Chapter 11 - The Other Olivia
Daniel survived the shooting but remained unconscious.
The bullet damaged his lung. Doctors placed him under armed protection at a facility controlled by federal agents.
His final words spread through Olivia’s mind.
You had a sister.
Rebecca searched birth records.
No second daughter appeared.
Elena, weak from surgery, initially denied knowing anything. When Olivia threatened to leave the hospital and never return, the old woman finally spoke.
“Caroline gave birth to twins.”
“Why was it hidden?”
“One infant was declared stillborn.”
“Was she?”
“No.”
Olivia stood beside Elena’s bed, unable to feel the floor beneath her.
“What happened to her?”
“Roland took her.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
The consortium believed Jonathan might eventually betray them. Roland arranged for one of the twins to be removed at birth. A physician altered the records. Jonathan and Caroline believed the child died.
Elena discovered the truth three years later.
“Did my mother know?”
“Not until shortly before the false accident.”
“Is my sister alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s statement suggested one daughter survived the car.
The official crash occurred when Olivia was ten.
If another girl had been present, perhaps Roland intended to replace Olivia just as he later planned to replace Brandon.
Olivia asked, “Which daughter did Jonathan raise?”
Elena stared at her.
“You.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because I knew you.”
“That isn’t proof.”
Elena reached for her hand.
“You had a crescent-shaped birthmark behind your left knee.”
Olivia had no such mark.
Elena saw the answer in her face.
“It was removed when I was twelve,” Olivia said. “A dermatologist called it dangerous.”
“Who arranged the procedure?”
“My mother’s former physician. Victor recommended him.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Records from the procedure had vanished.
The possibility became unavoidable.
At some point before or after the false accident, the two girls might have been exchanged.
Olivia might not be the child Jonathan raised from birth.
The Zurich bank’s instruction returned to her.
Do not answer as my daughter.
Answer as Caroline’s heir.
Perhaps Jonathan suspected the uncertainty.
The bank question was not designed to verify identity through blood.
It was designed to measure truth.
Who owns the first debt?
Daniel said Roland.
Jonathan’s letter said answer honestly.
Olivia needed the full history before entering the bank.
Rebecca traced Caroline’s hidden communications to an offshore relay. One message had been sent from a small town near Lake Como, Italy.
They traveled under federal protection.
The address led to a stone villa overlooking the water.
The house appeared abandoned.
Inside, dust covered the furniture, but fresh flowers stood in one bedroom.
A wardrobe contained clothing in Olivia’s size.
A desk held newspaper clippings about Northstar and photographs of Olivia from across her life.
Graduation.
Her wedding.
Jonathan’s funeral.
The Cartier gala.
Someone had watched from a distance.
On the wall hung a photograph of two ten-year-old girls.
They looked identical.
One wore Olivia’s childhood bracelet.
The other wore a silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon.
A name was written beneath each child.
Olivia.
Claire.
David found a hidden safe.
The combined key opened it.
Inside were videotapes, passports, and a letter addressed to Jonathan.
Olivia played the newest tape.
Caroline appeared on screen.
She was older, silver threaded through her dark hair, but Olivia recognized her immediately.
“If you are watching this,” Caroline said, “Roland has forced the account toward activation.”
She explained that Claire was raised by Roland under another identity. At age ten, Caroline arranged an operation to rescue her.
The plan failed.
During the escape, a vehicle crashed in the mountains.
One girl was injured.
One vanished with Roland.
Caroline brought the injured child to Jonathan.
“She had lost parts of her memory,” Caroline said. “Jonathan believed she was Olivia.”
Elena whispered, “Caroline never told us.”
Caroline continued.
“I could not be certain which daughter I saved. The girls had been dressed alike. Their identifying jewelry was gone.”
Olivia felt the world narrow around the screen.
Jonathan raised one girl.
Roland retained the other.
No one knew which was which.
“Years later, I discovered Roland had trained the second child to assume Olivia’s identity if Jonathan died before the trust matured. I remained hidden to find her.”
Caroline lifted a photograph of a young woman.
The face was nearly identical to Olivia’s.
But the hair was blonde.
The eyes were colder.
“She now calls herself Claire Vale.”
David searched international databases.
The name produced a result.
Claire Vale was a private equity strategist who advised companies during hostile takeovers.
She had worked with Roland Sayer.
Three months earlier, she joined an advisory committee connected to Northstar’s largest European creditor.
Olivia looked at the screen.
Claire was not a forgotten sister waiting to be rescued.
She was already positioned to claim the company.
The villa’s alarm sounded.
A vehicle approached through the gate.
Security moved Olivia away from the windows.
A woman stepped from a black car.
Blonde hair.
Gray coat.
Olivia’s face.
She entered the villa alone.
No weapon was visible.
“Olivia,” she called.
Olivia descended the staircase.
The sisters faced each other across the entrance hall.
May you like
Claire smiled.
“I’ve spent my entire life wondering which one of us stole the other’s name.”
