Chapter 8 - THE MOTHER WHO NEVER DIED
Lucien couldn’t speak.
The world around him disappeared.
The explosions.
The laboratory.
Victor’s voice.
Everything.
There was only one person.
The woman behind the glass.
“Mom?”
The word barely left his mouth.
Charles closed his eyes.
He knew this moment would come.
“You lied to me.”
Charles didn’t respond.
Lucien turned slowly.
“You told me she died.”
“I was protecting you.”
Lucien laughed.
A broken laugh.
“You really only know one sentence.”
The glass door opened.
The woman stepped out.
Lucien didn’t move.
She looked older.
But her eyes were the same.
The eyes he remembered from childhood dreams.
“Lucien.”
Her voice trembled.
He wanted to hate her.
He wanted to run.
But he couldn’t.
“Why?”
One word.
A lifetime of pain behind it.
She looked at Charles.
Then back at him.
“Because your father made a choice.”
Lucien’s jaw tightened.
“What choice?”
“He chose the company over his family.”
Charles looked away.
The woman continued.
“When Victor discovered what your father was building, he wanted control.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“You worked with Victor.”
Everyone looked at her.
She nodded.
“I had no choice.”
Lucien stared.
“There’s always a choice.”
The woman looked hurt.
“You were three years old.”
Silence.
“I watched them turn your father into someone who only trusted power.”
She looked at Charles.
“And then I watched him do the same thing to you.”
Charles finally spoke.
“I saved this family.”
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“You destroyed it.”
Ava suddenly ran forward.
Lucien caught her.
“Daddy!”
He held her tightly.
Checking her.
Her arms.
Her face.
Everything.
“Are you okay?”
Ava nodded.
“Grandma helped me.”
Lucien froze.
Grandma.
The word felt impossible.
The woman touched Ava’s hair.
“She’s brave.”
Lucien looked at her.
“Why did Victor take her?”
The woman’s expression changed.
“Because he knows what Ava carries.”
Lucien shook his head.
“Enough with that.”
His voice became angry.
“She is a child.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking about her like she’s a weapon.”
The woman stepped closer.
“She isn’t a weapon.”
A pause.
“She is proof.”
Lucien frowned.
“Proof of what?”
Victor’s voice suddenly came from the speakers.
“Proof that your father was wrong.”
Everyone looked up.
Victor appeared on the screen.
Smiling.
“Lucien, your father spent years trying to create the perfect successor.”
The screen changed.
Images appeared.
Experiments.
Documents.
Medical reports.
Then one final image.
Ava’s birth record.
Lucien stared.
Something was wrong.
The date.
The information.
The signatures.
His face turned pale.
“No…”
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
Lucien stepped backward.
Because he finally understood.
The truth he had never questioned.
The truth everyone had protected.
Ava’s birth certificate was not fake.
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But the father listed on it…
Was not Lucien.
