Chapter 15 - The Other Amy Opened Her Eyes
The woman in the bed looked exactly like me.
Not approximately.
Exactly.
Same cut above the eyebrow.
Same swelling around the left eye.
Same bruising along the jaw.
One leg beneath the blanket appeared casted.
An IV line ran into her left hand.
Even the hospital gown matched mine.
Lily stood between us.
Terrified.
“Mom?”
Both of us answered.
“Yes.”
My voice and hers overlapped.
Lily covered her ears.
“No.”
Daniel moved in front of my wheelchair.
The security team aimed lights into the room.
No one entered.
Evelyn’s voice filled the ceiling speakers.
“One patient was brought to the trauma center. One was prepared here.”
Laura looked at the second Amy.
“How long has she been here?”
The woman turned toward her.
“I was admitted three days ago.”
The same day as my crash.
Henry IV stared.
“I didn’t know.”
The older Henry laughed from the tunnel floor.
“You never knew the whole plan.”
I looked at the other woman.
“What is the last thing you remember?”
“Henry driving.”
My husband closed his eyes.
She continued.
“Rain. The door opening. Falling.”
My memory.
My exact memory.
Daniel whispered, “They copied it.”
The older Henry shook his head.
“Not copied.”
Everyone turned.
He pressed one hand to his bleeding shoulder.
“Partitioned.”
I felt cold.
Evelyn had not simply created a double.
She had divided records, memories, and identities across two women.
The other Amy looked at my mother.
“Mom.”
Kathleen staggered.
She recognized something.
“What song did I sing when you were sick?”
The other woman answered instantly.
“The River Sleeps at Midnight.”
Correct.
My mother looked at me.
I answered too.
She covered her mouth.
Lily began crying.
I wanted to reach her.
My body could not.
The other Amy moved in the bed.
Her cast struck the rail.
She winced exactly as I would.
Henry looked between us.
He whispered, “Which one did I marry?”
I turned toward him.
His question contained no love.
Only panic about which evidence belonged to which woman.
Daniel looked at the older Henry.
“How do we verify?”
“Blood.”
The second Sarah prepared a test kit.
Evelyn’s voice interrupted.
“Both will match.”
“Fingerprints.”
“Both registered.”
“Scars.”
“Replicated.”
Laura looked toward the ceiling.
“You cannot replicate history.”
Evelyn laughed.
“History is paperwork.”
I understood the weakness.
Not biology.
Not documents.
Choice.
I looked at Lily.
“What did you ask me on the phone?”
She wiped her face.
“The song.”
“What did I say?”
“You didn’t remember.”
The other Amy looked at her.
“I remember.”
Lily stared.
The second woman began humming the lullaby.
Perfectly.
Lily stepped toward her.
My heart broke.
Then she stopped.
She looked back at me.
“You said you never knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“She knew the song because they taught her.”
The other Amy’s face changed.
Lily came toward me.
“You didn’t pretend.”
Evelyn’s voice sharpened.
“That proves nothing.”
Lily took my hand.
“It proves she tells the truth when it hurts.”
I nearly collapsed.
Daniel looked at the second Amy.
“Who are you?”
Her eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
That answer made her human.
Not enemy.
Victim.
I reached toward her.
“You don’t have to be me.”
She looked at me.
“What else am I?”
The room doors began closing.
Evelyn spoke.
“The archive has one successor profile. Two Amy Carters create a legal conflict. One must disappear.”
Henry IV suddenly moved.
He broke from the guard on his left, drove his shoulder into the second, and ran toward the control panel.
Daniel chased him.
Henry entered a code.
The doors stopped.
For one second, hope returned.
Then he pressed another key.
The hospital bed holding the other Amy began lowering into the floor.
She screamed and grabbed the rail.
I shouted, “Stop!”
Henry looked at me.
“If she disappears, you remain the successor.”
He was still solving problems through erasure.
Even now.
Daniel tackled him.
They struck the floor.
The control panel sparked.
The bed stopped halfway below the room.
The other Amy hung between levels, gripping the rail.
Laura and the second Sarah rushed forward.
The floor beneath them trembled.
Evelyn’s voice became cold.
“Henry, you were instructed to remove the original.”
Everyone stopped.
My husband looked up.
“The original?”
Evelyn laughed.
“You married the copy.”
The room went silent.
Henry stared at me.
I looked at the woman trapped in the lowering bed.
If Evelyn told the truth, I was not Amy.
I was the constructed replacement.
The woman below was Kathleen’s daughter.
Daniel’s twin.
Lily’s biological mother.
My entire life could have been assigned.
My mother gripped my shoulders from behind.
“No.”
Evelyn continued.
“The woman in the bed was taken after the appendectomy. The replacement returned home.”
Henry looked at me with raw fear.
He had abused the wrong woman.
Or perhaps there had never been a right one.
I turned toward Kathleen.
“Did you notice?”
She cried.
“You were quieter after surgery.”
The memory hit.
Waking at home.
Henry beside me.
A scar I did not understand.
Three missing days.
The other Amy pulled herself higher on the rail.
“Mom!”
Kathleen looked between us.
Daniel stood slowly.
His face shattered.
He did not know which sister was his.
Lily held my hand tighter.
“I choose you.”
I looked at her.
“That doesn’t make me your mother.”
“It makes you the one who came.”
The words nearly destroyed me.
Above us, heavy impacts struck the outer tunnel door.
Three times.
Controlled.
Powerful.
Everyone turned.
Evelyn stopped speaking.
For the first time, silence came from the ceiling.
The older Henry whispered, “She didn’t expect him.”
Daniel looked down.
“Who?”
The tunnel door began opening.
Bright white light cut across the floor.
A tall man stood beyond it.
Only his silhouette was visible.
Senator Cross had been taken into custody.
Evelyn controlled the facility.
Henry III lay injured behind us.
The unknown man stepped forward carrying a sealed medical file.
He looked at both Amy Carters.
Then at Lily.
His voice was calm.
“I delivered the twins.”
Kathleen went pale.
Daniel whispered, “Doctor Mercer?”
The man raised the file.
“No one here is Amy Carter.”
The lights went out.
Lily screamed.
A hand closed around my wheelchair.
And from the darkness, the other woman whispered directly beside me:
“Henry wasn’t trying to kill you in the crash.”
I felt her breath against my ear.
May you like
“He was trying to return you.”
📖 Discover who both women truly are, why Doctor Mercer delivered three babies that night, and who seized my wheelchair when CHAPTER 16 begins in PART 2. 👇
