Aria's POV
Six women with my face were telling me I didn't exist.
"You're not real," Aria Chen said, her voice identical to mine. "None of us are. We're copies. Manufactured. Designed."
I stood frozen in Damien's office, staring at my mirror images. At the five other women who looked exactly like me. At Marcus Wolfe's sick smile as he watched us all realize the truth.
"Generation Two, Batch Three," Marcus said proudly, pointing at me. "One of my finest creations. Though Batch One had better temperaments."
"Creations?" My voice shook. "We're human beings!"
"You're products." He pulled out a folder thick with documents. "Twenty years of genetic research, careful selection, strategic placement in struggling families, manufactured debt to ensure compliance. Every one of you was designed to be the perfect carrier for Wolfe heirs."
Aria Chen grabbed my arm. "Don't you get it? We were never supposed to be people. We were supposed to be wombs with legs. Disposable. Replaceable."
I looked at Damien. He stood like a statue, his face white as death.
"You knew," I whispered. "You knew what I was."
"No." His voice cracked. "I swear, I didn't—"
"LIAR!" All six of us screamed at once.
Marcus laughed. "Oh, this is delicious. My son actually thinks he's innocent." He turned to Damien. "Boy, you were raised on this program. Your mother was Generation One, Batch One. Where do you think you came from?"
The room spun. Damien's mother was like us?
"She was the prototype," Marcus continued. "Beautiful, compliant, perfect genetics. She gave me you, then she gave me problems. Started asking questions. Wanting freedom. So I replaced her."
"You killed her." Damien's hands were fists. "You murdered my mother."
"I upgraded." Marcus shrugged. "Generation Two improved on her weaknesses. Made them more... accepting of their role."
One of the other Arias—a girl with short hair—lunged at Marcus. Vincent caught her, held her back as she screamed.
"You're insane!" she shouted. "You can't do this! You can't just make people to use them!"
"I already did." Marcus smiled. "Five generations. Forty-two carriers total. Seventeen successful births. The Wolfe family line is secured for centuries."
Forty-two women. All looking like us. All used like cattle.
I felt sick.
"Why?" I asked. "Why this face? Why make us all identical?"
"Efficiency." Marcus opened his folder. "One genetic profile, perfected. One set of medical records, optimized. One type to manage. Why waste time with variety when I'd already achieved perfection?"
Aria Chen's hand squeezed mine. "We need to leave. Now. All of us. Before he—"
The lights went out.
Emergency lights flickered on, bathing everything in red.
An alarm blared. Vincent's phone exploded with alerts.
"We've been breached," he said. "Multiple entry points. Armed hostiles. They're coming for—"
Gunshots. From the hallway.
Marcus's smile vanished. "That's impossible. This building is secure."
"Not anymore." A new voice crackled through the penthouse speakers. Female. Angry. Familiar.
Jessica.
"Hello, Marcus. Remember me? The girl you tried to drown? I brought friends. Lots of friends. Every woman you've ever used, experimented on, discarded. We've been finding each other for five years. Comparing notes. Building evidence. And tonight, we're burning your empire to the ground."
More gunshots. Closer now.
Damien grabbed my arm. "We need to go. There's a panic room—"
"No." I pulled away. "I'm not hiding anymore. I'm not running. If Jessica has evidence against Marcus, I want to help her."
"She'll kill you!"
"Your father MADE me!" I screamed. "I don't even know if I'm a real person or just some lab-grown copy! I have a right to fight back!"
The office door exploded inward.
Women poured in. Dozens of them. Some looked like us. Some looked different. But they all had the same expression: rage.
Jessica walked in last, holding a gun.
"Hello, husband," she said to Damien. "Miss me?"
Behind her, more women appeared. And then I saw something that made my heart stop.
Children. At least ten of them. All between ages three and seven.
All with Damien's golden eyes.
"Surprise," Jessica said. "Meet your other children. The ones Marcus stole. The ones he's been raising in secret facilities to continue his program. Isabella isn't your only daughter, Damien. You have twelve."
