Chapter 14 - One Sister Must DieThe message remained on the marble like a sentence carved into the family's blood.
ONE SISTER MUST DIE.
Isabella stood frozen.
Celeste picked up Celine's scarf.
“She was alive five minutes ago.”
Clara stepped forward.
“She knew this was coming.”
“Who took her?”
Nobody answered.
Then the mansion's intercom activated.
A voice spoke.
“Isabella.”
Her father's voice.
Richard.
But Richard had been shot.
He should have been dead.
“You thought blood meant death?”
Isabella stared at the intercom.
“He's alive.”
Nathan looked toward Helena.
“Where did he go?”
Helena whispered:
“There is another chamber.”
“What chamber?”
“The family vault.”
They rushed there.
The vault doors were sealed.
A biometric panel glowed.
Isabella pressed her hand against it.
The door opened.
Inside sat Richard.
Blood soaked his shirt.
But he was smiling.
Beside him was Celine.
A gun pointed at her head.
Celeste stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
Richard laughed.
“You still think you can give me orders.”
Isabella entered.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because every family needs an heir.”
“You said I was the heir.”
“I lied.”
He turned toward Celine.
“She is.”
Celine stared at him.
“You wanted me dead.”
“I needed you alive.”
Isabella frowned.
“Why?”
Richard's eyes hardened.
“Because the original trust does not name Isabella.”
He held up a document.
“It names the youngest daughter.”
Celine.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The family war.
The twins.
The lies.
The attacks.
The attempted murder.
Richard had engineered the conflict because he needed to force the inheritance into the hands of the daughter he could still control.
Celine.
But then Clara stepped into the doorway.
“Not anymore.”
Richard aimed at her.
Clara smiled.
“You've forgotten one thing.”
“What?”
“Celine isn't the youngest.”
Everyone froze.
Clara looked at Isabella.
“She is.”
Isabella's heart stopped.
“What?”
Clara explained.
The birth records had been altered.
Celine wasn't the youngest.
Isabella was.
The true order had been hidden because Richard had switched their birth times.
Isabella was born eleven minutes later.
The trust named her.
Richard's face changed.
“No.”
Helena stared at him.
“You lost.”
For the first time, Richard looked afraid.
He fired.
Nathan tackled Isabella.
The bullet struck the vault wall.
Clara shot Richard in the shoulder.
Celeste grabbed Celine.
The four sisters stared at one another.
Three identical faces.
Three different lives.
One inheritance.
One truth.
Then the vault door began closing.
Richard crawled toward Isabella.
“You still don't understand.”
Isabella stared.
“What?”
He smiled through the blood.
“There was never supposed to be three daughters.”
Silence.
“There were four.”
Everyone froze.
A woman stepped out from behind the vault wall.
She looked exactly like them.
Helena whispered:
“No…”
The woman smiled.
May you like
“Hello, sisters.”
And in her hand was the original inheritance document.
