sounded like a marriage.
The woman on the bed suddenly whispered, "Emily... your first apartment... apartment 307..."
Emily froze.
Very few people knew that number.
"You kept a blue music box beside your kitchen window," the woman continued weakly. "You threw it away after your mother died..."
Emily's eyes widened.
No one had ever been told about the music box.
Not even Daniel.
"How do you know that?"
The woman's lips trembled.
"Because... I watched..."
Before she could continue, alarms erupted throughout the underground wing.
A computerized voice echoed through the corridors.
Unauthorized access detected. Lockdown initiated.
Steel security doors slammed shut one after another.
The lights flickered.
Daniel immediately turned toward the hallway.
"They're sealing the lower level."
Hale smiled.
"They're sealing it because you came."
Suddenly every monitor inside the operating room switched on.
Dozens of surveillance feeds appeared.
Emily saw every corner of the hospital.
Emergency entrances.
Operating theaters.
Parking garage.
Even the nurses' lounge.
Someone had been watching the entire building.
Then every screen changed simultaneously.
Only one image remained.
Emily's own house.
The front door slowly opened.
Someone walked inside.
May you like
The figure wore Daniel's clothes.
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