Beyond Control

Chapter 32

I felt warmth for the first time. The softness of the mattress underneath my back and the gentleness of the pillow below my head. The smell of old furniture surrounding me as I sleep soundly, as if I'm home.

As if I'm home.

My eyes bounced open as soon as I recognized that smell and the comfortable atmosphere around me. The room was extremely dark, as the curtains were shut and only a bedside light in the room was switched on. And there's a woman seated right beside my bed.

I shrieked, and the first thought which came to my mind was to sit up. I tried to push myself up but a rush of pain surged down the vein in my arm, causing me to slip back onto my own bed.

"It's alright," a familiar voice spoke, and I realized that was the woman who brought me to life, "just rest."

My mother was reading a book and looking after me. I turned my gaze to meet hers, hoping to figure out what's happening but I realized I'm now safe.

"W-when did this happen?" The words rolled out of my mouth thoroughly.

She looked at me as if she didn't know a thing about what I'd been through. She put the book down and pulled herself closer to me.

I stared at the woman before me, not knowing if I should hug her for taking care of me or kill her for betraying her own daughter. My gaze traced the shape of her eyes, which reminded me of how much tears were shed to raise me. I then switched to the smile on her face, reminding me how she'd once spoken to me softly.

I let myself lay flat on the bed after I got myself to trust her a little, letting out a sigh of relief as I swept my gaze around the room.

My mother reached a hand to me and patted on my belly and said, "You're safe now," she reassured me, "It's a long story."

Her expression seemed oddly weird. Her lips were moving at a slow and graceful pace but the words were rolling off her tongue exponentially. As if her actions and her body doesn't match.

She began by telling me that she sent me to the facility to save me, which was an expected excuse.

Father did send her the letters and refused to respond till they became threats against both me and her life. All the details I once heard in the facility matched with the story here.

For years she took great care of me, and hoped to raise me till I could walk on my own road and be free of this experiment. However, she couldn't make it to the end. When an inevitable offer came to her, she knew that her late husband wouldn't let 18 years go to waste.

In the years, my mother planned and tried ways to fake my death and get me a new identity, but it didn't work. She found out that father hired spies to check up on us every once in a while to ensure I am well. Father claimed that he hired many, but mother only spotted a few, which I assumed were experienced spies.

One time, my mother tried to trick my father into believing that I was kidnapped at school. But a few weeks later came a letter with a few printed pictures attached to it. Those pictures were taken in different places, elucidating how obsessed my father was with me.

Besides the pictures, there was a threat, warning my mother not to try anything stupid or they'll come take me back by conducting a real abduction.

"Why didn't you reach out to other people for help?" I asked her.

"Because no one can help me." My mother replied. I watched a tear shed from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks devastated.

She stated that authorities from all over the world knew my name well since I am one of the many hopes in this project succeeding. There were many others who were undergoing the effects of this experiment but only I am free to live in the world.