Chapter 8 - THE FILE CREATED BEFORE SHE MARRIED HIM
Elena stared at her own name.
The record creation date was fourteen years old.
Two years before she married Julian.
Grace immediately ordered Thomas to photograph the screen.
"Do not click anything yet."
Elena barely heard her.
STATUS PENDING.
Her own family had no connection to the Vances before she joined their company.
At least none she knew about.
"Why would I be here?"
Grace looked at the metadata.
"There's a code."
ELV-27.
Thomas searched the directory.
"Twenty-seven might refer to a source file."
They found it.
CASE ELV-27.
Authorization required.
The biometric reader illuminated.
Elena placed her finger on it.
The file opened.
The first page contained a photograph.
Elena at twenty years old.
Leaving Columbia University.
Another photograph.
Elena at twenty-three.
Entering her first accounting firm.
Another.
Elena with her father.
Another with her mother.
Years of surveillance.
Her stomach twisted.
Grace whispered, "Jesus."
The report described her academic history.
Financial behavior.
Relationships.
Psychological traits.
It assessed her as disciplined, resistant to coercion, unusually observant and highly likely to detect irregular accounting systems.
At the bottom was a handwritten digital note attributed to Charles Vance.
Potential stabilizing witness. Do not recruit. Allow natural contact.
Elena read it three times.
"Natural contact?"
She thought about how she had met Julian.
A charity conference.
He had spilled coffee on her notebook.
He apologized.
They talked.
A month later he asked her to dinner.
Had that truly been an accident?
Her phone rang.
Julian.
Elena answered.
"Did you find it?"
She did not respond.
"Elena?"
"My file existed before I met you."
Silence.
"Did you know?"
"No."
"Careful."
"I swear."
"Your grandfather had me followed."
"I didn't know."
"He described me as a witness."
Julian breathed heavily.
"Then Charles expected this."
"Expected what?"
"Someone to expose the system."
Elena looked at the screen.
A second handwritten note appeared below the first.
If Daniel survives, she may become necessary.
Elena felt cold.
"What did your grandfather know about me?"
"I don't know."
"Why would Daniel surviving have anything to do with me?"
Julian did not answer.
"Julian."
"I don't know."
Grace pointed at another attachment.
Elena opened it.
A scanned hospital document.
Birth records.
Her own.
St. Matthew's Hospital.
Thirty-four years earlier.
There was a notation beneath her mother's name.
TWIN DELIVERY.
Elena stared.
"No."
Grace looked at her.
"You have a twin?"
"No."
The file showed two infants.
Female A.
Female B.
Female A had Elena's name.
Female B had no name.
Disposition: Vesper neonatal transfer.
Elena's knees nearly failed.
"My mother told me I was an only child."
Thomas whispered, "Maybe she didn't know."
Elena remembered the Continuity families.
The hidden children.
The false deaths.
The erased people.
She looked at the status beside the unnamed infant.
ACTIVE.
May you like
Somewhere in the world, Elena Vance had a sister.
And Vesper had been hiding her for thirty-four years.
