Chapter 122  Bloodlines and Ghosts

— Sophia’s POV

I couldn't sleep.

The cot creaked every time I shifted, and the concrete beneath it hummed with the cold of the earth.

Vermont was supposed to be a ghost zone—no signal, no heat trace, no footsteps but our own. And yet, even here, I felt watched.

I sat by the boy. My boy. Not some formula. Not a code or key or prototype.

Mine.

But Ethan hadn't said a word since I showed him the chain—the broken bangle. The same one I pulled from that sterile lab floor just before we ran.

His face had gone…still. Not unreadable. Not cold. Just locked. Like whatever gears turned behind those eyes had started grinding too fast.

“Ethan,” I whispered. “Say something. Please.”

He looked at me. Just for a breath.

Then at the baby.

Then at the wall, like he could see through it. Through time.

“The boy from the cage,” he said. “He had that bangle.”

“Yes,” I murmured.

“But I gave that to…to Aria.”

My heart clenched. He said it like Aria was someone else. Like I'd been a ghost from another life.