Chapter 9 - THE ACCOUNT CREATED IN HER SLEEP
Elena underwent a full neurological examination that afternoon.
The results showed no evidence of memory loss, sleep disorder, drug exposure, or cognitive impairment.
Still, the dating company’s records were difficult to deny.
The profile using Elena’s photograph had been created from her home internet connection six months earlier.
The account registration occurred at 3:12 in the morning.
Security footage from inside the house showed Elena leaving her bedroom at 3:07.
She entered her study.
She remained there for nineteen minutes.
Then she returned to bed.
Elena remembered none of it.
Noah stood behind Detective Sloane as they reviewed the video.
“You were asleep beside me,” Elena said.
“I woke when you returned. You said you had needed water.”
“Why did you never mention it?”
“You often worked late. It did not seem unusual.”
“The account was created in my study.”
“I did not know that then.”
Sloane enlarged the footage.
Elena’s movements appeared deliberate. She did not stumble or behave as though she were sleepwalking.
At 3:23, she looked directly toward the hallway camera.
She smiled.
Elena watched the image repeatedly.
“That is not me.”
“It came from inside a locked house,” Sloane said.
“My sister knew the security code.”
“Your biometric system recorded your face.”
“She has my face.”
“The logs show the study was opened using your fingerprint.”
Noah leaned closer to the screen.
“Look at her left hand.”
The woman in the footage kept it near her side.
Elena paused the video.
A faint pale line crossed the wrist.
Elena did not have that scar.
Eleanor had entered the house while Elena and Noah slept.
She had used a copied fingerprint to unlock the study.
The realization made the house feel contaminated.
“How did she enter the bedroom corridor without being seen?” Camille asked.
Sloane reviewed the earlier recording.
At 2:58, the hallway camera froze for eleven seconds.
When the feed resumed, no one appeared.
“She came through the archive passage,” Elena said.
Celeste had built more than one entrance.
The dating company sent additional records.
The account had contacted seventeen men.
Each man had a connection to Bellweather, MirrorID, Northstar Health, or Celeste’s estate.
Most ignored the messages.
Three responded.
One was Noah.
The second was Victor Hale.
The third was a retired federal judge named Samuel Vane.
Judge Vane had signed the protective order removing Eleanor from the hospital.
Elena read the conversation between Eleanor’s profile and the judge.
ELEANOR: DO YOU REMEMBER WHICH CHILD YOU TOOK?
VANE: THIS ACCOUNT IS NOT SECURE.
ELEANOR: YOU TOLD CELESTE SHE WOULD SEE ME AGAIN.
VANE: CELESTE CHANGED THE AGREEMENT.
ELEANOR: WHICH OF US DID SHE KEEP?
VANE: THE ONE SHE FEARED.
The conversation ended after the judge agreed to meet at Bellweather Hotel.
He never arrived.
Judge Vane had died in a house fire the following evening.
Sloane looked through the case report.
“The fire was ruled accidental.”
Elena pointed to the message.
“He was killed because he knew which daughter stayed.”
“Possibly.”
Camille read the profile’s messages to Noah.
They were different.
ELEANOR: YOUR WIFE IS DEAD.
NOAH: WHO IS THIS?
ELEANOR: THE WOMAN SHE REPLACED.
NOAH: JULIETTE?
ELEANOR: FIND ANOTHER WIFE. MAKE HER BELIEVE THE HOUSE IS EMPTY.
NOAH: WHY?
ELEANOR: BECAUSE ELENA WILL ONLY SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH AFTER SHE BELIEVES YOU HAVE BETRAYED HER.
Elena looked at Noah.
“You followed the instructions.”
“I thought Juliette was behind the account.”
“You still followed them.”
“I needed the profile to reveal itself.”
“And if I had not come home?”
Noah’s voice became quiet.
“I was supposed to place your passport inside the jewelry box and leave the house with Camille.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know.”
Camille turned on him.
“You told me we were going to sign the sale documents.”
“I was told to make you sign as a witness.”
“The divorce decree?”
“Yes.”
Elena examined the unsigned papers.
They were not ordinary divorce documents.
Hidden within the language was a transfer of marital property, digital identity rights, and authority over Mercer Estate Holdings.
If Camille had signed as a witness, the transaction might have appeared legitimate.
If a second woman wearing Elena’s face had then presented the papers, Noah could have claimed his real wife was dead or mentally unstable.
Camille looked sick.
“I almost helped them erase you.”
“You did not know,” Elena said.
Noah looked at her.
“I knew enough.”
Elena agreed.
That was the difference between Camille and Noah.
Camille had been deceived from the beginning.
Noah had repeatedly reached the edge of the truth and chosen secrecy.
Olivia entered carrying a sealed envelope.
“This was delivered by courier.”
There was no return address.
Inside was an old photograph of Celeste with two teenage girls.
The girls appeared identical, but one had blonde hair.
On the back, someone had written:
ELENA WAS RAISED.
ELEANOR WAS TRAINED.
ECHO WAS CHOSEN.
Beneath the photograph was a strand of blonde hair sealed inside plastic.
Camille touched her own hair.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
The envelope contained one final object.
A medical bracelet from St. Catherine’s Hospital.
The patient name read CAMILLE MERCER.
Camille stepped away from the table.
“That is not possible.”
Elena looked at her.
“When were you born?”
Camille’s lips parted.
“I was adopted.”
Noah stared at the bracelet.
Camille’s face did not resemble Elena’s, but Bellweather had never relied only on natural appearance.
They used surgery, records, and manufactured histories.
Sloane spoke carefully.
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-eight.”
The same age as Elena.
Camille shook her head.
“No. I was born in Boston.”
“Have you ever seen your original birth certificate?” Olivia asked.
“My parents showed it to me.”
“Was it issued at birth?”
Camille’s silence answered.
Elena looked at the three women in the old photograph.
One dark-haired girl.
One blonde girl.
And Celeste between them.
May you like
“What if there were not two daughters?” Elena asked.
“What if there were three profiles?”