Damien's face crumbled. "No. That's not possible. I only—"
"Only knew about one?" Jessica's laugh was bitter. "That's what he wanted. Keep you focused on one heir while he built a whole army of Wolfe children. Why do you think he needed so many carriers?"
I stared at the children. At their identical golden eyes. At their terrified faces.
These babies were made the same way I was. Manufactured. Designed. Used.
"We're taking them," Jessica announced. "All of them. Every child, every carrier, every piece of evidence. And we're going to destroy Marcus Wolfe."
"You'll never make it out," Marcus said calmly. He pressed a button on his watch. "This building goes into lockdown in thirty seconds. No one leaves. Then my security team arrives and eliminates all of you. Including the children."
"You'd kill your own grandchildren?" I asked, horrified.
"They're not family. They're inventory." His eyes were dead. "Failed experiments. I have better batches being prepared now."
That's when I knew. Marcus Wolfe wasn't human. He was a monster wearing a human face.
Jessica aimed her gun at him. "Then we do this the hard way."
"Wait!" Aria Chen stepped forward. "There's another way. Marcus, you have a kill switch for the lockdown, right? On your watch?"
He smiled. "Planning to take it from me? You're welcome to try."
"I don't need to take it." She pulled out her own watch. Identical to his. "Because I've been working in your Singapore facility for six months. Did you know Batch Two, Set Five infiltrated your operation last year? We've been copying your systems. Learning your codes. Accessing your files."
She pressed a button.
The lockdown alarm stopped.
The emergency lights switched to normal.
And every screen in the penthouse lit up with files. Documents. Photos. Videos. Twenty years of Marcus Wolfe's crimes displayed for everyone to see.
"I just sent all of this to every news organization in the world," Aria Chen said. "Along with GPS coordinates of every secret facility, every hidden lab, every place you've kept women and children prisoner. The FBI will be here in four minutes. Interpol in six. You're done."
Marcus's face turned purple with rage. He lunged for her.
Damien moved faster. He hit his father. Actually punched him. Marcus went down hard.
"You destroyed my mother," Damien said quietly. "You destroyed these women. You destroyed me." He looked at me. At all of us. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know. But that's not an excuse. I should have questioned. Should have seen."
"Save the apology," Jessica said. "We need to move. Even with evidence out, Marcus has people who'll try to clean this up."
We ran. All of us. Six Arias, one Jessica, twelve children, Vincent, and Damien.
Through the penthouse. Into the service elevator. Down forty floors while Marcus's screams echoed above us.
We burst out onto the street just as FBI vehicles screeched up.
Agents poured out. Started surrounding the building.
I collapsed on the sidewalk, shaking. Aria Chen sat beside me. Then the others. Six versions of the same person, holding hands while our world burned.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"Now," Jessica said, "we figure out who we really are. Without them telling us."
A little girl with golden eyes—one of Damien's daughters—tugged my sleeve.
"Are you my mommy?" she asked. "Or my aunt? Or my sister? I'm confused."
I started laughing. Then crying. Then both.
"Me too, sweetheart," I said. "Me too."
Damien knelt beside us. "I'll take care of them. All of them. Every child, every woman Marcus hurt. I'll spend the rest of my life making this right."
"You can't fix this," Aria Chen said.
"I know." His voice broke. "But I have to try."
An agent approached. "We need statements from all of you. This is the biggest human trafficking case in—"
His phone rang. He answered, listened, then his face went white.
"That's impossible," he said into the phone. He looked at us. "Marcus Wolfe is gone. Just vanished. Building cameras show nothing. It's like he evaporated."
My blood froze.
A text came through on my phone. Unknown number.
This isn't over. I have backups of backups. More facilities. More women. More children. You saved twelve kids? I have sixty more. You exposed one program? I have three others. Try to find them, little carrier. Try to stop me. But remember—I made you. I own you. And I'm coming to take back what's mine. All of you. -M
The phone slipped from my hands.
Marcus was gone. Disappeared into nothing.
And somewhere out there, sixty more children waited in facilities we didn't know existed.
We'd won the battle.
But the war had just begun.