We reached Chloe\u2019s apartment fourteen minutes after the call ended.<\/p>\n
Police reached it in eleven.<\/p>\n
The front door stood open.<\/p>\n
Nothing inside appeared disturbed.<\/p>\n
A lamp burned beside the sofa. A half-filled glass of water sat on the kitchen counter. One slipper lay near the hallway.<\/p>\n
No Chloe.<\/p>\n
No Vivian.<\/p>\n
On the dining table was a cardboard box.<\/p>\n
My name had been written across the lid.<\/p>\n
MARTHA.<\/p>\n
I was beginning to hate seeing my name on things dead people and liars had prepared for me.<\/p>\n
An officer photographed the box before allowing anyone to touch it.<\/p>\n
Inside were letters tied with blue ribbon.<\/p>\n
The first was addressed to Eleanor.<\/p>\n
Arthur\u2019s first wife.<\/p>\n
Chloe\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
The second was from Eleanor to Margaret Higgins.<\/p>\n
My mother.<\/p>\n
I sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did Chloe get these?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cEleanor kept everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many people from Arthur\u2019s old life did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was not admiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I unfolded the first letter.<\/p>\n
Eleanor\u2019s handwriting was small and slanted.<\/p>\n
Margaret,<\/p>\n
Arthur told me what happened at the lake.<\/p>\n
He says Robert will bury it.<\/p>\n
Do not trust Dr. Keene.<\/p>\n
Vivian is bringing him girls.<\/p>\n
Your Martha was not the first.<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
Andrew read over my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plural.<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
Keene believes memory can be interrupted chemically and reconstructed through suggestion. Robert thinks the work has military or intelligence value and wants results he can sell.<\/p>\n
Peter swore.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father funded that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted government contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hands trembled.<\/p>\n
The letter continued.<\/p>\n
Arthur says Martha reacts differently. She remembers through sedation. Keene believes this may be inherited through Margaret\u2019s family because Vivian reports similar effects in herself.<\/p>\n
I looked at Richard.<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian volunteered?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe participated?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pieces shifted.<\/p>\n
Vivian had not simply discovered Keene\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n
She had entered it.<\/p>\n
Maybe even helped build it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy my mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard answered carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret and Vivian both had unusually strong reactions to certain sedatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds vague.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel added, \u201cKeene built theories from tiny samples and called them science.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he tested teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I returned to the letter.<\/p>\n
Please keep Martha away from Vivian. Arthur believes Vivian has begun to identify with Keene\u2019s work. She says Martha\u2019s memory could make them rich if they prove why it works.<\/p>\n
I stopped reading.<\/p>\n
My aunt had drugged me because I was valuable to her.<\/p>\n
Not as family.<\/p>\n
As evidence.<\/p>\n
Andrew sat beside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to read all of this tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned to the next page.<\/p>\n
Eleanor wrote that Arthur intended to help Margaret expose the operation.<\/p>\n
But then Eleanor discovered something worse.<\/p>\n
Arthur had been involved personally with Martha.<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
The letter continued.<\/p>\n
He swears he did not touch her at the clinic. He says after the July incident she became confused and frightened and began seeking him out because she remembered him as the person who helped her escape.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
Memories returned in pieces.<\/p>\n
A diner.<\/p>\n
Arthur seated across from me.<\/p>\n
You cannot keep coming here.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because you are sixteen.<\/p>\n
I heard my own younger voice.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re the only one who believes me.<\/p>\n
I opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
I had known him.<\/p>\n
Not casually.<\/p>\n
I had gone to him.<\/p>\n
Daniel watched my face.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou remember?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur had been twenty-seven.<\/p>\n
I had been sixteen.<\/p>\n
Even if I had pursued him, the responsibility was his.<\/p>\n
The letter did not soften that.<\/p>\n
Neither did I.<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
Eleanor wrote that Arthur admitted the relationship had crossed a line.<\/p>\n
My stomach knotted.<\/p>\n
He told her he believed I loved him.<\/p>\n
Eleanor wrote one sentence twice.<\/p>\n
She is a child, Arthur.<\/p>\n
She is a child.<\/p>\n
I set the letter down.<\/p>\n
Andrew looked away.<\/p>\n
No one spoke.<\/p>\n
I finally said, \u201cThat answers the paternity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not cleanly.<\/p>\n
Not comfortably.<\/p>\n
But truth did not owe us comfort.<\/p>\n
Arthur had fathered Andrew.<\/p>\n
Arthur had also been an adult who became involved with a sixteen-year-old under circumstances poisoned by sedation, fear, and dependence.<\/p>\n
The man I married nine years later had known exactly who I was.<\/p>\n
The betrayal became almost too complicated to feel.<\/p>\n
David sat opposite me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He knew I was lying.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
I picked up another letter.<\/p>\n
Eleanor had confronted Arthur.<\/p>\n
He promised to stay away.<\/p>\n
Then I became pregnant.<\/p>\n
Robert Dalton assumed Peter was responsible.<\/p>\n
Arthur knew otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Arthur know immediately?\u201d I asked Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy put his name on the hospital record?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo claim responsibility privately while allowing Robert to believe Peter was the father publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did to Arthur.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard spoke quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought if Robert knew the child was his, Robert would kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd perhaps Andrew too.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one answered.<\/p>\n
That was answer enough.<\/p>\n
My hands went cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy take Andrew away?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur did not choose that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho did?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRobert and Keene.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward the letters.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeene wanted the baby observed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed the same memory trait might pass to Martha\u2019s child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted longitudinal testing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew backed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I rose.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid they test him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel said, \u201cNot at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Tommy took custody, he vanished with him for nearly three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Andrew.<\/p>\n
