Chapter 7 - The photograph changed everything.For seven years, Ethan had believed there had been one baby.
One daughter.
One death.
One tragedy.
Now he knew the hospital had hidden two newborn girls.
Lily had survived.
The other had not.
Or at least, that was what Clara claimed.
Ethan placed the photograph on the table.
“Tell me everything.”
Clara nodded.
“The fire began at 2:17 A.M.”
“You said Lily was born before that.”
“She was born at 1:30.”
“And the second baby?”
“Twenty minutes later.”
Amelia looked confused.
“I only remember Lily.”
“You were heavily sedated.”
Clara continued.
“Victor had someone working in the nursery. That person was instructed to remove Lily.”
“Why?”
“Because your father’s trust required proof that you had no surviving child.”
Ethan frowned.
“But why another baby?”
Clara hesitated.
“Because they needed confusion.”
“Confusion about what?”
“Identity.”
Amelia suddenly understood.
“They could replace Lily.”
Clara nodded.
“They planned to substitute another infant and later claim Lily was an impostor.”
Ethan stared.
“So who was Baby B?”
“Her identity was unknown.”
“Then why transfer her under Elena Vale?”
“Because Elena Vale was a private maternity patient whose child had died weeks earlier.”
Amelia went pale.
“They used a dead child’s identity.”
“Yes.”
Ethan walked toward the wall.
Everything now made sense.
A dead identity.
A living child.
A fake death.
A hidden survivor.
But one question remained.
“Where is Elena Vale’s supposed child?”
Clara whispered:
“Dead.”
“And the woman named Elena?”
“Also dead.”
“So who lived?”
Clara looked at Lily.
“Your daughter.”
Ethan turned.
Lily was staring at the photograph.
She pointed.
“That’s not me.”
Everyone froze.
“What?”
Lily stepped closer.
“That baby is not me.”
Ethan looked carefully.
The photograph was blurred.
But there was a bracelet visible.
L.B.
Lily touched her own locket.
“I had this.”
“You remember?”
She nodded slowly.
“Mommy put it around me.”
Amelia covered her face.
Clara stared at Lily.
Then whispered:
“Impossible.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
Clara stepped toward Lily.
“There was one other mark.”
“What mark?”
“Baby A had a crescent-shaped birthmark.”
Ethan looked at Lily’s shoulder.
The crescent was there.
Clara shook her head.
“So it is her.”
Lily suddenly whispered:
“Daddy…”
Ethan crouched.
“What?”
“There’s something I never told you.”
His heart sank.
“What?”
“When I was little, there was another girl.”
“Where?”
“In the dark room.”
“What did she look like?”
Lily closed her eyes.
“Like me.”
Silence.
“She had the same hair.”
“The same face?”
Lily nodded.
“She called herself Lily too.”
Amelia stood abruptly.
“That’s impossible.”
Lily stared at her mother.
“She said you were her mother too.”
Ethan felt the room tilt.
Clara whispered:
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Why are you afraid?”
Clara’s face had gone white.
“Because if that girl exists…”
She stopped.
“Then Victor succeeded.”
“Doing what?”
Clara looked at Ethan.
“Creating a second Lily.”
Ethan’s chest tightened.
“A duplicate?”
“No.”
Clara shook her head.
“A replacement.”
She explained.
Victor had spent years searching for a child who resembled Lily.
A girl who could pass as Ethan’s daughter if the real Lily died.
But why?
Because the trust did not merely require a biological child.
It required a child who could be publicly recognized as Ethan’s legitimate heir.
Victor had prepared a counterfeit.
A living substitute.
Ethan stared at the door.
“Where is she?”
Clara answered softly.
“At Blackwood Tower.”
The board meeting began in forty minutes.
Ethan looked at Amelia.
Then at Lily.
May you like
Then at the clock.
Victor was about to present another Lily to the people who controlled Ethan’s empire.
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