Chapter 10 - The Sister Who Was Erased
We sent the bracelet to a forensic lab.
It was genuine.
Twenty-five years old.
The blood residue on the inside was still testable.
Rebecca asked the question none of us wanted to ask.
“What happens if the DNA matches Elena?”
“We confirm twins,” Luka said.
“And if it doesn’t?”
No one answered.
The results took two days.
During those two days, Derek filed for divorce.
He accused me of adultery.
He named Luka.
The irony was almost impressive.
He abandoned me with his mistress.
Then accused me of cheating with the man who protected me afterward.
Rebecca laughed when she read the filing.
“He is desperate.”
“Why?”
“Because the trust has a morality clause.”
My stomach turned.
If Derek could prove I had committed fraud or concealed paternity, he could challenge my control of the Bennett Trust on Isla’s behalf.
He did not need to win forever.
He only needed an emergency injunction long enough to freeze the assets.
Then the lab called.
The DNA on Baby B’s bracelet matched me as a full biological sibling.
My mother had delivered twin girls.
One was me.
One had disappeared.
I stared at the report.
“I have a sister.”
“Or you had one,” Rebecca said gently.
I refused to accept the past tense.
My father had spent years investigating M-17.
Maybe he had discovered the truth.
Luka searched his archived files.
Eventually, he found an encrypted message from my father.
It contained one sentence.
If Elena ever learns about B, tell her I never stopped searching.
I cried until my chest hurt.
My father had known.
He had searched for my sister until the day he died.
Luka found another attachment.
A list of five women born within forty-eight hours of me.
Four had ordinary lives.
One had no birth certificate before age three.
Her name was Cassandra Voss.
Voss.
The same last name as Camille.
I stared at Luka.
“Who is Cassandra?”
His investigator answered.
“Camille Voss’s mother.”
The room became silent.
If Cassandra was Baby B, Camille was not merely my husband’s mistress.
She was my niece.
I almost laughed because the idea was too insane to process.
Then Rebecca noticed the dates.
Camille was twenty-four.
I was twenty-five.
It was possible.
We needed DNA.
Luka’s investigator smiled grimly.
“We already have it.”
Camille had left a drinking glass at the hospital.
The test began that night.
But before the result arrived, Camille called me herself.
“Elena.”
Her voice was shaking.
“I need to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because Derek lied to both of us.”
May you like
Then she whispered something that changed everything.
“And Malcolm knows what happened to your sister.”
