Chapter 9 - RachelRachel's eyes were the same color as mine.
That was the worst part.
She looked like the version of me who had lived a different life.
Lily whimpered.
"Mommy."
"I'm here."
Rachel tightened her arm.
"Don't move."
Felix stepped forward.
"Take me instead."
Rachel smiled.
"I don't want you."
She looked at me.
"I want her."
"Why?"
"Because you got everything."
"I lost everything."
"You got to live."
Her voice shook.
"I didn't."
Adrian moved slowly toward the wall.
Rachel noticed him.
"Stay there."
Adrian stopped.
"Rachel."
"Don't use my name."
"You don't have to do this."
"You have no idea what they did."
She stared at Odette.
"They buried me alive."
Odette's expression remained cold.
"You were unstable."
"I was a witness."
Rachel looked at me.
"I found the original Marlowe House ledgers."
My heart stopped.
"I found the accounts."
She continued.
"I found out Odette was using the company to move stolen money through shell corporations."
Felix asked:
"And she took you?"
"She took my identity."
Rachel smiled bitterly.
"She made me disappear."
I looked at Odette.
"Why?"
"Because Rachel knew too much."
Rachel laughed.
"She didn't just know too much."
She looked at me.
"She knew who our father really was."
I froze.
"Our father?"
Rachel nodded.
"Not the man who raised you."
Felix stared at Odette.
"What is she talking about?"
Odette said nothing.
Rachel continued.
"Our biological father was a Kingsley employee."
I looked at Felix.
"What?"
"Your mother had an affair with him," Rachel said.
"She was pregnant with me."
Felix stared at Odette.
"Then why does Sarah have the Marlowe name?"
"Because our mother gave Sarah to the Marlowes."
My stomach turned.
"Why?"
"To hide the pregnancy."
Rachel's eyes filled.
"She kept me."
"And gave me away."
"Yes."
I looked at Odette.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"About all of this?"
"Yes."
She finally smiled.
"And that's why you were always dangerous."
My voice shook.
"You ruined my life because of a secret you created."
Odette shrugged.
"I protected the family."
"No."
I looked at Felix.
"You protected the empire."
Rachel's grip loosened slightly.
Lily moved.
Felix saw it.
He lunged.
Rachel stepped back.
The knife slipped.
Lily screamed.
Adrian tackled Rachel.
Felix grabbed Lily.
I pulled my daughter against me.
For three seconds, everything was silent.
Then gunshots exploded from the corridor.
Security guards rushed in.
Adrian shouted:
"DOWN!"
We dropped.
Glass shattered behind us.
Odette disappeared through a hidden doorway.
Felix looked at me.
"She has an exit."
Rachel was pinned to the floor.
She looked at me.
"You still don't understand."
"What?"
She laughed.
"Odette isn't the one who ordered Lily's injection."
My blood turned cold.
"Then who?"
Rachel looked at Felix.
"Someone who wants you to blame her."
Then she said the one sentence that changed everything.
"The person controlling Protocol Seven isn't in this building."
My phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
GOOD. NOW YOU KNOW WHO NOT TO TRUST.
Below it was a photograph.
Lily.
Sleeping in the hospital.
Taken five minutes ago.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
YOUR FRIEND WILL BETRAY YOU NEXT.
