Chapter 10: The Experiment We Never Chose
“We weren’t victims.””
Lucas’s words hung in the room like a threat.
I stared at my brother.
A man I had spent my entire life believing never existed.
A man who was standing in front of me, alive.
“You’re saying we were experiments?””
Lucas nodded.
“Not just us.””
His eyes moved toward Emma.
My body immediately reacted.
I stepped between them.
“Don’t look at my daughter.””
Lucas stopped.
For a moment, pain crossed his face.
“I would never hurt her.””
“That’s what everyone says before they do.””
The words came out colder than I expected.
But I had earned that anger.
Everyone in this room had lied to me.
Everyone had decided what I could and couldn’t know.
Lucas looked down.
“You’re right.””
That surprised me.
“I’m not going to pretend I deserve your trust.””
Dr. Harris stepped forward.
“Ryan, listen to him carefully. He has been manipulating you from the beginning.””
Lucas laughed quietly.
“Still doing that, Samuel?””
The old doctor’s expression hardened.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.””
“No?””
Lucas pointed at me.
“You removed his memories.””
“I protected him.””
“You controlled him.””
Megan stepped between them.
“Stop.””
Everyone looked at her.
She looked exhausted.
Like she had aged years in a single night.
“I’m tired of everyone acting like Ryan is a problem to solve.””
Her voice shook.
“He is a person.””
Nobody answered.
Megan looked at me.
“And he deserves the whole truth.””
For the first time in hours, someone said exactly what I needed to hear.
The whole truth.
I looked at Lucas.
“Start from the beginning.””
He nodded slowly.
“Okay.””
He walked toward the table and picked up the old photograph.
“This picture was taken before the accident.””
He tapped the image.
“You, me, Megan, and Emma.””
My eyes moved to the baby.
“She was born into this.””
Lucas looked at Emma.
“She wasn’t created by the experiment.””
I felt a small sense of relief.
“But she was studied because of it.””
My stomach tightened.
“Why?””
Lucas looked at me.
“Because of us.””
He placed the photo down.
“When we were children, our parents signed us up for a medical study.””
I frowned.
“Our parents?””
“Yes.””
I shook my head.
“My parents would never do that.””
Lucas’s expression became sad.
“They thought it was a normal research program.””
“Then what happened?””
“They discovered something.””
“What?””
He touched his temple.
“Our brains were different.””
The room became quiet.
“They could map our memories faster than normal people. They could understand emotional patterns. They could predict how we reacted.””
I swallowed.
“That doesn’t make sense.””
“It didn’t to us either.””
Lucas looked toward Dr. Harris.
“Until Samuel found us.””
Dr. Harris looked away.
“I was trying to help.””
Lucas smiled bitterly.
“That’s your favorite excuse.””
I looked at Dr. Harris.
“You knew my family?””
“Yes.””
“And you worked with them?””
“Yes.””
“Why?””
His answer was quiet.
“Because I believed I could fix what they had started.””
Lucas shook his head.
“You became exactly like them.””
Dr. Harris said nothing.
I looked at Emma.
She was sitting beside Lily now, holding her hand.
Two sisters.
Two children who had been pulled into a nightmare they never asked for.
“What does Emma have to do with this?””
Lucas took a breath.
“When you created the memory system, you discovered something.””
“What?””
“The human brain doesn’t just store memories.””
He looked at Emma.
“It stores connections.””
I waited.
“And children inherit those connections.””
I frowned.
“You mean…”
“Emma’s brain developed unusually because of you.””
The words terrified me.
“She’s not a machine.””
“No.””
Lucas’s voice softened.
“She’s a child.””
He looked angry now.
“And that’s why I tried to protect her.””
I studied him.
“Then why hide her?””
His eyes dropped.
“Because they were coming.””
The room went silent.
“The company?””
Lucas nodded.
“They wanted Emma.””
“Why?””
“Because she proved the technology could pass naturally from one generation to another.””
Megan covered her mouth.
“No.””
Lucas looked at her.
“You knew.””
She whispered:
“I suspected.””
I felt another piece of betrayal.
“You suspected?””
“Ryan…”
“No.””
My voice broke.
“You all keep saying you were protecting me.””
I looked around the room.
“But nobody protected me from the truth.””
Nobody spoke.
Then the sound of a car door closing outside interrupted us.
Everyone froze.
Lucas moved toward the window.
His face changed.
“They’re here.””
Ethan looked outside.
“How many?””
Lucas pulled the curtain back slightly.
“Too many.””
Daniel grabbed the nearest object he could use as a weapon.
Megan pulled Lily and Emma closer.
I stood in the middle of my family.
My old life.
My forgotten life.
My real life.
And I finally understood something.
The people hunting us didn’t care about my memories.
They cared about what my memories could reveal.
Lucas turned back.
“There’s something you need to know before they get inside.””
“What?””
He looked at me.
“The accident eleven years ago…”
A pause.
“It wasn’t an attempt to erase you.””
The front windows shattered.
Everyone ducked.
May you like
Lucas finished:
“It was an attempt to kill you.””
