Chapter 10 - The Sister at the Glass)
Catherine came to the NICU that night.
She arrived alone, wearing jeans, a black sweater, and no visible jewelry. Security detained her until the expedited DNA report arrived. It established a 99.8 percent probability that she and Claire shared the same mother.
Claire met her on opposite sides of the NICU glass.
Catherine looked at Oliver and Noah for a long time. The hardness in her face softened.
"They are beautiful," she said.
"They are ill."
"Those truths can coexist."
It was something Evelyn might have said. Claire resented the familiarity of it.
"Did you send the warning beneath my chair?"
"Yes."
"Did you schedule Mother's phone?"
"No. I did not know the archive existed until Ryan told Arthur about it."
"Did you alter Noah's blood type?"
Catherine's eyes sharpened. "I would burn Vale Crown to the ground before harming a child inside it."
"You hired Ryan."
"I hired a debt-ridden software salesman to learn whether Elias still possessed the files that killed our mother. I did not tell him to court you. I did not know he married you until your wedding photograph appeared in a background search. By then, I believed keeping him close might reveal what he wanted."
"So you watched my marriage become a trap."
"Yes."
The honesty was worse than an excuse.
Claire stepped closer to the glass. "You could have warned me."
"And told you what? That I was the premature daughter your mother was told had died? That Laura Hart stole me from a research nursery and raised me under three names? That the grandfather you adored may have signed the transfer? You would have called Elias, and Elias would have called Arthur. I trusted no one."
"You trusted Ryan."
Pain crossed Catherine's face. "For exactly six months. Then I learned what he was."
Catherine explained the past.
Evelyn had been nineteen when she became pregnant with Catherine. The father was a young medical resident who died in an accident before the birth. At thirty weeks, Evelyn went into labor at Northstar Research Hospital. Dr. Hargrove told her the baby survived only two hours. In reality, Catherine was enrolled without consent in a blood-volume trial funded by Arthur Voss and concealed through Vale Crown accounts.
Laura Hart, a lab technician, discovered the falsified death certificate. She smuggled Catherine out during a fire alarm and disappeared. For years, Evelyn believed her daughter was dead. Laura contacted her when Catherine was sixteen.
"Mother found you," Claire said.
"For three weeks. She visited in secret while gathering proof. Then her car went off the bridge. Laura believed Arthur killed her."
"Why did you not come to us?"
"Because Laura received two million dollars from an account bearing Elias's authorization. The message attached said: Take the girl and disappear, or the next coffin will not be empty."
Elias had shown Claire records of a payment for evidence. The same transaction could be interpreted as rescue or threat.
"Do you have the message?"
"The original was in the storage unit. Someone took it."
"Arthur?"
"Ryan knew the location. He could have sold it to Arthur."
Catherine placed a small recorder against the glass. "I have this instead."
The audio captured Ryan meeting Arthur two months earlier.
Ryan proposed exploiting Claire's pregnancy and the succession clause. Arthur agreed to pay after Ryan obtained medical authority over the infants. They would transfer the twins to Northstar, create a public safety incident, and use the scandal to force a rescue sale.
"That proves the financial conspiracy," Claire said. "Not the blood change."
"Arthur never performs the most dangerous acts himself. He uses Dr. Hargrove's old credentials."
"Hargrove is incapacitated."
"Now. He wasn't seventeen years ago."
"Who is controlling his accounts today?"
Catherine looked through the glass at Elias. "The same person who forged his vote. Someone with access to the board's biometric backup system."
Only three roles possessed that access: the chief executive, the chief financial officer, and the ethics chair.
Elias. Arthur. Celeste.
"Why warn me about Arthur's hand?" Claire asked.
"Because he uses an implanted authentication chip between his left thumb and forefinger. The puncture means he removed it before the meeting. He expected a search."
"Where is the chip?"
"With whoever is operating the system for him."
An alarm sounded inside the NICU.
Both women spun toward the incubators. Oliver's monitor flashed red. A nurse reached him, then called for Dr. Shah.
Claire was through the doors before anyone could stop her. Oliver's heart rate had fallen. Dr. Shah ordered medication, checked the central line, and found the infusion pump displaying a dose ten times higher than prescribed.
Nurse Alvarez disconnected it.
Oliver's heart rate recovered slowly.
"The pump is offline," Dr. Shah said. "It cannot be changed remotely."
"Then someone came into this room," Claire replied.
Security reviewed the previous hour. Only four authorized people had entered: Dr. Shah, Nurse Alvarez, Elias, and Celeste.
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The camera showed Celeste bending over Oliver's pump.
In her left hand, something glinted beneath the skin.
