The screen flickered with coded text.
Adrian's hands flew across the keyboard, breaking through layers of encryption until a single folder appeared.
PROJECT LAZARUS: Subject E-07.
Emma's heartbeat stuttered.
"E… for Emma?" she whispered.
Adrian didn't answer right away. His expression had gone pale. "Maybe. But I need to be sure."
He clicked the file.
A long list of medical reports appeared body scans, DNA data, timestamps.
Emma leaned closer. Her name wasn't printed anywhere, but the birthdate was hers.
The blood type. The allergies. The surgical scar she'd had since childhood.
Her knees went weak. "That's me."
Adrian froze. The air between them grew heavy, thick with something neither of them wanted to name.
"Emma," he said quietly, "this means someone took your body after the fire. They… experimented."
She shook her head. "No. That can't be. I died. There was nothing left."
He met her eyes. "Then how are you standing here?"
The room fell silent except for the faint hum of the computer. Emma's throat tightened. She'd imagined a thousand reasons for her rebirth fate, revenge, maybe even mercy but never this.
"Who ran this project?" she whispered.
Adrian hesitated, then opened another document one stamped with an official logo: Knight Industries.
Emma stepped back, eyes wide. "Your company?"
He nodded slowly. "But this wasn't mine. This was my father's division."
Her pulse roared in her ears. "So your family brought me back?"
Adrian's voice was sharp. "No. I would never—"
She cut him off. "Then why is your company's name on the files, Adrian?"
He looked away. "Because they used my access codes. Someone on the inside did this under my father's orders. My company stopped all human testing years ago. Lazarus was supposed to be shut down."
Emma's mind spun. Her father's note. His warning. Not even him.
It all began to make sense painfully, terribly.
"You think your father and mine were working together," she said softly.
"I think they were hiding something bigger than both of us."
The lights flickered suddenly. The screen glitched, and a video feed popped up a grainy recording from a dark lab room.
A woman's voice spoke:
"Subject E-07 stable. Heart rate normal. Neural response active. The rebirth process is complete."
Emma gasped. "That's my voice…"
She watched herself lying on a hospital bed, pale, covered in wires. Her body convulsed once, then her eyes opened.
Her past self looked directly into the camera and whispered one word:
"Adrian."
The feed cut out.
The silence that followed felt like a storm waiting to explode.
Adrian's hands trembled. "They recorded you. Someone brought you back… and you remembered me."
Emma's tears fell silently. "I thought it was a dream. The fire, the light everything after that night. But it wasn't a dream, was it?"
"No," he said hoarsely. "It was a test."
She turned to him, anger flaring beneath the heartbreak. "You knew something! All this time, you acted like my rebirth was some miracle. Did you ever stop to think your own company was behind it?"
Adrian's jaw clenched. "Emma, listen to me I didn't know. But I'll find out who did this, even if it means destroying everything my family built."
"Then start with your father," she whispered.
That night, the storm outside grew violent. Adrian drove them to the old Knight Research Facility on the outskirts of the city. It had been abandoned for years or so everyone believed.
The metal gates groaned as he forced them open. The sign at the entrance was half-broken, rust covering the word "Lazarus."
Emma wrapped her coat tighter. "Feels like walking into a grave."
"Maybe it is," he murmured.
They entered the building. The air smelled of chemicals and dust. Faded papers littered the floor, each one marked CONFIDENTIAL.
Adrian found the control room and powered on the generator. The lights flickered to life, revealing the symbol Emma had seen in her father's study the B.W. crest carved beside the Knight Industries emblem.
Two bloodlines.
Two legacies.
One secret that bound them.
"Your father and mine worked together here," Adrian said quietly. "Blackwood funded the research. Knight executed it."
Emma felt cold. "So my rebirth wasn't a miracle… it was a project."
He turned to her. "Maybe. But what if someone saved you for a reason?"
She stared at him, eyes fierce despite the fear. "Then I'll find that reason even if it destroys me again."
A loud crack echoed through the corridor. Both turned sharply.
Footsteps.
Someone else was in the building.
Adrian reached for her hand, pulling her behind a wall. The footsteps stopped near the control room.
Then a familiar voice spoke, low and calm:
"You shouldn't have come here, Emma."
Her blood ran cold.
"Daniel…" she whispered.