CHAPTER 15 My Sister Wants Me Dead
CHAPTER 15
My Sister Wants Me Dead
The hospital was silent.
Not the ordinary silence of exhausted hallways after midnight.
This was different.
Doctors stood frozen beside patients.
Nurses stared at the televisions.
Visitors slowly lowered their phones.
Every screen showed the same face.
Lucy's face.
Yet...
Not Lucy.
The woman smiled calmly.
"Hello, Lucy."
"I've been waiting twenty-six years to meet my sister."
Then the broadcast ended.
Static filled the screens before normal programming returned as though nothing had happened.
No emergency alert.
No hacker message.
Nothing.
It lasted only twelve seconds.
Twelve seconds that changed everything.
Inside Benjamin Whitmore's room, Lucy couldn't breathe.
She looked at the blank television.
Then at the family photograph lying beside her.
The resemblance was undeniable.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
Only...
One had kindness.
The other carried something frightening.
Benjamin slowly sat upright despite the pain.
"It can't be..."
Lucy whispered,
"She knows I'm alive."
Benjamin closed his eyes.
"I prayed this day would never come."
Outside the room, Special Agent Daniel Cross spoke rapidly into his secure phone.
"Trace the signal."
Seconds passed.
The analyst on the other end answered.
"No luck."
"It bounced through twenty-seven countries."
Cross wasn't surprised.
"What about the video itself?"
Another pause.
Then...
"We recovered one frame before the encryption wiped everything."
Cross's heartbeat quickened.
"Send it."
His phone vibrated.
He opened the image.
The woman stood in front of a concrete wall.
Nothing unusual.
Until he zoomed in.
Painted behind her...
Barely visible...
Was a faded mural.
A blue lighthouse overlooking Lake Michigan.
Cross immediately recognized it.
"Oh, no..."
Rachel Morgan noticed his expression.
"What?"
Cross turned the screen toward her.
"I know where she recorded this."
Thirty minutes later...
A convoy of FBI vehicles raced through downtown Chicago with lights flashing.
Their destination:
An abandoned naval communications station on the northern shoreline.
Officially...
It had been closed for sixteen years.
Unofficially...
It had become one of Raven's hidden safe houses.
Meanwhile...
Alex sat alone in the hospital chapel again.
The wedding ring rested in his palm.
He hadn't put it back on.
He doubted he ever would.
He remembered the day he slipped it onto Lucy's finger.
"I'll always be the first one running toward you."
The promise echoed inside his head.
A promise he had broken.
The chapel door opened quietly.
Lucy stood there.
Weak.
Pale.
Supported by Ethan.
Alex immediately stood.
"Lucy..."
She raised one hand.
He fell silent.
For several long seconds...
Neither spoke.
Finally...
Lucy walked toward him.
Each step looked painful.
But determined.
She stopped only a few feet away.
"I didn't come here..."
"...to forgive you."
Alex nodded slowly.
"I know."
"I came..."
"...because Ethan told me something."
Alex glanced toward the rookie.
Ethan quietly stepped back, giving them privacy.
Lucy looked directly into Alex's eyes.
"I need someone I can trust."
Alex's chest tightened.
"I'm not that person."
"No."
She answered honestly.
"Not anymore."
Silence.
Then she continued.
"But..."
"...you're still the best firefighter I've ever known."
Alex looked confused.
Lucy slowly opened her hand.
Inside rested the small silver key.
The one hidden in her purse for seven years.
She held it out.
Alex stared at it.
"I can't."
"You have to."
"Lucy..."
"If I die..."
Alex interrupted immediately.
"Don't."
She continued anyway.
"If I die..."
"...you open the vault."
He looked into her eyes.
"Why me?"
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Because despite everything..."
"...I still believe you'll protect our daughter."
Alex couldn't stop his own tears.
Very carefully...
He accepted the key.
It felt impossibly heavy.
Not because of the metal.
Because of the trust it represented.
A trust he no longer deserved.
Suddenly...
Cross burst into the chapel.
"We have a problem."
Everyone turned.
"What happened?"
Cross looked directly at Lucy.
"We searched the lighthouse."
"And?"
"It was empty."
Rachel Morgan entered behind him carrying a laptop.
"We found this instead."
She pressed Play.
A newly recorded video appeared.
Lucy's twin sat calmly in a wooden chair.
She looked straight into the camera.
"I knew you'd come."
She smiled.
"But you were searching the wrong place."
She slowly lifted something into view.
A newborn baby blanket.
Pink.
Faded with age.
The exact same blanket from the hospital photograph.
Then she unfolded another item.
A birth certificate.
The camera zoomed in.
Lucy gasped.
Benjamin, standing in the doorway despite his injuries, nearly collapsed.
Printed across the document were two names.
Child One: Lucy Emily Whitmore
Child Two: Evelyn Grace Whitmore
For the first time...
Lucy finally knew her sister's name.
Evelyn looked into the camera one last time.
"I don't want your money."
"I don't want your life."
"I don't even want revenge."
She smiled.
"I only want..."
"...what should have been mine."
The screen went black.
Before anyone could speak...
Every phone in the chapel vibrated simultaneously.
Same message.
Same unknown sender.
Only one sentence.
THE VAULT OPENS IN 72 HOURS.
Beneath it...
A second line appeared.
Bring the key... or your daughter dies.
Lucy's hand instinctively covered her pregnant belly.
The room fell into stunned silence.
Alex slowly closed his fingers around the silver key.
He finally understood.
The elevator...
Valerie...
The attacks...
Benjamin...
The twins...
None of it had been the real game.
It had only been the opening move.
May you like
The true war...
...was just beginning.
