Chapter 8 - Only One Twin
They escaped Saint Orison with thirty seconds remaining.
Arthur did not.
As Marcus led him through the stairwell, a blast door dropped between them. Arthur was sealed inside the maternity wing. Through the small reinforced window, he shouted that the chemical system was still active.
Brooke reached for the controls, but Eleanor stopped her.
"Is there another exit?"
Arthur's eyes answered before his mouth did.
He knew one.
Marcus searched him and found a steel key sewn inside his belt. It opened a maintenance hatch behind the nurses' station. Arthur crawled through first, handcuffed, while the others followed into a ventilation shaft. The chemical flooded the ward behind them, turning the air pale green.
They emerged near the river.
Julian was gone.
So was the flash drive.
Sienna stood in the rain, staring at the empty place where his car had been. "He used us."
Arthur laughed weakly. "Julian uses everyone."
Marcus pushed him into the back of an unmarked vehicle. "You can explain that at the station."
"There is no station left for you, Detective. You are a fugitive."
Marcus checked his phone. The warrants against them had disappeared from the system.
A new alert had replaced them.
Arthur Vance wanted for fraud, kidnapping, attempted murder, and conspiracy.
Someone had released evidence while they were inside the hospital.
Eleanor looked at Brooke. "Did Julian do this?"
Brooke shook her head. "Julian never releases leverage unless it buys him something larger."
Sienna's phone rang.
It was her father.
She answered with shaking hands.
Richard's voice was weak but alive. He had survived the shooting at the chapel and been taken to a private clinic by a loyal driver. He told them to come immediately.
The clinic occupied the top floor of a discreet medical building downtown. Richard lay beneath white sheets with two armed guards outside his room. When Brooke entered, his eyes filled with relief.
"I thought I had lost you again."
"You lost me the first time you made a bargain with Arthur."
Richard accepted the accusation.
Eleanor placed the hospital photograph on his bed.
"Only one twin is mine. Explain."
Richard studied Helena's handwriting.
"Helena gave birth to one daughter at Saint Orison. The second infant arrived the same night under protection. The records were merged during the fire."
"Which infant was hers?"
"I do not know."
Brooke said, "You knew enough to hide the original certificate in the hospital."
Richard looked at her. "That was Helena's instruction."
Sienna stepped closer. "You said Helena died."
"She did."
"Then who sent the black box?"
Richard's gaze moved toward the door.
One of the guards entered carrying a delivery.
A black box.
Everyone froze.
The guard placed it on the table. "It was left at reception."
No sender. No courier footage.
Eleanor opened it.
Inside were five passports, each bearing Helena Vale's photograph under different names. The most recent had been issued two years after her funeral.
Beneath them lay a key card and a handwritten invitation.
Family dinner. Midnight. Bellamy Tower.
Brooke whispered, "She is alive."
Richard shook his head. "No."
"You just saw the passports."
"I saw passports. Helena was better at creating identities than anyone I knew."
Eleanor examined the most recent photograph. The woman looked older, but a scar near her eyebrow matched.
Arthur, handcuffed to a chair in the corner, began to laugh.
"You still think this is about whether your mother survived."
Eleanor turned to him.
He leaned forward.
"Helena Vale was not her real name."
Brooke's voice was cold. "What was it?"
Arthur looked at Richard.
"Tell them."
Richard closed his eyes.
Arthur answered for him.
"Helena Bellamy."
Sienna stared at her father.
Richard opened his eyes again, filled with shame.
"She was my sister."
The room seemed to tilt.
Eleanor looked from Richard to Sienna, seeing the shape of the deception.
If Helena was Richard's sister, then Eleanor and Brooke were not strangers to the Bellamy family.
They were heirs.
A phone inside the black box began to ring.
Eleanor answered.
A woman's voice said, "Bring both daughters."
May you like
The line clicked.
Then the voice added, "And leave Arthur alive. He is the only one who knows which twin belongs to me."
