Chapter 53

The other Claire.

The name 37 echoed in my mind like a war drum.

Not a name. A number. A claim of ownership. Of experimentation.

She wasn’t born. She was built.

Being the girl who once believed she was flesh and blood, now doubt myself.

The east wing was still sealed off, yet I and Damian stood in front of it, staring at the scorched imprint of the message left behind.

The devil never leaves empty-handed.

And beneath it. 37.

I am not the original, I whispered.

Damian turned sharply. “What?”

I blinked, with my lips trembling. I remember now. Fragments. There was a room. All white. A glass ceiling. Other girls….they looked like me.

He grabbed my arm. “What the fuck are you saying…”

I’m saying that they didn’t just create one of my type. They created many. Dozens.

Damian’s expression darkened. “And what happened to the others?”

I looked up at him, haunted. I think they died. Or they were erased. Except one.

“The nameless one.”

I nodded slowly. She isn’t just a clone. She’s one of me. The syndicates didn’t build weapons. They built choices. Options. And I was their final product.

Back in Edenfall’s archive, Damian overrode the system’s classified files using his personal command code.

The system resisted. That alone was suspicious.

Even the syndicate’s most secure files should’ve bowed to Damian’s access.

But this one was locked behind a different seal.

Sovereign clearance only.

“I don’t like this,” Damina muttered.

You think someone else is still watching?

“I think someone never stopped.”

Using a secondary back door Rourke had created years ago, we finally breached the wall. What opened wasn’t a file.

It was a project.

Project Devil’s offer.

I leaned forward, reading. Subject. 37. Status. Activated. Purpose. Infiltration, compliance, and emotional calibration. Induce human weakness in the host.

My breath caught. Wait. Host?

Damina scrolled further. I stood out.

Host. Claire Duarte. Generation Alpha, variant prime.

I stumbled back. I’m the host?

Damian stood slowly, jaw clenched. “She was designed to…invade…you.”

My heart went pounding. Not just invade. To replace.

The door burst open. Rourke stood there, face pale. “You need to see this. Now.”

We followed him to the surveillance bay. Screens flickered with images from Edenfall’s west border.

My blood ran cold.

There, walking directly towards the main gate, was her.

Not a glitch. Not a lookalike. A perfect mirror.

Same eyes. Same hair. Same stance. But her smile?

It was colder than ice.

“She’s not hiding anymore,” Rourke whispered.

The nameless one had come home.

I stood on the main rampart, with my eyes fixed on the figure below.

We didn’t sound the alarm. We didn’t move the guards.

Because I had ordered them not to.

She’s not here to destroy, I murmured. Not yet.

Damian stood behind me. “Then what does she want?”

I stepped forward. Alone, through the gates.

Winds rippled my coat as I walked across the open field.

The nameless one didn’t flinch.

“Hello, sister,” she said softly.

I stopped a few paces away. You’re not my sister.

“I was you, once,” she said, with her tone calm. “Before they rewrote us. Before they made you forget.”

My fists clenched. You’ve been invading my mind.

“I didn't have to,” she smiled. “You invited me the moment you remembered what they did to you. I’m not here to fight.”

Then why are you here?

“To finish what we started.”

Inside Edenfall, Rourke traced the nameless one’s vital.

Impossible. She had no signature. Not biologically. Not digitally.

It was like she existed outside the system.

Untraceable. Uncontrollable.

Damian leaned over him. “Is she real?”

Rourke’s voice went low. “She’s beyond real. She’s whatever Claire would’ve become… if no one ever loved her.”

Outside, the nameless one moved closer.

“I’m not here to take your place,” she said.

My voice cracked. Then what do you want?

“I want you to choose.” Choose what?

She tilted her head. “To be me. Or to kill me.”

I stared at her. Why would I want to be you?

Her smile faltered for just a second. “Because I’m the version that never broke. The one who never bent for a man. The one who didn't fall in love with the devil.”

My heart felt thundered.

I didn’t fall, I whispered. I did.

The moment cracked like lightning. I raised my gun.

She didn’t flinch.

“Shoot me,” she said. Why?

“Because if you don’t…Then I become real. Not just to you. But to them.”

Tears slipped down my cheek.

You already are.

A long, aching silence stretched between us.

“I forgive you, Claire.” I blinked. For what?

“For surviving.” She’s turned and walked into the desert.

I didn’t shoot. Didn’t chase. I only stood there trembling.

And behind me, Damian stepped forward, wrapping his hand around my wrist.

“You let her live,” he said quietly.

I think I had to. “Why?”

Because if I killed her…I’d lose the part of me that still knows who I am.

That night, Edenfall was quiet.

But inside my mind, a war had ended, and another one had just begun.

Not against the enemy. But against the past.

And the woman I could’ve been.