The buzz stops there, midsentence. I read it again, to be sure I’m not imagining things.

Take what? Take her? Two men? Outside her study?

My stomach drops to my feet, and I think I’m going to be sick if I don’t get out of this cramped, hot restaurant.

“Air,” I tell Ollie and my dad. “I just—need. Air.”

I bolt. When I make it outside onto the sidewalk, I suck in the cold air in gulps. It burns my chest, and I double over, panting, feeling like I can’t breathe. The Vermont chill is choking me. Suffocating me.

Two men, trying to take Jane? But who? And why? How did she write me this buzz? They must have been in her house, and she momentarily got away from them. She was in her study, she said.

But who would take her? Why would they take her?

My insides turn to icicles as it dawns on me exactly why they’d take her.

Why Gravelle would lure her back home, to California, with a made-up work emergency involving Ward, Inc.

Why he would send two men to kidnap her like he kidnapped Ollie.

There’s only one possible reason. To replace her with a Duplicate.

The Replacements

My mind races as I process this. Jane is being kidnapped as we speak. Replaced with a copy. I’m sure of it.

A voice in my head playing devil’s advocate tells me I must be wrong. Duplicates have all been copies of original kids. Like Tessa, Archer, and Jake. And Ollie.

Not adults. Not parents.

But this is Gravelle’s master plan, isn’t it? I don’t know how I didn’t realize it before. This is what he meant by the Legacy Project. Gravelle would never just replace Ollie—his plans are never that small, that simple.

No, I’m sure now that his plan, this entire year, has been to replace all the DNA parents with clones.

My heart races as I remember where I am. Standing in front of the restaurant, with my father inside. My father. It hits me all at once that if I’m right, that might not really be my father in there. It’s likely his copy.

The realization slams into me like a body blow.

“Dash,” I ask, my voice breathless. “I need your help. Ask Genevieve if my father hired interior designers to come to our house over Christmas break.”

“Certainly, Emma. Your heart rate is elevated.”

“I know!”

Seconds later, Dash reports back. “There are no such employees on record, Emmaline. Why?”

I can’t answer. My voice feels stuck in my throat. Those weren’t designers. They came to my house to replace my father. To install his Duplicate. I’m sure of it.

I buzz Maude and ask her to meet me here, with the infrared light.