The sky tore open in sheets of rain, brutal and unforgiving, each drop striking the courtyard like shrapnel from a divine war. Wind howled between the columns of the villa, toppling potted orchids and smashing panes of stained glass in a cascade of color and sound. Sirens wailed through the marbled halls—metallic and inhuman—shrieking a warning far too late. Black-suited agents thundered down the corridors, boots slick against wet marble, rifles drawn, visors down.Delaney ran like a hunted ghost.Her coat was gone. Her breath came in ragged bursts. Her left hand clutched Mira-Eve’s small wrist with desperate precision. The child, half-shielded by a patchwork quilt, barely touched the floor as Delaney pulled her through chaos—past overturned ashtrays, past splintered artwork, past memories that had turned into broken furniture.Savannah and Colton followed, their feet soaked, hearts racing. But at the threshold of the covered patio, they stopped.A sweep of security drones hovered abo
The night rain hammered so fiercely it felt as though the villa itself might shatter. Savannah stood in the foyer, candlelight trembling across her face as she held Eva’s notebook close to her chest. The pages were littered with sketches—repeated visions of two girls standing hand-in-hand in a sterile corridor, twin cribs, red-coded doors—all eclipsed by faint tears.Eva lay asleep on the couch, her breaths shallow and rhythmic, clutching her old wolf plush.Savannah’s fingertips drifted over the sketches, tracing the line that separated one figure from the other. The smaller figure’s body swiveled slightly—untouched by crayons, yet alive.She heard Colton’s footsteps in the hall—steady, hesitant.“She’s real,” she whispered, not looking up.Eva stirred, turned, but said nothing.Colton appeared in the doorway, damp hair clinging to his forehead. He paused at her voice.“She’s alive,” she repeated.He swallowed, his chest tightening. “Ellie?”Savannah didn’t speak.Eva finally stirred
The night rain hammered so fiercely it felt as though the villa itself might shatter. Savannah stood in the foyer, candlelight trembling across her face as she held Eva’s notebook close to her chest. The pages were littered with sketches—repeated visions of two girls standing hand-in-hand in a sterile corridor, twin cribs, red-coded doors—all eclipsed by faint tears.Eva lay asleep on the couch, her breaths shallow and rhythmic, clutching her old wolf plush.Savannah’s fingertips drifted over the sketches, tracing the line that separated one figure from the other. The smaller figure’s body swiveled slightly—untouched by crayons, yet alive.She heard Colton’s footsteps in the hall—steady, hesitant.“She’s real,” she whispered, not looking up.Eva stirred, turned, but said nothing.Colton appeared in the doorway, damp hair clinging to his forehead. He paused at her voice.“She’s alive,” she repeated.He swallowed, his chest tightening. “Ellie?”Savannah didn’t speak.Eva finally stirred
The villa’s northern wing smelled of old paper, dust, and long-forgotten secrets. Savannah pushed open a door she hadn't unlocked in years. Inside, the walls were stained pale and peeling, past ICU blue wallpaper flaking like ancient skin. This was Mira’s last hideout—a room strewn with empty bottles, lined with medical files, and smelling faintly of antiseptic.In the center hung a single drawing pinned to the wall: two stick figures rendered crudely but with intent. One had a single word beneath: “Eva”. The other, to the side and smaller, simply: “Me.”Savannah stared at that childish scrawl, each letter a testament to loneliness. She traced the pencil lines with trembling fingers.Delaney emerged behind her from the shadows—haggard, smudged with grief. “She drew that,” she whispered. “When she was twelve. She said it was the only proof she existed.”Savannah’s breath caught. “So she knew Eva all along.”Delaney nodded. “She watched you mother one heir, and lived as shadow heir hers
Heavy fog drifted through the olive groves surrounding the villa, blurring the world into soft shadows and silent doubts. Savannah stood at the balcony's edge, the braided rail pressed against her palms. The rain had stopped, but the air tasted of sorrow and questions.She held Weston’s coded message—“Eva isn’t your only child”—like a lit match in darkness. It burned through her mind, unrelenting.Colton, inside, flipped through photographs he found in a hidden file—they were delivery-room Polaroids, scratched red by mishandled labels. One image showed Savannah’s wrist and a nurse’s gloved hand holding a stopwatch. Another—cold static obscured part of it, but she could clearly make out her infant body in a crib, while a second blanket-shrouded form lay low in the adjacent frame.Savannah exhaled slow. Her voice was distant: “That baby… could’ve been a twin.”Colton’s hands trembled. “No. I remember.” His jaw tightened. “I saw you holding only Eva.”She turned to face him. “Maybe you d
The early morning light fractured against the rain-laced windows of Dr. Adrian Weiss’s study, casting wavering shadows across the lavender walls and onto the heavy walnut bookshelves groaning under the weight of journals no one else in the region read. The storm outside had not yet broken, but the pressure had gathered in the sky like a held breath. Savannah sat stiffly across from the man whose reputation was whispered about in hushed tones—part neurologist, part ghost-hunter of the human mind.A pulsating neural monitor blinked beside an antique glass model of the human brain. Something about the juxtaposition unnerved her.Dr. Weiss leaned forward, elbows resting on the edge of his desk, fingers steepled like a man preparing to pronounce something biblical. “I’ve reviewed Eva’s drawings,” he began, “her sleep logs, her recent activation patterns, and the low-frequency EEG spikes during REM. It’s not conventional trauma. Not PTSD, not psychogenic.”Savannah’s breath coiled tight in