3rd person pov
The tension in the room was palpable as Amiriah's eyes fluttered open. The Spellman family collectively held their breath, years of grief and uncertainty culminating in this moment.
"Mama?" The single word, whispered with childlike vulnerability, sent tears streaming down Amara's face as she cradled her daughter.
Then, like a switch had been flipped, Amiriah's expression transformed. Confusion gave way to horror as she registered her surroundings and the faces staring down at her. She pushed away from her mother's embrace with surprising strength, scrambling backward until she hit the headboard.
"She's frightened," Lenna murmured, instinctively understanding her twin's panic. "Give her space."
But it was too late. Amiriah was already lunging from the bed, her movements uncoordinated but determined. Her hand flew to her face, discovering the absence of her mask, and her panic visibly intensified.
Xavier reached for her, trying to steady her. "Amiriah, you're safe. You're home."
She recoiled from his touch as if burned, pushing past the circle of family members to stagger toward the door. Hayden exchanged a concerned glance with Zuri and Zari.
"The sedative hasn't fully worn off," he said quietly. "She shouldn't be up yet."
They followed her cautious progress through the hallway, watching as she leaned heavily against the wall for support. Kario moved to help her, but Lenna held him back.
"Don't," she warned. "She doesn't want to be touched."
Amara couldn't restrain herself. "Riri, please," she pleaded, tears flowing freely. "You're home now. Let us help you."
But Amiriah continued her determined escape, ignoring their voices, her face set in a mask of desperation. "This can't be happening," she whispered repeatedly, the words barely audible.
When she reached the mansion's front doors and found them secured, the family witnessed true panic. She pounded against the wood, her bare feet shifting restlessly as she searched for another way out. Her back pressed against the doors as she faced them, cornered and terrified.
"I can't do this right now," she begged, her voice breaking. "I'm not ready for this. Please, let me out of here."
Xavier stepped forward, maintaining what he hoped was a non-threatening distance. "It's safer if you're here with us, with your family."
The family watched, helpless, as Amiriah shook her head violently, rejecting his words.
Hayden tried a more direct approach. "Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come back home to your family?"
Her eyes darted around the room like a trapped animal's before landing on Lenna. Something in her expression shifted—a flicker of recognition, perhaps even longing, quickly overshadowed by fear.
"Miri," Lenna said softly, taking a step toward her twin.
Amiriah backed away, not realizing Amara had circled behind her until her mother's arms encircled her. The reaction was instantaneous and devastating.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Amiriah screamed, wrenching away with such violence that Amara stumbled backward, shock and hurt written across her face.
Xavier and Hayden moved forward protectively, but Lenna intervened, placing herself between them and her twin. "She's terrified," Lenna insisted. "Can't you see that?"
As Xavier tried once more to reach his daughter with words of reassurance, something broke inside Amiriah. Her anguished cries filled the grand foyer, words spilling out in a torrent of accusation and pain.
The revelation about the hospital hit each family member differently. Amara sank to her knees, hands covering her mouth as sobs wracked her body. Xavier stood frozen, the color draining from his face as the implications of Amiriah's words sank in. Hayden's clinical detachment crumbled, replaced by raw horror. Zuri and Zari clutched each other's hands so tightly their knuckles turned white. Kario looked bewildered and sick.
But it was Lenna who saw beyond the words to the deeper truth. As her twin spoke of the hospital, Lenna read the subtle language of her body—the way Amiriah's hands unconsciously protected her torso, the slight flinch when she mentioned the staff, the way her eyes couldn't focus on any single point as if seeing horrors projected in the air around her. Most telling was the gagging, the physical rejection of memories too vile to articulate.
"Sexual abuse," Lenna whispered, so quietly that only Zuri beside her heard. "They violated her."
The realization struck her with physical force, making her stagger slightly. While she had been sheltered here, protected by their family's wealth and power, her twin—her other half—had been subjected to unspeakable horrors.
When Amiriah ran back to the doors, vomiting from the stress and trauma of the confrontation, Lenna didn't hesitate.
"Dad, open the door!" she demanded, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Look at her! She's going to pass out from all of this!"
Xavier hesitated, torn between his instinct to protect his daughter by keeping her close and the evident truth that their presence was causing her harm.
"Let her go," Lenna insisted, her eyes blazing. "If we force her to stay, we're no better than the people who hurt her."
With reluctance, Xavier disabled his magical barrier. The doors swung open, revealing the night beyond.
Amiriah didn't hesitate. She bolted through the opening, barefoot, her slender figure quickly swallowed by darkness.
"Amiriah!" Amara cried, starting after her.
The family spilled out onto the front steps, calling her name. Xavier and Hayden sprinted down the drive, following the sound of her footsteps on the gravel. Kario ran in another direction, hoping to cut her off before she reached the gate. Zuri and Zari spread out across the grounds, their twin connection allowing them to move in perfect coordination even in the Shadows.
But it was as if she had vanished into thin air. One moment her fleeing form was visible in the distance; the next, she was gone, swallowed by shadows that seemed darker than the night itself.
They searched for hours, combing the extensive grounds of the estate, calling her name until their voices grew hoarse. Security personnel were deployed, the gates locked down, but there was no trace of Amiriah.
When they finally returned to the mansion, defeated and shell-shocked, they found Lenna in Xavier's study, surrounded by holographic screens displaying hospital records and security protocols.
"What are you doing?" Hayden asked, his voice hollow with exhaustion.
"Finding answers," Lenna replied without looking up. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, breaking through firewall after firewall. "I need to know what happened to her at GreyStone Psychiatric Hospital."
"The hospital was destroyed in the fire," Xavier reminded her. "All records were lost."
Lenna's eyes flashed with determination. "No record is ever truly gone. Not in the digital age."
But as dawn approached, even Lenna's exceptional hacking skills had reached a dead end. Someone had deliberately wiped all traces of Amiriah's stay at the hospital —not just from the hospital's backup servers, but from every related database. Medical insurance records, staff employment histories, even the security company that had provided guards—all had suspicious gaps or corrupted files precisely where Amiriah's information should have been.
"Someone went to extraordinary lengths to erase what happened there," Lenna said, leaning back in exhaustion. "This isn't standard procedure. This is a cover-up."
The family exchanged troubled glances. If Amiriah's accusations were true—if she had been abused at the facility they had chosen for her treatment—they were complicit in her suffering.
"We need to find her," Amara said, her voice steady despite her reddened eyes. "Not to bring her back by force, but to tell her we believe her. That we'll help her get justice."
"She mentioned someone," Kario said suddenly. "When she was at the door. She said she needed 'her treasure.' Said she needed her 'light.'"
Lenna's head snapped up. "Who would that be? A friend? A partner?"
"Whoever it is," Xavier said, his face lined with grief and determination, "they're important to her. And if we find them, we might find Amiriah."
As morning light filtered through the windows, the Spellman family faced a painful truth: the daughter they had found was more broken, more changed, than they could have imagined. And the path to healing the wounds of the past would be longer and more difficult than any of them had prepared for.
Lenna stared at the corrupted files on her screen, a cold resolve settling in her heart. Someone had hurt her twin—had hurt Miri—and gone to great lengths to hide the evidence. She would find them. And when she did, she would make them pay.
"I'm coming, Miri," she whispered, her fingers returning to the keyboard with renewed purpose. "Wherever you are, whatever happened to you... I'm going to make it right."