Chapter 6 - THE SECOND HEIRWe escaped through a tunnel that ran beneath the original Vanguard headquarters.
My father had built it decades ago.
It connected the executive vault to an old family residence on the opposite side of the block.
When we emerged, the sky was beginning to lighten.
I expected relief.
Instead, Marcus handed me another file.
"This was in the passage."
I opened it.
A photograph fell into my lap.
It showed my father standing beside a woman I had never seen before.
The woman was young.
Beautiful.
And holding a newborn baby.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
Twenty-six years earlier.
I stared.
"Who is she?"
Marcus said nothing.
"And who is the baby?"
He looked at the photograph.
Then at me.
"Your sister."
I laughed once.
It came out wrong.
"Stop."
"I'm not joking."
"My parents had two children?"
"No."
"Then who is she?"
Marcus looked exhausted.
"Your father had another daughter before he married your mother."
The world seemed to stop.
"Where is she?"
"Dead."
I looked at the picture again.
"How?"
"Car accident."
"When?"
"Twenty-five years ago."
I slowly lowered the photograph.
"What does this have to do with Elena?"
Marcus took a breath.
"Everything."
We returned to the clinic.
Elena was awake.
When she saw the photograph, she began to cry.
"You know her."
Elena nodded.
"My mother did."
My stomach tightened.
"Who is your mother?"
She looked at me.
"Isabella Cross."
The name hit me.
My father had once mentioned Isabella.
Only once.
A woman from his early business years.
A woman my mother hated.
A woman everyone believed had disappeared.
"You're Isabella's daughter."
"Yes."
"And the baby?"
Elena touched her stomach.
"Is from your father's genetic line."
I stared at her.
"No."
"My mother spent years looking for proof."
"Proof of what?"
"That your father had another child."
"Why?"
"Because my mother was promised protection."
"By my father?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
Elena swallowed.
"She gave birth to your father's first daughter."
Silence.
"Your sister."
My hands trembled.
"And then?"
"My mother was told the child had died."
"She believed it?"
"For years."
"What changed?"
"She found a DNA record."
I looked at Marcus.
He didn't speak.
Elena continued.
"Your sister didn't die in the accident."
My breath caught.
"What?"
"Someone wanted the world to believe she was dead."
"Who?"
Elena's voice dropped.
"Your father."
I felt as though the floor had disappeared.
Marcus stepped forward.
"That's enough."
"No."
I held up a hand.
"Let her finish."
Elena looked at me.
"Your father had discovered that your sister carried a rare genetic marker."
"What marker?"
"One that could be used to authenticate ownership of the original Vanguard trust."
My mind struggled to understand.
"The company was built around DNA?"
"Not originally."
She shook her head.
"But your father created a private inheritance mechanism after a lawsuit threatened the original family holdings."
"So my sister was hidden."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because someone wanted to kill her."
"Who?"
Elena looked at me.
"Your mother."
My blood ran cold.
"No."
Elena nodded.
"Your father believed your mother had ordered the accident."
I couldn't speak.
My mother.
The woman who had raised me.
The woman who had told me my sister had died before I was born.
The woman who had cried at my father's funeral.
The woman who had hugged me when I married Julian.
A lie.
Every memory suddenly felt contaminated.
Then Elena said something that made my heart stop.
"Your sister survived."
I stared at her.
"She's alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Marcus stepped backward.
His face had gone pale.
"What?"
Elena looked at him.
"She has been living under another identity."
"Which identity?"
Elena shook her head.
"I've never met her."
"Then how do you know?"
"My mother left records."
Marcus's phone rang.
He answered.
"Hello?"
His face changed.
"What?"
He listened.
Then looked at me.
"The chairman is dead."
I felt sick.
"Who killed him?"
"We don't know."
Marcus's voice was barely audible.
"But there was a message on his desk."
"What message?"
He handed me his phone.
A photograph showed a piece of paper.
One sentence.
THE FIRST DAUGHTER HAS RETURNED.
I stared at the words.
Then the phone vibrated again.
A text from an unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
An airport terminal.
A woman walking toward the camera.
Dark hair.
Black coat.
Her face turned slightly.
I couldn't see her completely.
But I recognized the pendant around her neck.
My mother had given me the matching one when I was sixteen.
The woman wore the other half.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHO SHE IS.
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