CHAPTER 16 : The Name Daniel Never Used
The train thundered deeper beneath the city.
Claire kept one arm around Noah while staring through the window where the second train had disappeared.
Only one of the children is real.
The message remained on her phone screen.
Noah looked frightened, but there was something else in his expression—recognition.
“Dad called you another name?” Claire asked gently. “What name?”
The boy lowered his eyes.
“Elias.”
Celeste, still pale from the blow to her head, pushed herself upright.
Claire turned toward her.
“Who is Elias?”
Celeste pressed a hand to her temple.
“You need to stop the train.”
“The brake is gone.”
“Then break a window.”
“We’re inside a tunnel.”
“If this train reaches the final platform, Charles wins.”
Claire grabbed Celeste’s arm.
“Tell me about Elias.”
Celeste looked at Noah.
“He shouldn’t hear this.”
“He has heard enough lies.”
Noah clung to Claire’s dress.
Celeste finally spoke.
“Elias was the name written on the first medical record.”
Claire felt her body go cold.
“Noah’s record?”
“The child Daniel took from the hospital was called Elias. But two babies were brought into the private maternity wing that night.”
Claire remembered the second train.
The identical child standing beside Daniel.
“Twins?”
“No.”
“Then why do they look the same?”
“Because Charles wanted them to.”
Celeste explained that Project Mirror had not begun with Daniel’s digital double. It started with children.
Charles believed a powerful heir should never be vulnerable. If enemies targeted the child, another child with the same appearance and identity could take his place.
The two boys were raised separately during infancy.
One remained inside the Ashford medical system.
The other was given to Daniel.
“Which one did I raise?” Claire asked.
Celeste hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Claire tightened her grip.
“You kidnapped my son without knowing who he was?”
“I took him because Margaret said Charles was coming for him.”
“And you believed her?”
“She is our mother.”
“She abandoned us.”
“She tried to save us.”
Before Claire could respond, the train began slowing.
The tunnel walls changed from rough stone to polished concrete. White lights appeared along the tracks.
Celeste looked toward the window.
“We’re here.”
“Where?”
“The station beneath Ashford headquarters.”
Claire had worked in the building for years. She had never heard of a private railway station.
The train entered a vast underground terminal.
Its walls carried the Ashford crown symbol.
Dozens of surveillance cameras turned toward the carriage.
The doors opened automatically.
No one stood on the platform.
A recorded voice filled the station.
“Welcome home, Elias.”
Noah began trembling.
Claire pulled him close.
“His name is Noah.”
The voice repeated:
“Welcome home, Elias.”
Celeste stepped onto the platform.
“Charles knows which boy you have.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can’t.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because the answer is not in a file. It is inside the ring.”
Claire looked at Daniel’s wedding band.
The hidden chip remained exposed.
A scanner beside the platform began flashing.
VOICE AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
A screen displayed Daniel’s face.
Claire held the ring near the scanner.
“Daniel Ashford.”
Access denied.
Celeste tried.
Access denied.
Then Noah approached.
Claire pulled him back.
“No.”
“Mom, it wants me.”
He stood beneath the microphone and whispered the bedtime phrase Daniel had taught him.
“The crown belongs to the one who refuses it.”
The platform shook.
A steel door opened at the end of the station.
Beyond it was a long white corridor lined with glass rooms.
Children’s drawings covered the walls.
Every picture showed two identical boys.
Noah walked toward one of them.
The drawing depicted a burning house, a woman in a red coat, and two children holding hands.
At the bottom, someone had written:
NOAH STAYED. ELIAS LEFT.
Claire stared at her son.
“Which one are you?”
Before he could answer, the station speakers crackled.
Daniel’s voice filled the tunnel.
“Claire, do not ask the boy that question.”
A camera above them moved.
Daniel appeared on the nearest monitor.
His face was bruised.
His hands were bound.
Behind him stood the second child.
Daniel looked directly at Claire.
“The moment he remembers his real name, one of the boys will die.”
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The screen went dark.
At the far end of the corridor, a child began screaming.
