Chapter 9 - ANNA'S LOST MEMORYAnna had always believed she remembered Oliver's birth.
The hospital.
The lights.
James beside her.
The first cry.
But now the memory felt wrong.
There was a gap.
A small gap.
A few hours missing.
She had always blamed exhaustion.
Pain.
Medication.
But when Eli spoke about the white room, something began to surface.
She was younger.
Pregnant.
Standing in a private clinic.
Adrian Cross was there.
James was not.
Anna was holding a file.
“Why are you showing me this?”
Cross had smiled.
“Because your child is unusual.”
“Is that supposed to reassure me?”
“He has a marker.”
“What kind?”
“A rare one.”
Anna had stepped back.
“I want to leave.”
Cross had stopped her.
“You already agreed.”
“What did I agree to?”
Cross had shown her a document.
A signature.
Her signature.
Anna had signed a research agreement.
But she did not remember signing it.
She had been told it was a prenatal study.
Nothing dangerous.
Nothing illegal.
Then Cross had said:
“Your child may be able to help another.”
Anna had refused.
“I am not putting my baby in an experiment.”
Cross had smiled.
“You already did.”
The memory broke.
Anna woke in the hospital bathroom.
She was on the floor.
James found her.
“What happened?”
Anna looked at him.
“I remember him.”
“Who?”
“Cross.”
James went still.
“What did he do?”
Anna shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
The memory returned.
A room.
A document.
A baby.
A woman.
Then she whispered:
“I signed something.”
James stared.
“What?”
“I don't know.”
Dr. Vell arrived.
Anna told him everything.
He listened.
Then said:
“Your signature may have been obtained under false pretenses.”
James clenched his fists.
“Can we prove it?”
Dr. Vell nodded.
“If we find the original file.”
They returned to the Cross Institute.
This time, they did not go alone.
Police entered the building.
But the place had been emptied.
The records were gone.
The computers destroyed.
The files burned.
Adrian Cross had vanished.
Only one room remained untouched.
The room with the photographs.
James searched.
Anna searched.
Dr. Vell searched.
Eli stood in the center.
Then pointed toward the wall.
“There.”
A photograph.
Anna.
Pregnant.
Standing beside Adrian Cross.
The date was written below.
The photograph had been taken six months before Oliver was born.
Anna stared.
She remembered the room.
The conversation.
And the final thing Cross had said.
“You will forget this.”
Anna's breath stopped.
“What?”
Dr. Vell looked at her.
Anna whispered:
“He hypnotized me.”
James turned.
“What?”
“He made me forget.”
Dr. Vell's face hardened.
“Then Oliver was not simply a patient.”
Anna looked at the photograph.
“He was a subject.”
And the worst part was—
May you like
Anna had signed the agreement.
Without knowing what she was signing.
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