Maria’s scream filled Summerhouse Seven.
Isabella stood near the doorway.
She looked destroyed.
Maria approached her.
“You told me about Grace.”
“Yes.”
“You told me about Gabriel.”
“Yes.”
“Who is Evelyn talking about?”
Isabella lowered her head.
Maria’s voice broke.
“WHO?”
Isabella whispered:
“Your twin.”
Silence.
Maria stopped moving.
Alexander stared.
Sofia, listening through a secure video connection from the rehabilitation center, covered her mouth.
Maria laughed weakly.
“My what?”
“Twin sister.”
“No.”
“Maria—”
“No.”
She backed away.
“I remember Mom being pregnant with Sofia. I remember Grace’s story. I remember everything you told me.”
Isabella cried.
“You were born with another girl.”
Maria stared.
“What was her name?”
Isabella hesitated.
“Anna.”
Maria closed her eyes.
Another name.
Another ghost.
“What happened?”
Isabella explained.
Anna was born seven minutes after Maria.
Both babies were healthy.
Three days later, someone entered the maternity ward using falsified credentials.
Anna disappeared.
Police reports were altered.
Isabella was told the child had died during an emergency transfer.
Years later, she learned that was a lie.
Maria sank onto the stairs.
Alexander sat beside her.
She did not cry immediately.
That worried him.
“I had a twin.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody told me.”
Isabella nodded.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Maria laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
She looked at Alexander.
“Have you noticed?”
He nodded.
“Protection is the word people use after they decide someone else doesn’t deserve the truth.”
Isabella flinched.
Maria finally began crying.
Alexander held her.
Across the room, Michael watched them.
He understood more than he wanted to.
A missing sibling was not simply a mystery.
It was an empty chair at every memory you thought was complete.
Bennett began questioning Isabella.
“Why would Edward take Anna?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was she connected to the trust?”
“Possibly.”
“How?”
Isabella hesitated.
“The flower pendant.”
Maria touched her necklace.
Isabella nodded.
“There were two.”
Maria froze.
“Two pendants?”
“Yes.”
“One for me.”
“One for Anna.”
Marcus examined photographs recovered from the walls.
Then stopped.
“Maria.”
He removed one photograph carefully.
Two infant girls lay inside a hospital crib.
Each wore a five-petaled flower pendant.
Maria touched the photograph.
One baby had a tiny birthmark beside her left ear.
Maria instinctively touched her own skin.
Nothing.
Isabella whispered, “That was Anna.”
Bennett photographed the image.
Michael searched Edward’s files.
“If he took Anna, he would have changed her identity.”
Gabriel looked toward the photographs.
“Maybe he trained her.”
Maria’s stomach tightened.
“To replace whom?”
Nobody answered.
Then Sofia’s voice came through the tablet.
“Maria.”
Maria turned.
Sofia looked frightened.
“What?”
“I’ve seen that birthmark.”
The room froze.
Maria stepped closer.
“Where?”
Sofia swallowed.
“Victoria.”
Alexander stared.
“What?”
Sofia continued.
“When Victoria came to the rehabilitation center months ago, her hair was pulled up.”
Maria felt cold.
“She had a mark behind her ear.”
Alexander shook his head.
“No.”
Victoria Sterling.
The woman Maria had slapped.
The woman who had nearly become Alexander’s wife.
The woman who seemed to know every hidden identity before anyone else.
Isabella covered her mouth.
Bennett immediately requested Victoria’s birth records.
Marcus searched.
The certificate listed Victoria Sterling as born six months after Maria.
But the document had been amended.
Twice.
Original hospital information sealed.
Father listed as Richard Sterling.
Mother listed as deceased.
Alexander stared.
“Richard wasn’t her biological father.”
Isabella whispered, “Oh God.”
Maria looked at her.
“You think Victoria is Anna.”
“I don’t know.”
Michael found another photograph.
A teenage Victoria stood beside Edward.
The picture had been taken ten years earlier.
On the back:
A-2 READY.
Gabriel went pale.
“That’s how Edward labeled replacements.”
Alexander turned.
“What does A-2 mean?”
Gabriel whispered, “Asset Two.”
Maria’s eyes burned.
“My sister wasn’t an asset.”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“But Edward would have called her one.”
Bennett ordered a DNA comparison using legally available evidence.
Then Marcus received a call.
“Victoria has been located.”
Alexander stepped forward.
“Where?”
“Manhattan.”
Maria’s heart pounded.
“Doing what?”
Marcus looked confused.
“She walked into police headquarters voluntarily.”
Bennett’s phone rang seconds later.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“She wants to speak with Maria.”
Alexander immediately shook his head.
“No.”
Maria turned.
“Yes.”
“Maria.”
“If she’s Anna, I need to know.”
“And if this is another trap?”
“Then I’ll face it.”
Hours later, Maria entered an interview room.
Victoria Sterling sat behind a metal table.
No crimson gown.
No diamonds.
No servants.
No audience.
She looked exhausted.
Maria sat opposite her.
Victoria smiled faintly.
“You finally know.”
Maria stared.
“Know what?”
Victoria lifted her hair.
Behind her left ear was a small birthmark.
Maria stopped breathing.
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“My name wasn’t always Victoria.”
Maria’s hands trembled.
“What was it?”
Victoria looked directly at her.
“Anna.”
Maria’s world went silent.
For a few moments, she saw not the cruel woman from the ballroom.
She saw the second baby in the photograph.
Her twin.
Then anger returned.
“You knew?”
“Not until I was sixteen.”
“And you still attacked Evelyn?”
Victoria looked away.
“You still threatened me?”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was your sister?”
Victoria began crying.
“Yes.”
Maria stood so fast the chair scraped backward.
“WHY?”
Victoria covered her face.
“Because Richard told me you were the reason Isabella abandoned me!”
Maria froze.
Victoria sobbed.
“He told me our mother chose you.”
Maria shook her head.
“He lied.”
“I know that now.”
Maria stared at her.
Victoria continued.
“Edward showed me the original file yesterday.”
“What file?”
Victoria reached into her pocket.
Bennett immediately entered.
Victoria slowly placed a key on the table.
“The file Richard spent twenty years hiding.”
Maria stared.
“What does it contain?”
Victoria looked at her twin.
“The identity of the person who ordered Anna Santos taken from the hospital.”
Maria’s heart pounded.
“Edward?”
Victoria shook her head.
“Richard?”
Again, no.
“Then who?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
She said softly:
“ISABELLA.”
Maria stopped breathing.
TO BE CONTINUED…