\u201cTommy protected you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how did they find you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had seizures when I was four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHospital records flagged him.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt sick.<\/p>\n
Keene had built a system that reached through hospitals.<\/p>\n
Not sophisticated by modern standards.<\/p>\n
But enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid they experiment on Andrew?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did they do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSedation. Memory tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no memory of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody missed the cruelty of the sentence.<\/p>\n
I reached for him.<\/p>\n
He stepped away.<\/p>\n
Not rejecting me.<\/p>\n
Trying not to collapse.<\/p>\n
I let him have the distance.<\/p>\n
Another letter waited.<\/p>\n
This one was from my mother to Eleanor.<\/p>\n
Eleanor,<\/p>\n
Martha remembers more every day.<\/p>\n
She dreamed about the room again.<\/p>\n
Vivian says I should let Keene examine her because suppressing the memories may be safer.<\/p>\n
I do not believe her.<\/p>\n
Arthur says he can move Martha somewhere Robert cannot reach her, but I do not trust Arthur either.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
Even then, my mother had seen clearly.<\/p>\n
She wrote that she considered sending me to relatives out of state.<\/p>\n
She never did.<\/p>\n
Because two weeks later she became ill.<\/p>\n
Poisoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Richard shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never proved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need a courtroom standard to understand motive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final paragraph changed everything.<\/p>\n
If something happens to me, Eleanor, remember this: Vivian was not alone when she brought Martha to Keene.<\/p>\n
Someone from our family helped her.<\/p>\n
I reread it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur family?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret meant Higgins family?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandparents were dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny cousins?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSiblings besides Vivian?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
I had already been wrong once about my mother being an only child.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else don\u2019t I know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard did not answer.<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at him.<\/p>\n
That look was enough.<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cSay it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard pressed his lips together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret and Vivian had a half brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
Not because anything was funny.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course they did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name was Edward Shaw.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy a different surname?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSame mother. Different father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere was he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOakridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring 1970?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe worked security for Robert Dalton.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
The family link.<\/p>\n
My own uncle had helped the man who funded Keene.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did he die?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c1998.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard looked away.<\/p>\n
I knew immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cRichard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChloe\u2019s mother wasn\u2019t Arthur\u2019s only connection to your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he could answer, a police officer entered from the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found Ms. Jenkins\u2019s phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cParking garage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny sign of her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlood.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot enough to suggest a fatal injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity camera caught two women leaving in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich car?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRegistered to the Dalton Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Even after Robert\u2019s death, his machinery was still moving.<\/p>\n
The officer placed Chloe\u2019s phone in an evidence bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne audio file was recording.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we hear it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may be evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n
He consulted another detective, then played a copy.<\/p>\n
Chloe\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou lied to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vivian answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept you alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother said Arthur was trying to expose Keene.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mother was sentimental.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Arthur kill her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chloe breathed shakily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who did?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vivian replied, \u201cEdward.\u201d<\/p>\n
My uncle.<\/p>\n
Richard closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
The recording continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Eleanor was going to take Martha to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
Chloe said, \u201cMartha wasn\u2019t Eleanor\u2019s responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vivian laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe became everyone\u2019s responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then a sound.<\/p>\n
A door.<\/p>\n
Chloe whispered, \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
A man answered.<\/p>\n
His voice was older.<\/p>\n
Calm.<\/p>\n
Familiar.<\/p>\n
I knew it.<\/p>\n
Not from high school.<\/p>\n
Not from the reunion.<\/p>\n
From years of business meetings.<\/p>\n
David recognized it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Harold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold Greene.<\/p>\n
Caldwell Linens\u2019 chief financial officer.<\/p>\n
My employee for twenty-eight years.<\/p>\n
The man who had sat beside Arthur at board meetings.<\/p>\n
The man who called me every Christmas.<\/p>\n
The man who knew every company account.<\/p>\n
Including vendor banking information.<\/p>\n
The forged request.<\/p>\n
It had not been Andrew alone.<\/p>\n
Andrew saw it at the same moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used information someone emailed me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it came from Arthur\u2019s trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
David said, \u201cIt came from Harold.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recording played on.<\/p>\n
Chloe asked, \u201cWhy are you helping her?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold answered with one sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Martha was never supposed to own Caldwell.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the floor tilt.<\/p>\n
