Chapter 7 - Two DaughtersThe first sound Beatrice heard was the deadbolt engaging.
Then the lights came on.
Dante turned toward the door.
“Stay behind me.”
She stared at the photograph.
“One was supposed to die.”
“Beatrice.”
“That's me.”
“No.”
He looked at the photograph again.
“The baby.”
Her breath stopped.
“You think it's Maggie.”
“Yes.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“Maggie was born three years after me.”
“According to the records.”
Silence.
Dante opened the wooden box again.
There was another photograph beneath the first.
Two infants.
Side by side.
One wore a white bracelet.
The other wore a red bracelet.
On the back:
B.G.
M.G.
Beatrice sat down.
“We weren't sisters.”
Dante's voice was quiet.
“You were twins.”
The world seemed to fold in half.
All those memories.
Two birthdays.
Two birth stories.
Her mother claiming she had been born first.
Maggie arriving three years later.
The family albums showing no photographs of Beatrice as a newborn.
Only Maggie.
Beatrice remembered asking once why there were no baby pictures of her.
Her mother had said:
The camera broke.
A lie.
All of it.
Dante broke the lock on the vault door.
They escaped through the tunnel.
At dawn, they reached the brownstone where Maggie had last been safe.
Beatrice sat across from her mother.
The older woman looked exhausted.
She knew immediately.
“You found the box.”
Beatrice's voice shook.
“We were twins.”
Her mother closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because one of you was supposed to die.”
Maggie stared at her.
“What?”
Their mother began crying.
“Thomas had a son.”
Beatrice frowned.
“What son?”
“Daniel.”
Dante stiffened.
“Daniel Wilkes?”
Their mother nodded.
“He was unstable.”
“He's alive,” Beatrice whispered.
“Yes.”
“He works in internal audit.”
Her mother's eyes widened.
“You know him?”
Beatrice nodded.
Her mother covered her face.
“No.”
“What?”
“He was never Daniel.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Who is he?”
“His real name is Alexander.”
Beatrice stared.
“Alexander Wilkes.”
The man she had thought was a harmless auditor.
The man whose digital authorization appeared beside the fraudulent transfers.
The man whose reflection appeared in the photograph from her office.
Her mother's voice trembled.
“Thomas ordered Michael to give him one of the girls.”
“Why?”
“Because the Wilkes bloodline needed an heir they could control.”
“And you refused.”
“Yes.”
“So they took Maggie?”
“No.”
Her mother looked at Beatrice.
“They took you.”
Silence.
Beatrice felt sick.
“What happened?”
“Michael rescued you.”
“And Maggie?”
“Thomas believed she had died.”
Beatrice turned toward Maggie.
Her sister looked shattered.
“He thought I was dead?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he come back?”
Her mother wiped her tears.
“Because twelve years ago, he learned you were alive.”
Dante asked:
“Why didn't he take her?”
Their mother looked toward him.
“Because the trust was written differently.”
“What does that mean?”
“Thomas could control Maggie.”
“But not Beatrice.”
Their mother shook her head.
“He could not touch the person designated as the legal heir.”
Beatrice understood.
She had never been the forgotten daughter.
She had been the protected one.
Dante's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then handed the phone to Beatrice.
A voice spoke.
Alexander.
“You finally know.”
Beatrice's hand trembled.
“Where is my family?”
“Your mother is safe.”
“And Maggie?”
“She will be.”
“What do you want?”
“A public confession.”
“About what?”
“Tell the world who your father is.”
Beatrice froze.
Alexander laughed.
“Then tell them who killed him.”
The line ended.
Dante stared at her.
“What did he say?”
Beatrice whispered:
“He said my father was murdered.”
Her mother's face went white.
May you like
Then she said the words that changed everything.
“I killed Thomas Wilkes.”
