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Chapter 22: Faces from the Flame
Two days after the black site incident, the team regrouped in a safehouse buried beneath a broken ski lodge in Utah. Cold air. Warmer silence.
Rina hadn't spoken since her mother's message.
Eliot gave her space. Savannah didn't.
"You okay?" she asked, handing Rina a mug of bitter coffee.
"I'm thinking," Rina murmured.
"Dangerous habit."
Rina looked up. "There's someone else in the Athena project. Someone we haven't seen yet."
Savannah nodded slowly. "I was hoping you'd say that."
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In the war room, they laid the stolen data across six monitors.
One name kept repeating, buried in logs and encryption.
> L.N. Calyx
"Calyx?" Eliot asked. "Wasn't that—"
"The original project that created Echo," Savannah confirmed.
Rina stared at the screen. Her breath caught.
She recognized the initials.
> Lena. Naomi. Calyx.
Her twin.
The one they said died.
"No," she whispered.
Savannah turned to her. "They didn't just build you. They duplicated you."
And suddenly… everything Rina thought she knew about herself unraveled.
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Author's Note:
Twists on twists. If you didn't see that coming—add Billionaire in Disguise to your library so you don't miss what happens next. Every collection fuels the fire. Thank you for reading!
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