Vivian spoke next.<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur stole that company from Robert.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold said, \u201cAnd from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Us.<\/p>\n
Not me.<\/p>\n
Us.<\/p>\n
I looked at Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is Harold Greene?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s face had become pale.<\/p>\n
Richard answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cEdward Shaw\u2019s son.\u201d<\/p>\n
My cousin.<\/p>\n
A man who had spent nearly three decades inside my company.<\/p>\n
Inside my finances.<\/p>\n
Inside the business Arthur and I built from what I had believed was nothing.<\/p>\n
Everything suddenly connected.<\/p>\n
The altered vendor instructions.<\/p>\n
The hidden files.<\/p>\n
The false reimbursement.<\/p>\n
The reunion.<\/p>\n
None of it had been random.<\/p>\n
Harold had known Andrew would seek the trust.<\/p>\n
He had known I would be at the Fairmont.<\/p>\n
He had known Arthur\u2019s archive might surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe planned tonight,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo force the records into the open.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helps me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot if he controls what survives.\u201d<\/p>\n
David stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe warehouse fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted Dad\u2019s evidence destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard said, \u201cAnd Vivian wanted something from the clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe files?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat specifically?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel pointed toward the Subject 12 folder I had brought from the clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original baseline test.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s on it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeene recorded every session.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw film canisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the original?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward Chloe\u2019s empty apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur gave it to Eleanor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chloe\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Eleanor gave it to Chloe?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Harold Greene.<\/p>\n
I answered immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Chloe?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have ten seconds to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chloe came on.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartha.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice shook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall cut.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartha.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou forged my signature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIndirectly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou helped Andrew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave him what he needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou set fire to my warehouse?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the police detective.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter says he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter lies when breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Subject 12 file.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tightened my grip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it proves what Keene discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care what Keene discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRelease Chloe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBring the file.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then Harold said, \u201cArthur spent forty years preventing you from learning why Keene chose your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Martha.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still think this story began with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen tell me where it began.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Margaret.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Keene do to her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she had already been studied.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold answered quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeene\u2019s father.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room seemed to shrink.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mother was Subject Three.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one spoke.<\/p>\n
Harold continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian was Subject Four.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Richard.<\/p>\n
He stared at the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou already know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subject Twelve.<\/p>\n
Three generations of secrets suddenly became two.<\/p>\n
My mother had not merely discovered Keene\u2019s research.<\/p>\n
She had grown up inside its predecessor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold ignored the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cBring the file to the old Oakridge nursing school.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me speak to Chloe again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHarold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me well enough to know I won\u2019t hurt her unless someone forces me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt anger replace fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I know you well enough to know I never knew you at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was silent.<\/p>\n
Then he said something that made the blood leave my face.<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur said the same thing about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
Andrew looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
I did not know.<\/p>\n
Then David opened the Subject 12 folder again.<\/p>\n
A page had been stuck behind the back cover.<\/p>\n
He pulled it free.<\/p>\n
It was not a medical chart.<\/p>\n
It was Arthur\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
One line.<\/p>\n
IF HAROLD CONTACTS MARTHA, TELL HER SUBJECT TWELVE WAS NOT THE PATIENT.<\/p>\n
I took the page.<\/p>\n
Underneath, Arthur had written another sentence.<\/p>\n
SHE WAS THE CONTROL.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
Andrew frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you weren\u2019t the patient, then who was?\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned the sheet over.<\/p>\n
A name was written on the back.<\/p>\n
VIVIAN HIGGINS.<\/p>\n
And beneath Vivian\u2019s name:<\/p>\n
PRIMARY SUBJECT.<\/p>\n
I finally understood why she had watched me for more than half a century.<\/p>\n
Keene had not chosen me because he wanted to study what the drugs did to my memory.<\/p>\n
He had chosen me to compare my untouched mind with Vivian\u2019s altered one.<\/p>\n
Which meant one terrible thing.<\/p>\n
The drugs Vivian put in my food had not been part of Keene\u2019s experiment.<\/p>\n
They had been her own.<\/p>\n
She had been trying to make me like her.<\/p>\n
We reached Chloe\u2019s apartment fourteen minutes after the call ended. Police reached it in eleven. The front door stood open. Nothing inside appeared disturbed. A lamp burned beside the sofa. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20515,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465\/revisions\/20515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}