Chapter 292 THE DOCTOR
Chapter 292 THE DOCTOR
POV: Zuri
The name remains on the screen.
DR. ELIAS VOSS.
My hands go cold.
I know that name.
Not from memory.
From somewhere deeper.
A white coat.
A needle.
A cold room.
A voice telling me to close my eyes.
I step backward.
Marco notices.
“You remember him.”
I shake my head.
“I don't.”
But my body does.
And that scares me more.
Amani steps closer.
“Zuri.”
I look at him.
“I've seen him before.”
“Where?”
I touch my temple.
“I don't know.”
The monitor flickers.
Then the image disappears.
Only the name remains.
DR. ELIAS VOSS.
Amani turns toward the old medical cabinet.
“Ghost.”
“Already on it.”
Ghost moves deeper into the room while Rex checks the tunnel entrance.
I walk toward the desk.
The file marked PROJECT ZURI is still open.
I turn the next page.
My name appears again.
And again.
And again.
Medical reports.
Dates.
Notes.
My stomach twists.
The first procedure happened years ago.
Then another.
Then another.
I stare at the dates.
“No.”
Amani looks over my shoulder.
“What?”
“This wasn't done once.”
I turn another page.
Another procedure.
Another suppression.
Another report.
Every time I began remembering...
They did it again.
My fingers start shaking.
“They kept doing this.”
Marco goes silent.
I look at him.
“They didn't erase my memories once.”
“No.”
“They kept taking them.”
Marco lowers his eyes.
“Yes.”
My chest tightens.
All those years I thought my past had disappeared.
It hadn't.
Someone had been making sure I couldn't reach it.
My identity wasn't created once.
It was maintained.
Every time the real me tried to return...
Antonio pushed her back into the dark.
I close the file.
“He was controlling my mind.”
Amani's voice is quiet.
“He was controlling what you could remember.”
I look at him.
“That might be worse.”
I turn toward Marco.
“You knew?”
He doesn't answer immediately.
“You knew about the first procedure.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't know how much Father had done.”
I stare at him.
Marco steps closer.
“After the first procedure, I tried to find you.”
“What happened?”
“Father found out.”
“He knew?”
“He always knew more than we thought.”
Marco looks down at his hands.
“I was followed. People helping me disappeared. I realized that if I stayed close to you, I'd lead him straight to you.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you were alone.”
“I needed you to believe I was dead.”
My throat burns.
“You could have told me.”
“I couldn't reach you without exposing you.”
I look away.
I want to forgive him.
But I can't.
Not yet.
Still...
For the first time, I understand.
Marco wasn't hiding because he was afraid to face Antonio.
He was hiding because he needed to survive long enough to find me.
Amani suddenly stops.
“Wait.”
He points toward the old medical equipment.
“There.”
A small recorder is connected to the machine.
Ghost pulls it free.
“Still has power.”
Amani presses the button.
Static fills the room.
Then a man's voice.
Calm.
Professional.
Cold.
Dr. Voss.
My entire body stiffens.
“Subject's memories cannot be completely destroyed.”
I close my eyes.
His voice.
I know that voice.
“Suppression is the safer method.”
A pause.
“Certain triggers may cause fragments to return.”
The recording continues.
“Locations.”
“Smells.”
“Words.”
“People.”
My eyes open.
Amani looks at me.
The memories I've been having...
The cemetery.
The house.
The tunnels.
Marco.
My mother.
And him.
Amani.
I look at him.
He understands before I say anything.
“That's why.”
My voice is barely there.
“Why what?”
“Why I remember things when I'm with you.”
Amani's expression softens.
“Your memories weren't created by me.”
“No.”
I shake my head.
“They were already there.”
Being near him hadn't created false memories.
It had unlocked real ones.
The recording continues.
Then Voss says something that changes everything.
“Antonio Moretti is not concerned about the subject remembering her identity.”
I hold my breath.
“He is concerned about what she remembers taking.”
The recording ends.
Silence.
Amani looks at Marco.
“What did she take?”
Marco doesn't answer.
I turn toward him.
“Marco.”
His jaw tightens.
Finally, he speaks.
“The ledger.”
“What ledger?”
Marco looks at me.
“Father's entire network.”
My heart pounds.
“Explain.”
“Names.”
“Accounts.”
“Politicians.”
“Companies.”
“Safehouses.”
“Every major operation Antonio built.”
I stare at him.
“Where is it?”
Marco shakes his head.
“We don't know.”
“You said I took it.”
“You did.”
“Then where did I put it?”
“That is what Father was afraid you'd remember.”
I look at the medical table.
The old room suddenly feels different.
They weren't trying to punish me.
They were trying to stop me from remembering where I hid something that could destroy Antonio's empire.
I whisper,
“I escaped with evidence.”
Marco nods.
“And Father spent years trying to recover it.”
I close my eyes.
Nothing.
No memory.
Then I notice something carved into the side of the medical table.
A small symbol.
A crescent crossed by a line.
My mother's symbol.
I touch it.
Everything changes.
A flash.
My mother kneeling in front of me.
Her hands are shaking.
A small metal box sits between us.
She presses it into my hands.
Her eyes are full of fear.
“If they ever make you forget...”
She looks toward the door.
“Follow the wolf.”
The memory disappears.
I gasp.
Marco grabs my arm.
“What did you see?”
I look at him.
“Mom.”
“What about her?”
“She left something for me.”
Ghost returns from the tunnel.
“I found something.”
Everyone turns.
He holds a folder.
“Dr. Elias Voss is alive.”
My heart stops.
“What?”
“He disappeared from public records years ago.”
Amani takes the folder.
“Where is he?”
Ghost continues.
“Someone has been paying for his medical supplies.”
“Who?”
“The payments trace back to a private account.”
He looks at Marco.
“Connected to the Moretti organization.”
Silence fills the room.
Amani's face hardens.
“Antonio kept him alive.”
Ghost nods.
“Looks like it.”
I stare at the doctor's name.
The man who altered my memories.
The man who knew everything.
He's still alive.
“Where?”
Ghost gives me a location.
“A remote medical facility outside the city.”
Amani looks at me.
“We go there.”
Marco steps forward.
“I know the area.”
Amani looks at him.
“Then you're coming.”
Marco nods.
For once...
Nobody argues.
Later, I step outside the estate.
The morning air hits my face.
I sit on the stone steps.
Amani finds me there.
He doesn't ask if I'm okay.
He knows I'm not.
He simply sits beside me.
For a while, neither of us speaks.
Finally, I say,
“I'm scared.”
Amani looks at me.
“Of Voss?”
I shake my head.
“Not him.”
“Antonio?”
“No.”
I stare at my hands.
“I'm afraid of remembering everything.”
He waits.
“What if there are parts of me I don't recognize?”
My voice breaks.
“What if I don't like who I was?”
Amani turns toward me.
His answer comes immediately.
“Then we'll deal with her together.”
I look at him.
He takes my hand.
“You don't have to remember everything tonight.”
I squeeze his fingers.
For once...
I don't pull away.
Before we can leave...
The radio crackles.
Everyone freezes.
Static fills the room.
Then a voice comes through.
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Distorted.
My heart stops.
I know that voice.
I don't know how.
But I know it.
“Zuri.”
I stand.
The voice continues.
“If you're hearing this...”
Static.
Then—
“Don't trust Dr. Voss.”
The radio goes silent.
Nobody moves.
Marco stares at me.
“Who was that?”
Tears fill my eyes.
I press a hand against my mouth.
My mother's voice.
After all these years...
My mother had just spoken to me.
I whisper the only answer I have.
“Mom.”