CHAPTER 29: THE SISTER WHO WASN’T CLAIRE
Claire Vale turned toward Aiden.
“What did you say?”
Aiden struggled to sit upright.
“In the master core, I saw the genetic records.”
Claire looked at the woman who shared her face.
“She is my twin.”
Aiden shook his head.
“Claire Vale died before the fire.”
The woman in black raised her gun.
Marcus immediately aimed at her.
Claire felt something inside her break.
“Who are you?”
The woman’s expression remained calm.
“I am your sister.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“My original name was Lillian.”
Lily looked up.
The woman continued.
“I was the first child created from you and Adrian.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You’re our daughter?”
“Genetically.”
Claire could barely breathe.
The woman appeared nearly thirty.
She had been grown before Claire ever met Adrian.
“That is impossible.”
“Your genetic material was collected when you were children.”
Helena closed her eyes.
Claire looked at her mother.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Lillian had been raised as Claire Vale.
Given Claire’s memories.
Taught to believe she was Clara’s lost twin.
Even her grief had been manufactured.
Claire looked at the woman who had fought beside her.
“Did you know before tonight?”
“No.”
Aiden stepped closer.
“She discovered it inside the underwater city.”
“You hid it from me.”
Lillian’s voice cracked.
“Because being your sister was the first identity I ever chose.”
Claire looked into the same blue eyes.
For all the lies surrounding them, the pain there was real.
Lily approached Lillian.
“Are you my sister?”
Lillian knelt.
“I think so.”
Lily hugged her.
Claire’s anger softened but did not disappear.
Dr. Voss used the distraction.
He struck Helena and ran toward the private elevator.
Marcus fired.
The bullet missed.
Voss escaped.
The surviving Richard examined Vale Industries’ global network.
“August’s backups are activating.”
Seven locations appeared.
One inside Vale headquarters had been destroyed.
Six remained.
Washington.
London.
Geneva.
Tokyo.
A private satellite.
And an unknown location identified only as HOME.
Claire looked toward Helena.
“What is Home?”
Helena’s face went pale.
“The facility where Clara was created.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Aiden touched the screen.
The hidden coordinates opened.
Everyone stared.
The location was beneath the cemetery where Clara Elizabeth Vale had supposedly been buried.
Richard looked toward Claire.
“Your grave.”
A live video opened.
The camera moved through an underground chamber beneath the cemetery.
Rows of glass capsules filled the room.
Inside each capsule was a woman with Claire’s face.
At the center stood a little girl in a white nightgown.
The same child Claire had chased inside the Vale mansion.
The girl looked into the camera.
“Mommy is coming home.”
Then the date of the Second Fire appeared again.
It had changed.
May you like
Not three days.
Three hours.
