Chapter 20: The Second Leah
Leah stared at the photograph until the room around her disappeared.
Two girls.
The same dark eyes.
The same rounded cheeks.
The same uncertain expression.
One was dressed in blue.
The other in white.
Adrian stood beside her.
“You had a sister.”
“Or I was the sister.”
Eleanor examined the back of the photograph.
Two initials had been written in faded ink.
L.B.
L.C.
Leah Bennett.
Leah Caldwell.
Daniel shook his head.
“Twins don’t have different last names.”
“They do if someone separated them,” Grace said.
Eleanor looked at her sharply.
Grace admitted Celia had once mentioned two babies born at Hawthorne Medical Annex on the same night.
One child belonged to a young employee.
The other belonged to someone inside the Stewardship Council.
“Celia believed the birth records were changed,” Grace said.
“Why?” Leah asked.
“She never told me.”
“Or you never asked.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
Adrian searched the room for additional files.
Most had been removed.
Only empty folders remained where medical records should have been.
Daniel connected the old recorder to his laptop and examined the tape digitally.
“There’s another audio layer.”
He isolated the background noise.
A man and woman were arguing while Celia recorded her statement.
The man’s voice was difficult to hear.
The woman’s was clearer.
“She cannot know Eleanor is her mother.”
Everyone turned toward Eleanor.
Leah’s voice became quiet.
“Are you my mother?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Too immediately.
“Look at me,” Leah said.
Eleanor did.
“I did not give birth to you.”
“Did you know who did?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“That is different from what I asked.”
Before she could continue, the chapel lights flickered.
A vehicle approached outside.
Adrian looked through the window.
Three black SUVs stopped near the entrance.
Men in Ashford security uniforms surrounded the building.
Graham Voss stepped from the first vehicle.
He entered the chapel carrying a court order.
“Adrian,” he said, “you and Ms. Bennett are required to surrender all company property and confidential records.”
“This is not company property,” Eleanor replied.
Graham looked at the open room beneath the altar.
“It is now.”
His security officers moved toward the staircase.
Nina stood in their path.
“You’ll need to go through me.”
Graham smiled.
“That can be arranged.”
Leah held up her phone.
“The entire conversation is being transmitted to our attorney.”
It was a bluff.
Graham stopped anyway.
“You have no idea what you found,” he said.
“Then explain it,” Leah replied.
“You think Hawthorne House was designed to punish employees. It wasn’t.”
“What was it designed for?”
“To protect the company from a succession war.”
Graham looked at Adrian.
“Your father was not supposed to inherit Ashford Holdings.”
Then he turned toward Leah.
“You were.”
Before anyone could respond, gunfire shattered the chapel window.
Graham fell.
The photograph of the two little girls slipped from Leah’s hand.
May you like
Outside, one of the security vehicles exploded.
In the chaos, Grace Bennett disappeared.
