CHAPTER 62 — THE FIRST MURDER
Mason stared at Jonah’s scar.
“I was nine.”
“You were activated,” Jonah said.
Elias stepped between his sons.
“I built the trigger that controlled him.”
Mason turned toward his father.
“You made me attack my own brother?”
“I believed the trial had been canceled.”
Silas’s mechanical laughter echoed across the courtyard.
“Elias always confused guilt with innocence.”
Gray Tide guards appeared along the orphanage roof.
Claire counted at least thirty.
Lily held her mother’s hand.
“Mommy, the windows are watching.”
Small cameras moved behind every pane.
Silas pointed toward Olivia.
“The Anchor is entering the final stage.”
Olivia doubled over.
Without the monitor, Rebecca could not measure the baby’s condition.
Iris and Rose regained consciousness at the same moment.
Iris whispered, “He is inside the signal.”
Silas looked at Rose.
“C-Seven. The most successful maternal identity.”
“I’m Rose.”
“You are whatever the children need you to be.”
Silas’s gaze shifted to Claire.
“And C-Six became a mother without permission.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Lily is not an experiment.”
“No. She is proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That constructed love cannot be distinguished from natural love.”
Claire looked at Lily.
Silas continued.
“You were assigned false parents, false memories, and a false name. Yet your bond with the child is real.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“You do not get credit for my love.”
Silas raised his hand.
The orphanage doors closed.
Metal restraints erupted from the ground and wrapped around Olivia.
Mason fired at Silas.
The bullet stopped against the wheelchair’s transparent shield.
Guards surrounded the group.
Jonah leaned close to Mason.
“There is a service entrance beneath the chapel.”
“How do we reach it?”
“You activate me.”
Mason understood.
The brothers had been conditioned as opposing weapons.
“If I trigger you, you may kill me.”
Jonah nodded.
“If you don’t, they take the baby.”
Mason whispered the words he had heard in his childhood.
“Red door. Broken bell. First brother falls.”
Jonah’s expression emptied.
May you like
He turned toward the guards.
And began killing his way into Saint Orison.
