😱 **THE GROUND SPLIT OPEN BENEATH A MASSIVE OAK TREE—AND I FELL INTO A SECRET UNDERGROUND LAB FILLED WITH FROZEN GIRLS WHO LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE ME! THEN A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN WHISPERED, “YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN OUR MOST RESILIENT COPY.” BUT WHEN I DISCOVERED WHY THEY'D BEEN MONITORING MY BLOOD FOR 22 YEARS, THE TRUTH WAS MORE TERRIFYING THAN I COULD EVER IMAGINE!** 🧬💔

June screamed. Clara tore the blue cuff against the metal edge of the station. It wouldn't break. Every time she pulled, the pressure in her limbs grew worse.

“Tell me what to do,” she shouted at Evelyn.

“The left panel. Enter the release chamber. The system needs both of you.”

Voss grabbed June by the collar. “She stays with me.”

Marcus moved before Voss could raise his weapon. He slammed into the man's side, sending them both against a railing. The pistol skidded under a console. Ortiz's voice erupted from a speaker: state officers were entering the estate.

Victoria appeared at the far door with two medics. “The sleeping patients are still alive! Don't disconnect the chambers. Give us time to move them safely.”

June pushed free and ran to the second panel. Clara took her place at the first. They stood twenty feet apart, surrounded by the faces they had spent their lives being compared to.

A familiar lullaby sounded from the speakers. Evelyn had played it to Clara on nights when thunderstorms frightened her.

Count your breaths. Not your fears.

Clara looked at Evelyn. The woman who had comforted her was also the woman who had hidden her origins. Clara didn't have enough room inside herself to forgive or hate her completely.

“Your childhood was real,” Evelyn said quietly. “The lies were mine.”

June placed her palm on the second reader. “My childhood was real too. Even when you locked the door.”

“IDENTITY TWO CONFIRMED.”

Clara touched the first panel.

“IDENTITY ONE CONFIRMED. WAITING FOR JOINT DECISION.”

Two choices appeared: PROTECT SUBJECTS AND STOP RELEASE, or CONTINUE PROGRAM.

June met Clara's eyes. “We don't belong to him.”

“No,” Clara said. “We never did.”

They chose protection.

For one glorious second, the room went quiet. Then an older emergency program overrode the decision.