The conference room felt more like a stage.
Rows of cameras, lights, and microphones turned the space into a theater of public reckoning. Adelina stood behind the podium, Nathan to her right. Her heart pounded in her chest—not from fear, but from the unbearable pressure of being seen.
Really seen.
The truth was out. The documents had gone viral.
Detailed logs of experiments, test schedules, footage of stasis tanks, cognitive reports that read more like autopsies than assessments. Her name was in nearly every file.
Subject A. A.EXT.0. Arielle's twin. Adeline's host. The girl they couldn't kill, so they rewrote her.
Nathan adjusted his earpiece and leaned toward the mic. "We understand the gravity of what's been revealed. The decisions made in the past do not reflect the values we hold now. We are here not to defend those actions, but to account for them."
Then he stepped aside.
All eyes turned to Adelina.
She inhaled, exhaled, and stepped forward.
"I'm not here to speak for Blackstone," she began. "I'm here to speak for myself."
A hush settled over the room.
"I am Adelina Blackstone. But I am also more than that. I was created, rewritten, silenced. But I survived."
She paused.
"What they did to me was not humane. It was not ethical. It was not consented. But I will not let it define me."
A few murmurs. A few cameras shifted.
"I am not a prototype. I am not a glitch. I am a person. And I refuse to be hidden anymore."
Her voice wavered, but didn't break.
Nathan stepped beside her, and for a moment, his hand brushed hers.
"You will have questions," he said to the press. "And we will answer them—fully, transparently, and without spin."
The room exploded with noise. Reporters shouting names, titles, questions.
But Adelina had already said what she came to say.
Later, back in the executive wing, Sebastian slammed the door behind him.
"You've lost your mind," he growled at Nathan. "You just handed the wolves everything they wanted."
"She needed to speak," Nathan replied calmly.
"She needed protection, not a spotlight!"
"She is the story now. Keeping her in the shadows only reinforces the narrative Elena created."
Adelina stood by the window, watching the crowd of reporters being pushed back by security below. "He's not wrong," she said quietly.
Sebastian turned toward her. "You think they'll see a victim? They'll see a liability. A walking lawsuit. An unstable experiment with too many variables."
Adelina met his gaze. "Then maybe you should've thought of that before making me one."
That silenced him.
He left without another word.
Over the next two days, the world spun faster.
Every news outlet had her name. Every talk show had theories. Some called her brave. Others called her dangerous. There were hashtags, memes, trending topics that twisted her story into whatever shape the audience wanted.
Inside the Blackstone tower, the atmosphere cracked.
Meetings turned into arguments. Half-truths and backroom alliances surfaced. The board was splintering. There was talk of resignations. Mergers. Escape plans.
And someone was still leaking information to Elena.
Nathan paced in the vault's reconstruction wing, going over logs, timestamps, access points. "It's someone on the inside," he muttered. "High-level. Trusted. Probably family."
Adelina sat on a bench, arms crossed, watching him.
"It could be Sebastian," she said.
"He wouldn't risk losing the company."
"Elise?"
"She hates chaos too much."
"Then who?"
Nathan's jaw tensed.
"We'll find out."
But the weight of suspicion was heavy. Every hallway felt colder. Every glance sharper. The family had turned into a chessboard. And no one trusted the king anymore.
That night, Adelina sat alone in her suite, the city lights beyond her windows reflecting a world she no longer felt part of.
She opened her tablet. Hundreds of unread messages. Interviews requests. Threats. Apologies. Curiosity.
Then one message blinked to the top.
No name. No subject. Just a single line.
Ask him about the experiment. — E
Her breath caught.
Not an experiment.
The experiment.
She stared at the screen for a long time.
Was it another manipulation? Another breadcrumb to make her doubt Nathan? Or had he still been holding back?
She knew she'd have to ask. But what if she didn't want the answer?
Behind her, the lights of the city flickered. Somewhere out there, Elena was watching. Waiting.
And Adelina wasn't sure whose truth she feared more.