Chapter 4 - The Mother Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Claire moved Emily to a secure room beneath the mansion.
Ethan had no idea the room existed.
He had lived above it for six years.
Emily sat on a metal chair, wrapped in a blanket, her face pale.
"Was that person trying to kill me?" she whispered.
Claire examined the bullet she had removed from the office wall.
"No."
"How can you know?"
"The shooter missed deliberately."
Emily stared at her.
"You talk as if this happens all the time."
"It happens often enough."
Claire placed the bullet under a portable scanner. A symbol appeared on its base.
A circle divided by a vertical line.
It was not the Phoenix emblem.
But Claire had seen it before.
On one of the architectural drawings in Ethan's safe.
She turned to Emily.
"How long have you been sleeping with my husband?"
Emily looked away.
"Almost two years."
"Who introduced you?"
"No one."
Claire waited.
Emily's shoulders fell.
"A man approached me at a charity event. He said Ethan was unhappy. He knew things about our friendship."
"What man?"
"He called himself Mr. Gray."
Adrian Vale had worn a gray suit at Dock 17.
"What did he ask you to do?"
"Get close to Ethan. Encourage him to move money. Convince him that you were hiding assets."
"And in return?"
"He promised me five million dollars."
Claire studied her former friend.
"You betrayed me for money."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"I was drowning in debt."
"You could have asked me for help."
"I was ashamed."
"No. You were greedy."
Emily lowered her head.
Claire continued.
"What red file was Ethan searching for?"
"He believes it contains proof that Phoenix murdered your father."
"Who told him that?"
"Mr. Gray."
Claire walked toward the door.
Emily stood abruptly.
"Where are you going?"
"To find a dead woman."
...
The only surviving record connected to Claire's mother was a private clinic in Vermont that had closed twenty-two years earlier.
Claire flew there under a false identity.
The building had become a rehabilitation center. Most of its original archives had been destroyed in a flood.
But one retired nurse was still alive.
Her name was Helen Ward.
She lived alone in a small farmhouse outside town.
When Claire knocked, the door opened before she touched it a second time.
Helen was nearly eighty, with white hair and sharp blue eyes.
"You have Gabriel's face," she said.
Claire froze.
"You knew my father?"
"I knew both of them."
"Both of whom?"
"Your fathers."
Helen stepped aside.
Inside, the house smelled of tea and old paper. Photographs covered the walls, but all the faces had been cut out.
Helen poured two cups.
Claire remained standing.
"My mother died when I was eight."
"No."
"You replaced her."
Helen's hands stopped.
"Who told you that?"
"I found records."
"Then you have found only the version they wanted you to find."
Claire placed the damaged page from Dock 17 on the table.
Helen read the surviving sentence.
Her face lost its color.
"They kept the file."
"Tell me the truth."
Helen walked to the fireplace. Behind a loose brick, she removed a small metal box.
Inside was a photograph.
Two baby girls lay side by side in a hospital crib.
They looked identical.
On the back, someone had written:
CLAIRE AND CASSANDRA
Only one authorized for survival.
Claire stared at the image.
"I had a sister."
Helen shook her head.
"You still do."
The front windows exploded.
Claire tackled Helen to the floor as bullets tore through the room.
A vehicle roared outside.
Three armed men approached the house.
Claire fired through the broken window and forced them behind a stone wall.
Helen grabbed Claire's sleeve.
"There's a tunnel beneath the pantry."
They crawled through a hidden hatch and entered a narrow underground passage.
Behind them, the house caught fire.
At the far end of the tunnel, Helen stopped.
"I need to tell you something before they find us."
"Keep moving."
"No. You need to hear it."
Helen pressed the photograph into Claire's hand.
"Your sister was not the child selected to die."
Claire looked at her.
Helen's voice broke.
"You were."
A gunshot echoed through the tunnel.
Helen collapsed.
Claire caught her before she hit the ground.
At the tunnel entrance stood a woman wearing a black coat.
She held a smoking pistol.
May you like
Her face was almost identical to Claire's.
"Hello, sister," the woman said.
