Chapter 13 - THE REPLACEMENT FAMILY
Continuity House moved Claire to a replica of my home.
Sophie placed in the nursery.
Liam in the upstairs bedroom.
Thomas’s double at the kitchen table.
They planned to record a complete alternate Hayes family.
A version where Claire was the real colonel, I was the unstable impostor, and Margaret was the victim.
Federal teams found the site through utility usage and convoy tire tracks.
Claire had left clues.
She was rescued.
The children were never physically moved; the figures in the rooms were trained actors and synthetic projections.
The network no longer needed real family members for every role.
It needed convincing images.
Then the original deed folder produced one last document.
A handwritten letter from my father James Brooks.
Lauren, if they make you choose between the uniform and the child, choose the person in front of you.
He had helped Sentinel.
He had also tried to build an escape.
His legacy remained mixed.
I resigned command temporarily during the investigation.
Not from guilt.
To remove the office from the identity battle.
An independent board ran operations.
No replacement could seize authority through my face.
Then Liam asked to visit me.
We met in a plain room.
No flags.
No cameras visible.
He asked, “Are you really my mother?”
“Biologically, yes.”
“Do you want to be?”
“I want to know you without making you responsible for what I feel.”
He nodded.
A beginning.
Then three knocks sounded from the room next door.
Liam froze.
May you like
“That’s the signal they used at school.”
The old script had followed him into safety.
