Chapter 14 - THE TWO DAUGHTERS
No one spoke.
Ashley approached the microfilm viewer as if drawn toward it against her will.
“Show me again.”
Daniel reversed the frame.
SUBJECT E TRANSFERRED TO THOMAS CARTER.
SUBJECT A RETAINED BY MARIANNE LAURENT.
Ashley’s hand covered her mouth.
Emily looked at Thomas.
“Does this mean Ashley and I were switched?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
Ashley laughed weakly.
“Of course you don’t. No one ever knows until the secret becomes useful.”
Daniel examined the remaining frames.
Most were damaged, intentionally scratched or burned.
One showed Edmund Blackwood signing a guardianship document.
Another showed Martin beside Laura in a hospital corridor.
The final intact frame displayed two infant bracelets.
One was labeled EMILY.
The other was labeled ANNA.
Ashley touched the screen.
“My name was Anna?”
Thomas leaned closer.
“Marianne may have changed it.”
Emily felt the pieces shifting again.
“If Subject E was taken to Thomas, that could be me.”
“And Subject A went with my mother,” Ashley said. “That could be me.”
Daniel shook his head.
“The initials may not indicate names.”
“Then what do they indicate?” Ashley demanded.
No one knew.
The door opened.
A police detective entered.
“Mr. Blackwood, we need to discuss your father.”
Daniel stood.
“What happened?”
“Richard Blackwood is gone.”
“That is impossible. He was under guard.”
“The officers transporting him were intercepted.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know.”
Emily thought of the broken storage drive.
“He had help.”
The detective nodded.
“A vehicle was waiting near the south gate. The driver used a diplomatic registration.”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Which country?”
“The plates were forged.”
The detective placed a clear evidence bag on the desk.
Inside was the copied silver locket Ashley had worn.
“This was found inside the transport vehicle.”
Ashley stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
“There was a message inside the casing.”
The detective handed Daniel a photograph of a narrow paper strip.
MARIANNE LIVES.
Ashley gripped the edge of the table.
“Where?”
“No location was included.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“Richard wants Ashley to follow him.”
“Or someone wants us to believe Richard wrote it,” Daniel said.
The detective continued.
“There is something else. We recovered a partial fingerprint from the locket’s interior.”
Ashley’s voice trembled.
“Whose?”
“It matches a woman detained at Heathrow Airport four months ago under a false identity.”
“Was her name Marianne?”
“No. She called herself Laura Carter.”
Thomas stood so abruptly that the chair fell backward.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?” Emily asked.
Thomas’s face had lost all color.
“Because Laura Carter was buried twenty-four years ago.”
Daniel looked at the detective.
“Do you have a photograph of the detained woman?”
The detective placed another image on the desk.
It showed an older woman with silver-streaked dark hair, guarded eyes, and a scar along her jaw.
Thomas touched the photograph.
“That is Laura.”
Emily could not breathe.
“My mother is alive?”
Thomas shook his head.
“She looks like Laura. But Laura would be older.”
“She is the right age,” the detective said.
“No,” Thomas whispered. “You don’t understand.”
Emily stared at him.
“What don’t we understand?”
Thomas looked at Ashley, then at Emily.
“Laura had an identical twin sister.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
“Elizabeth.”
Ashley stepped closer.
“Was Elizabeth a Blackwood too?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Thomas looked at the photograph.
“She was declared dead before either of you were born.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
“Declared dead?”
“The Blackwoods said she drowned.”
Daniel looked toward the family portrait above the fireplace.
“There is no Elizabeth in any family history.”
“That was the point.”
The detective’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and looked toward Emily.
“We just received confirmation from Heathrow.”
“About the woman?”
“Yes. She was released after someone from the Blackwood legal office verified her identity.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Who authorized it?”
The detective lowered the phone.
“You did.”
Daniel stared at him.
“I did no such thing.”
“The authorization used your biometric signature.”
Emily remembered the forged messages, the altered flight records, and the mansion’s copied access codes.
Someone had been imitating Daniel at the highest level.
Ashley looked at the photograph again.
“Where did the woman go after Heathrow?”
The detective hesitated.
“She boarded a flight to Geneva.”
Daniel and Emily exchanged a look.
The bank vault.
The second locket.
The hidden trust.
Everything pointed back to Switzerland.
Then Emily noticed something in the photograph.
The woman held a newspaper beneath one arm.
Only part of the front page was visible, but a handwritten message had been marked across the margin.
Emily enlarged the image on Daniel’s computer.
Four words became clear.
May you like
EMILY IS NOT SUBJECT E.
Ashley whispered, “Then who is?”
