Chapter Sixty-Seven: Three Days We Chose to Lose

The photograph slipped from Ronan's fingers.

It landed softly against the concrete.

No one reached for it.

No one needed to.

The evidence was already staring back at us.

Five people.

One table.

One decision.

Sebastian Vale.

Victor Ashcroft.

Gabriel Thorne.

Ronan.

Me.

And none of us looked like enemies.

Marcus finally found his voice.

"...What is this?"

I bent down and picked up the photograph.

The timestamp in the lower corner confirmed what I already feared.

Three days earlier.

Three days that no longer existed inside my mind.

I studied my own face.

There was exhaustion beneath my eyes.

But there was something else.

Peace.

Not happiness.

Not relief.

Certainty.

As though I had finally made a decision I could live with.

Ronan took the photograph from me.

His expression hardened.

"I remember none of this."

Gabriel nodded.

"You weren't supposed to."

Inspector Mara Voss lowered her pistol slightly.

"I think it's time you stopped speaking in riddles."

Gabriel met her gaze.

"I intend to."

He looked back at me.

"But Adrian deserves the truth first."

Silence settled over the garage.

He took one slow breath.

"Three nights ago, the five of us sat around that table for almost seven hours."

"No lawyers."

"No assistants."

"No security."

"Only the people who still believed Genesis could be stopped."

Marcus frowned.

"Genesis?"

Gabriel shook his head.

"No."

"The thing Genesis became."

I stepped forward.

"You keep saying that."

"Because there are two organizations."

"The first died years ago."

"The second simply stole its name."

The sentence hung in the air.

Dr. Dawson slowly closed his eyes.

"I knew..."

His voice barely carried.

"I knew we had lost control."

Gabriel looked at him sadly.

"You realized it too late."

Dawson didn't argue.

Because he couldn't.

I looked again at the photograph.

"If we met..."

I swallowed.

"...what did we decide?"

Gabriel answered immediately.

"That none of you could be trusted."

Marcus blinked.

"What?"

"Not because you were disloyal."

He looked at me.

"Because someone was reading memories."

The words struck like ice.

"My mother said the same thing."

Gabriel nodded.

"She was right."

Inspector Voss frowned.

"That's impossible."

"I wish it were."

Gabriel reached into his jacket again.

This time, no one stopped him.

He removed a small leather notebook and handed it to me.

It wasn't mine.

The initials embossed on the cover read:

S.V.

Sebastian Vale.

I opened it.

Every page contained only names.

Hundreds of names.

Each crossed out one by one.

Until only seven remained.

My name.

Ronan's.

Victor's.

My mother's.

Gabriel's.

Professor Orion's.

And one final name.

Covered by a strip of black paper glued across the page.

I looked up.

"Who's beneath this?"

Gabriel's expression darkened.

"The only name Sebastian refused to write."

"Why?"

"Because names have power."

I almost laughed.

"That's not an answer."

"No."

"It's a warning."

He carefully took the notebook back.

"If the wrong person learns that name..."

He hesitated.

"...the war ends."

Marcus folded his arms.

"I hate mysterious old men."

Gabriel smiled faintly.

"So did Sebastian."

That single sentence made the garage feel strangely smaller.

For a moment, I could almost imagine my father standing beside him, arguing over strategy.

I forced my attention back to the present.

"The photograph."

Gabriel nodded.

"Ask the question."

I already knew it.

But I asked anyway.

"Why are Ronan and I smiling?"

Gabriel looked at both of us.

"Because you had just finished arguing."

Ronan raised an eyebrow.

"About what?"

"You."

Gabriel pointed at me.

"You wanted to surrender."

I stared at him.

"I what?"

"You believed turning yourself in would protect your parents."

I remembered the feeling.

Not the conversation.

Only the crushing certainty that sacrificing myself would solve everything.

Gabriel continued.

"Ronan disagreed."

I looked toward him.

"What did he say?"

Gabriel smiled.

"He said..."

He looked directly at Ronan.

"...'I've spent twenty years fighting Adrian Vale.'"

A pause.

"'I'm not letting him lose to himself.'"

Neither of us spoke.

Because somehow...

It sounded exactly like something Ronan would say.

Gabriel's smile faded.

"That was the moment Sebastian knew."

"Knew what?"

"That you would survive each other."

A deep silence settled over the garage.

Then Gabriel reached into the Aston Martin and unlocked the glove compartment.

Inside rested a small digital recorder.

Its red indicator light blinked once.

"There's one last thing."

He placed it carefully into my hands.

"This wasn't meant for me to give you."

"It was meant for you to remember."

I pressed the play button.

Static filled the garage.

Then...

My own voice.

Calm.

Certain.

"If you're listening to this..."

A chill raced through my body.

"...then the memory wipe worked."

Everyone froze.

I continued listening to myself.

"Don't panic."

"Everything you're feeling right now..."

A short laugh.

"...I already felt."

I looked at Ronan.

He looked as stunned as I felt.

The recording continued.

"I know you're wondering whether you made the right decision."

"You did."

Another pause.

Then my own voice said the one sentence that stole the air from the room.

"Before we erased our memories..."

I heard Ronan laugh somewhere in the background.

Then my voice finished.

"...Ronan finally admitted he loved me."