Chapter 9 - The Sister Outside the Window
Brandon allowed Sophie to look at the photograph but would not let her touch the phone.
The resemblance was undeniable.
The woman had Sophie’s eyes, her chin, and the same small curve at the corner of her mouth.
Yet there was something colder in her expression.
“Where is she?” Sophie asked.
“Safe.”
“With Dr. Leonard Vale?” Thomas said.
Brandon’s smile faded.
Vanessa moved closer to her husband.
Elaine noticed the movement.
“Your brother is involved,” Elaine said to Vanessa.
Vanessa lifted her chin. “Leonard provided appropriate medical care.”
“He forged records to declare me incompetent.”
“You were found wandering with a woman accused of stealing millions.”
“I was found in a motel after my son sent an intruder into my home.”
One of the security officers looked toward Brandon.
Brandon spoke sharply. “She is confused.”
Elaine faced the officer.
“My son claims I cannot make decisions because my eyesight is failing. Ask yourself why he canceled the procedure that would save it.”
The officer’s expression shifted.
Vanessa interrupted.
“This is not a courtroom.”
“No,” Thomas said. “Which is why your court order does not authorize private security to detain anyone here.”
He held out his phone.
“I have already contacted the police and provided evidence that the guardianship records were fraudulent.”
Brandon glanced toward the corridor.
Sirens were faintly audible outside.
“You think the police are coming for me?” he asked. “They are coming for Sophie.”
Sophie stared at him.
“What did you do?”
“I did nothing. Sarah did.”
He played a video on his phone.
The recording showed a woman who looked exactly like Sophie entering Elaine’s home through the broken kitchen door. The timestamp placed her there nearly an hour before the attack.
In the video, she carried a bag into the basement and removed documents.
Then she looked directly at the security camera.
Her face was Sophie’s face.
Elaine shook her head.
“That is not Sophie.”
“Can you prove it?” Brandon asked.
“I was with Elaine at the time shown,” Sophie said.
“In a motel without registered names or working cameras.”
Thomas studied the video.
“Where did you get this?”
“The cloud security account.”
“An account controlled by you.”
Brandon put the phone away.
“The police will decide.”
Elaine remembered Richard’s letter.
Do not trust the police record.
The sound of sirens grew louder.
Thomas turned to the second key from the cradle.
“We need to find what this opens.”
Brandon’s eyes fixed on it.
He lunged forward.
Thomas moved aside, but one of the security officers grabbed his arm.
Sophie pulled Elaine toward the rear exit.
Vanessa blocked them.
During the struggle, the old music box fell and shattered.
A small strip of film slid from its base.
Elaine snatched it from the floor.
Brandon saw her.
“Give me that.”
Elaine ran.
She and Sophie entered the service tunnel as police flooded the upper corridor.
Thomas followed moments later.
They emerged in the neighboring garage and escaped in his car.
No one spoke until they crossed the river.
Elaine held the film strip near the window.
It contained tiny images of handwritten pages.
“Microfilm,” Thomas said. “Richard used it for sensitive records.”
“Can we read it?”
“At my office, but Brandon knows that location.”
Sophie stared at the photograph of the twins.
“Why would Sarah help Brandon?”
“We do not know that she is helping him,” Elaine said.
“She entered your house.”
“She may have left the recorder.”
Thomas nodded. “The timestamp on Brandon’s video could be altered.”
Sophie touched Sarah’s photograph.
“If she is alive, why didn’t she contact me?”
“Perhaps she believed you were dead,” Elaine said.
“Or perhaps she hates me.”
They drove to an archive facility owned by Thomas’s former law partner.
A technician enlarged the microfilm images.
The first pages contained medical notes from Sophie and Sarah’s birth.
The twins had been delivered at the Hawthorne suite.
One infant, Sophie, was healthy.
The second, Sarah, showed signs of a rare blood disorder and was transferred secretly to a private clinic.
The mother’s name was listed as Margaret Hale.
The final page contained a handwritten declaration signed by Richard.
I witnessed the birth of two female children to Margaret Hale. The biological father was present but refused to have his name entered into the public record.
Below the statement was a fingerprint and a set of initials.
L.V.
Vanessa’s brother was Leonard Vale.
But he had been only sixteen years old in 1991.
“He cannot be the father,” Elaine said.
“Those may not be his initials,” Thomas replied.
The next image showed a family tree.
At the top was a name Elaine recognized from the company’s history.
Lawrence Vale.
Vanessa and Leonard’s father.
The man who had financed Richard’s first business.
The man who died under mysterious circumstances in 1999.
Thomas leaned closer to the screen.
“Lawrence Vale was Sophie’s father.”
Sophie stared at the document.
“That makes Vanessa my half sister.”
“And Sarah’s,” Elaine said.
The technician advanced to the final image.
It contained a contract.
Lawrence Vale had transferred a controlling interest in his company to a trust for his twin daughters.
Richard was named temporary guardian of the shares.
If either twin died before turning thirty-five, her portion would pass to the surviving sister.
If both died, control would pass to Lawrence’s acknowledged heirs.
Vanessa and Leonard.
Sophie understood first.
“They need Sarah and me dead.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
He pointed to an amendment dated ten years later.
If the twins remained missing or legally unidentified at age thirty-five, their shares would pass to Richard’s lawful spouse as permanent trustee.
Elaine.
The archive room door opened behind them.
A woman stood there holding a pistol.
She had Sophie’s face.
“Move away from the screen,” she said.
Sophie whispered, “Sarah?”
The woman raised the weapon.
“My name is not Sarah.”
May you like
Then she looked directly at Elaine.
“And Sophie is not the twin you think she is.”
