I Found My Father Alive 22 Years After His Funeral—Inside a Secret Lab Full of Women Who Looked Like My Dead Mother. Then He Whispered, “There Were Only Supposed to Be Two of You.”

I answered on speaker.

"Clara?" My father's voice was raw. "Is Iris with you? Wren?"

"We're here. Who gave you this number?"

"Rusk. She wanted me to beg you to come back. I'm calling for another reason."

A siren wailed faintly behind him. He said Ada was holding the oxygen system together while he searched the original fire records.

"Your mother didn't die in an accident," he said. "Helena ordered the west wing sealed after Miriam tried to send evidence outside."

I closed my eyes. "You knew?"

"I suspected. I found the security log this morning. I was wrong to sign the original agreement. I was worse for trusting her afterward."

"And then you disappeared," Iris said.

"She sedated me after the fire. I woke in the suspension chamber nineteen days ago. That's why I never aged. They kept my body in a near-dormant state. I didn't live those twenty-two years. You did."

Wren leaned toward the phone. "Did Mom know about me?"

A long silence followed.

"Yes," Elias finally said. "She found your birth file the week before the fire. She fought to get you out. Helena said you had died in infancy, and I chose to believe her instead of Miriam. I am so sorry."

Wren turned away. I watched her shoulders move once, sharply, before she steadied them.

"There's an emergency power switch in the old generator hall," Elias continued. "If Rusk kills the central system, someone has to keep the air flowing until a medical team arrives."

"We're bringing help," I said. "Not another secret rescue."

"Good. Bring people who can witness what she built."

His voice dropped. "Clara, one more thing. Helena isn't moving the women to a hospital. The receiving site is a ship registered to her private clients."

Then I heard Rusk behind him.