CHAPTER 9 — THE SECOND DAUGHTER
Nathan opened the door.
The room beyond it looked less like a medical cell and more like a carefully preserved bedroom from another era.
Floral wallpaper covered the walls. A record player sat in one corner. Old photographs stood in silver frames beside a narrow bed.
An elderly woman sat near the window.
Her dark hair had turned almost completely white. Her body was thin, and her hands trembled around a small cloth doll.
But the shape of her face matched the newspaper photograph.
Evelyn Shaw Whitmore was alive.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
“Mother?”
The woman looked toward him.
For several seconds, she showed no recognition.
Then the cloth doll slipped from her hands.
“Gabriel?”
He crossed the room and dropped to his knees in front of her.
Evelyn touched his face.
Her fingers moved over his cheekbones, forehead, and beard as if confirming he was real.
“You came back.”
Gabriel’s voice broke.
“I didn’t know where they had taken you.”
“They said you died.”
“They told me the same thing about you.”
Nathan remained near the door.
He had spent his life believing Evelyn was a tragic story from his father’s past.
Now she sat only a few feet away, imprisoned inside a property owned by his family.
Evelyn noticed him.
Her expression changed.
“Henry?”
“No. I’m Nathan.”
Fear entered her eyes.
“Margaret’s son.”
Nathan lowered himself slowly.
“I’m Henry’s son too.”
Evelyn stared at him for a long moment.
“You have his eyes.”
Nathan could not tell whether it was a compliment or an accusation.
“Where is Claire?”
Evelyn’s fingers tightened around Gabriel’s hand.
“The pregnant woman?”
“Yes.”
“They brought her through the east corridor.”
“When?”
“Less than an hour ago.”
“Was she conscious?”
“Sometimes.”
Nathan stood.
Gabriel remained beside Evelyn.
“We can’t leave her here.”
“We’re not,” Nathan said. “But Claire is in danger.”
Evelyn grabbed Nathan’s sleeve.
“The second girl has her.”
“What second girl?”
“The one with Margaret’s face.”
Nathan stared at her.
“Vanessa?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Not Vanessa.”
Before Nathan could ask more, an alarm sounded in the corridor.
A red light flashed above the door.
Gabriel helped Evelyn to her feet.
Nathan opened the closet and found a wheelchair folded against the wall.
As he unfolded it, something fell from the top shelf.
An old photograph.
Margaret stood outside a hospital holding two newborn girls.
Both babies wore identical bracelets.
One bracelet read VANESSA.
The other read VERONICA.
Nathan turned the photograph over.
Written on the back were the words:
ONE WILL BE PRESENTED.
ONE WILL BE PREPARED.
Gabriel looked over his shoulder.
“Twins.”
Nathan’s mind returned to the dining room.
Vanessa had been sitting beside Margaret while a woman with Vanessa’s voice gave instructions at the clinic.
The impossible now had a name.
Veronica.
Evelyn watched Nathan study the photograph.
“Margaret kept one daughter in the mansion,” she whispered. “She kept the other one here.”
“Why?”
“To do what Vanessa could never be seen doing.”
Nathan felt cold.
“Kidnappings?”
“Threats. Records. Medicine. Anything that required Margaret’s hands to remain clean.”
Gabriel lifted Evelyn into the wheelchair.
“Why did no one know about Veronica?”
“Dr. Cole changed the birth record. He declared the second infant dead.”
Nathan looked at Evelyn.
“The same thing he did to Gabriel.”
She nodded.
“Margaret learned that a dead child could be useful.”
The alarm became louder.
Footsteps approached.
Nathan pushed the wheelchair into the adjoining bathroom while Gabriel stood behind the bedroom door.
Two guards entered.
Gabriel struck the first before he could raise his weapon. Nathan drove his shoulder into the second man and forced him against the wall.
The struggle lasted less than a minute.
Nathan took a key card from one guard.
Gabriel picked up the fallen radio.
A voice crackled through it.
“Move the Whitmore woman to surgical room two.”
Another voice responded.
“What about the infant?”
“There is no infant yet.”
“There will be soon.”
Nathan’s face drained of color.
They pushed Evelyn into the corridor.
At the far end, a medical team rolled a covered stretcher through double doors.
One pale hand hung over the side.
Claire’s wedding ring caught the red emergency light.
“Claire!”
Nathan ran.
The stretcher disappeared through the doors.
He reached them seconds later and used the stolen key card.
The reader flashed red.
Access denied.
Gabriel searched the guard’s pockets.
“No second card.”
Nathan slammed his fist against the metal.
“Claire!”
A voice came through the intercom.
Veronica’s voice.
“Bring me the envelope from the nursery, Nathan.”
He looked toward the ceiling camera.
“Let my wife go.”
“Bring the original documents and the trust file.”
“I don’t have the trust file.”
“Then ask Gabriel.”
Nathan turned.
Gabriel’s expression gave him away.
“You have it.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Nathan grabbed his jacket.
“You let me come here without telling me?”
“I needed proof before I trusted you.”
“My wife is behind that door!”
“And my mother has been behind one for thirty-eight years!”
The brothers stared at each other.
Both furious.
Both right.
Veronica’s laughter came through the intercom.
“Now you understand the Whitmore family, Nathan. Everyone is protecting someone. Everyone is lying.”
The double doors opened.
May you like
A nurse pushed an empty incubator into the corridor.
There was blood on the white sheet inside it.
