---
Chapter 15: The Boy in the White Room
"You knew," Rina said, voice shaking. "You knew what they did to me."
Eliot said nothing.
"Say it!" she shouted.
He looked up from where he stood at the window, eyes darker than she'd ever seen them. Not with anger—but shame.
"I did."
Her chest tightened. "How long?"
"Since the beginning."
Rina stepped back like she'd been slapped.
"I was just doing recon," Eliot continued, low and steady. "At first. Your father's research was marked for deletion. Calyx Phase III was off the books, even to most board members. I was… monitoring the subjects. You were Subject 24."
She stared at him in disbelief.
"I watched you play with crayons in the lab's daycare while your father argued with men in suits. You thought it was a game. You smiled at me once."
He looked away.
"That was the last time I saw someone smile at me without fear."
Rina was silent for a long time. Then:
"You were one of them."
"I was one of the broken," he said.
He pulled back his sleeve.
A thin scar on his arm. Clean. Surgical.
"They tested on us too. Earlier versions. Calyx wasn't just about enhancement. It was about control."
He looked at her then, broken and bare.
"I got out. Your father got dead. And you… forgot."
"I didn't forget," she said softly. "I just didn't know."
She turned away, blinking back a thousand questions.
Outside, the woods whispered.
Inside, Eliot's secret had finally stepped into the light.
And for the first time, Rina wasn't sure if she feared the shadows outside…
Or the man standing in her shelter.
---