Chapter 10 - THE SISTER WHO HAD BEEN WATCHING FROM A WINDOW
Nora refused to leave Blackridge until she saw Elena.
Federal agents transported Elena under heavy security.
The rehabilitation campus sat among winter trees forty miles from the nearest major city.
From the road it looked abandoned.
Inside, it was immaculate.
Medical rooms.
Therapy centers.
Dormitories.
Private laboratories.
And locks everywhere.
Nora waited in a small sunroom.
Elena stopped in the doorway.
It was like looking into a distorted mirror.
Same red hair.
Same green eyes.
Same narrow chin.
But Nora was thinner, paler, and carried a scar from her temple to her jaw.
For several seconds neither woman moved.
Then Nora smiled.
"You took longer than I expected."
Elena's throat tightened.
"You know me."
"I've known about you for twelve years."
"How?"
Nora glanced toward the agent.
"I'll speak alone."
Hale refused.
Nora shrugged.
"Then you get half the truth."
Elena said, "Marcus, stand outside the glass."
Hale reluctantly agreed.
Elena sat opposite Nora.
She did not know whether to cry, embrace her, interrogate her or run away.
Nora solved the problem.
"Don't hug me yet."
Elena almost laughed from shock.
"Why?"
"Because you don't know what I am."
"You're my sister."
"Biologically."
"What does that mean?"
Nora leaned back.
"They didn't hide me because I was sick."
Elena waited.
"They kept me because our father made a deal."
"My father?"
Nora nodded.
"Thomas Mercer wasn't only an accountant."
Elena felt the room shift beneath her.
Her father had died six years earlier.
A quiet man.
Meticulous.
Gentle.
He had taught Elena how to balance a checkbook at nine years old.
"What deal?"
"He audited Charles Vance."
Elena stared.
Nora continued.
"He found Vesper."
"Why didn't he expose it?"
"Because they had me."
Elena's eyes filled.
Nora's expression softened slightly.
"Our mother gave birth to twins. Vesper staff told them I died. But our father discovered the transfer seven years later."
"What did he do?"
"He tried to get me back."
"Why didn't he?"
"Charles offered him a bargain. Stay silent, remain close to the Vance financial network, and I would be kept alive and treated well."
Elena's hands shook.
"He agreed?"
"For a while."
Elena felt betrayed by a dead man.
Then Nora continued.
"Eventually he began collecting evidence."
"Where?"
Nora smiled faintly.
"In you."
Elena frowned.
"My father used me?"
"He trained you."
Memories rushed back.
Her father teaching her to notice altered receipts.
To never trust reconciled numbers without checking source documents.
To ask who benefits when a record disappears.
He had shaped her entire career.
Nora whispered, "He knew Charles had noticed you. He knew the Vances might bring you close."
Elena felt sick.
"Was my marriage arranged?"
"No. Julian really met you accidentally."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Nora hesitated.
"Because I was there."
Elena stared.
Nora looked toward the window.
"Not physically. I watched the security footage."
"Why?"
"Vesper ordered me to monitor you."
Elena stood.
"So Serena wasn't the first person assigned to my family."
Nora's eyes darkened.
"No."
"Who were you working for?"
"I wasn't working for them."
"What would you call it?"
"Surviving."
Elena walked away from the table.
Then she noticed the scar along Nora's temple.
"What did they do to you?"
Nora looked down.
"For years they studied obedience."
Elena's anger replaced everything else.
"Who?"
"Doctors. psychologists. people funded by families who wanted inconvenient relatives controlled."
Elena sat again.
"Daniel?"
Nora's expression changed.
"You haven't found him?"
"No."
Nora stood abruptly.
"Then we're already too late."
"Why?"
"Because Daniel wasn't a patient at Blackridge."
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"Where is he?"
Nora whispered, "He was running it."
