Chapter 7 - BEFORE EMILY WAS EMILYThe photograph changed everything.

Emily had told us she met Daniel eight years ago.

The picture was fifteen years old.

And she was clearly younger.

I showed the detective.

He stared.

“Maybe the date is wrong.”

“No.”

The photograph showed Emily standing beside Daniel's mother outside a clinic.

The same clinic connected to the underground operation.

But there was another problem.

The woman beside her wasn't just Emily.

Her face was slightly different.

Her hair.

Her jaw.

Even her eyes.

I studied the image.

Then Emily woke.

I held up the photograph.

“Who is this?”

She stared at it for several seconds.

Then whispered:

“My sister.”

I froze.

“You have a sister?”

Emily closed her eyes.

“She died.”

“When?”

“Fifteen years ago.”

“What was her name?”

“Ariana.”

The detective looked at me.

The name wasn't in any hospital record.

Emily explained.

“Ariana was sick.”

“What kind of sick?”

“She needed a transplant.”

Her voice trembled.

“My parents couldn't afford it.”

Daniel's mother found them.

She offered money.

Treatment.

A new life.

“But it wasn't free.”

I felt cold.

“What did they want?”

Emily started crying.

“Ariana.”

I didn't understand.

“What do you mean?”

“They said my sister could be saved.”

Emily wiped her tears.

“She vanished.”

Two weeks later, the family received a photograph.

Ariana was dead.

Officially.

But Emily didn't believe it.

“She wasn't dead.”

“Then where was she?”

Emily looked at me.

“They changed her identity.”

I remembered the photograph.

The face.

The similarities.

I suddenly understood.

“You became Ariana.”

Emily nodded.

“My parents were told to forget her.”

“And Daniel?”

“He knew.”

“From the beginning?”

“Yes.”

“He married you because…”

Emily's voice broke.

“Because I looked like her.”

Silence filled the room.

Then she said something that made my blood run cold.

“Daniel never loved me.”

“What did he want?”

“He wanted her records.”

“Why?”

“Because the first transplant wasn't the real reason she was taken.”

“What was?”

Emily looked at me.

“She discovered what they were doing.”

“Organ trafficking.”

Emily nodded.

“And she knew the names.”

“Which names?”

Emily whispered:

“People who bought organs.”

The detective stepped forward.

“Do you remember any?”

Emily shook her head.

“No.”

Then she smiled bitterly.

“But my sister left a record.”

“Where?”

Emily touched the scar on her wrist.

“They put it inside me.”

I stared.

“What?”

“Ariana hid the data.”

“In your body?”

“During surgery.”

She reached for my hand.

“There is a microchip.”

The detective cursed.

We called radiology.

The scan showed a tiny metallic object beneath the healed tissue near her clavicle.

A surgeon removed it.

The chip contained only one file.

A video.

The screen turned on.

Ariana appeared.

Young.

Terrified.

She looked directly into the camera.

“If you're watching this, I'm probably dead.”

Then she said the sentence none of us expected.

“Dr. Sarah Jenkins is not who they think she is.”

My blood ran cold.

Ariana continued.

“She is the reason they chose Emily.”

May you like

**“HE FINALLY LEARNED THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS BRIDE… AND WHAT HE DID NEXT LE...

THE BRIDE BEHIND THE VEILEPISODE 10WRITTEN BY RUKEVWE MERRYBLACKWOOD HOTEL & SUITES“Please. Tell me the truth.”Brianna took a...

THEY KICKED ME OUT FOR SPILLING ORANGE JUICE. 3 HOURS LATER, SOMEONE KNO...

MY PARENTS THREW ME AND MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER INTO A SNOWSTORM. THREE HOURS LATER, SOMEONE KNOCKED ON THEIR DOOR.It was 10:45...

I Picked Up My 19-Year-Old Daughter From Her Summer Job—Then I Saw the N...

“MOM... SHE’S MINE NOW.”I picked up my 19-year-old daughter, Sophie, after her summer job at a lakeside resort.She walked out of t...

The video stopped.

And every light in the hospital went out.