Chapter 11: The Daughter They Buried
The phone continued ringing in the darkness.
Claire didn't move.
Neither did Caroline.
Then the basement lights flickered back on.
Marcus Vane appeared on a monitor mounted against the wall.
Older than Claire remembered.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Hello, Claire.”
Claire stared at the screen.
“You're in my mother's house.”
“No.”
Marcus smiled.
“I was in your mother's house nineteen years ago.”
Caroline's face hardened.
“You shouldn't have access to this system.”
“I built half of it.”
Claire turned toward her mother.
“What is he talking about?”
Marcus answered for her.
“Your mother and father didn't build Sterling Crest alone.”
Claire's eyes narrowed.
“Get to the point.”
Marcus leaned closer to the camera.
“You want to know who the girl is?”
Claire looked at the photograph.
“Yes.”
“Her name is Clara.”
Claire froze.
Caroline closed her eyes.
Marcus continued.
“She was born seven minutes after you.”
Claire's breath caught.
“That's impossible.”
“Is it?”
Marcus smiled.
“You were born at 2:14 in the morning. Clara was born at 2:21.”
Claire looked at Caroline.
Her mother said nothing.
“Why didn't I know?”
Caroline's voice was barely audible.
“Because she disappeared.”
Claire's stomach dropped.
“Disappeared where?”
Marcus answered.
“That's the question your father spent nineteen years trying to keep you from asking.”
Claire stepped toward the screen.
“Where is she?”
Marcus smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
The screen went black.
Claire turned immediately toward Caroline.
“Tell me everything.”
Caroline looked at the photograph.
Then at her daughter.
“Clara was your twin.”
The words seemed to empty the room of oxygen.
Claire stared.
“My twin?”
“Yes.”
“Why did nobody tell me?”
“Because she was taken.”
“By Marcus?”
Caroline shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Caroline hesitated.
“Your father.”
Claire recoiled.
“No.”
“He believed someone inside Sterling Crest was trying to kill both of you.”
“So he took her?”
“He took Clara and hid her.”
“For nineteen years?”
“Yes.”
Claire's voice became cold.
“And you let me believe she was dead?”
“I believed she was.”
Caroline's eyes filled.
“Until three years ago.”
Claire stopped.
“What happened three years ago?”
Caroline looked toward the archive wall.
“Someone sent me a photograph.”
Claire followed her gaze.
A younger woman stood beside Marcus.
The woman was smiling.
Claire knew her.
Chloe.
Her hands went cold.
“That's Chloe.”
Caroline nodded.
“She wasn't investigating you.”
Claire's voice dropped.
“She was Clara.”
Silence.
Daniel's voice suddenly came through Claire's earpiece.
“Claire, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“The woman in the photograph isn't Chloe Harper.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
“I ran facial recognition through the corporate archive.”
A pause.
“Chloe Harper has no biometric history before age twenty-three.”
Claire looked at Caroline.
Daniel continued.
“But the woman in that photograph…”
He stopped.
“She's a match to someone else.”
“Who?”
Daniel's voice became quieter.
“Clara Bennett.”
Claire stared at the screen.
“No.”
Caroline whispered:
“Yes.”
The basement door suddenly slammed shut.
Claire spun around.
The security system activated.
LOCKDOWN INITIATED.
Daniel shouted through the earpiece.
“Claire, get out!”
Too late.
A red light began flashing.
Caroline grabbed Claire's arm.
“There's another exit.”
They ran toward the far wall.
Behind them, the archive screens began displaying files.
One after another.
PROJECT HARBOR.
SUBJECT: CLARA BENNETT.
TRANSFERRED: 2007.
NEW IDENTITY: CHLOE HARPER.
Claire stopped.
Her mother's voice broke.
“Your sister survived.”
Claire stared at the file.
Then a final document opened.
A photograph.
Chloe.
Standing beside Marcus.
But the date beneath it was only three weeks earlier.
And beside Chloe stood Ethan.
Claire's heart sank.
He hadn't merely known Chloe.
May you like
He had known who she was.
For years.
