CHAPTER 7: THE SECOND DAUGHTER
Emily’s body reacted before her mind did.
She crossed the room and pulled Elizabeth Elena from the stranger’s arms.
The baby began crying.
Detective Cole reached for his weapon.
The woman raised both hands.
“I’m not here to hurt her.”
“You took her from the bedroom,” Emily said.
“The door was open.”
“It was guarded.”
“Not by anyone loyal to you.”
Cole ordered her to turn around.
The woman obeyed.
Her resemblance to Elena was nearly perfect, but she moved differently. Her shoulders remained rigid. Her expression carried none of Elena’s quiet warmth.
Thomas stared at her.
“Sofia Marin died in 1993.”
“That was the name Vincent gave the police.”
She looked toward Emily.
“My real name is Sofia Reyes. Elena is my twin sister.”
Emily held her daughter closer.
“Why did you frame her?”
“To keep Vincent from killing her.”
“You had her arrested.”
“Inside a protected detention facility. She is safer there than she was in this hotel.”
Cole handcuffed Sofia.
“You’re going to explain everything.”
Sofia did not resist.
She had spent most of her adult life working for Vincent Shaw.
After Elena became pregnant at seventeen, Margaret Whitmore had discovered the relationship between Elena and Gabriel Reyes. Margaret feared scandal and wanted the baby for Jonathan and Elizabeth, who had been unable to have children.
Vincent offered a solution.
He arranged for Elena to be confined at Black Harbor.
Sofia tried to help her escape.
Vincent caught her.
“He gave me a choice,” Sofia said. “Work for him or watch Elena disappear permanently.”
“What kind of work?” Emily asked.
“Carrying documents. Opening accounts. Pretending to be people I wasn’t.”
Vincent understood the value of identical twins.
He used Sofia whenever he needed Elena blamed for something.
The original accusation that Elena had forced Jonathan’s car off the mountain had been supported by a witness who claimed to see her near the barrier.
That witness had actually seen Sofia.
“You helped him destroy my mother’s life,” Emily said.
“I did.”
Sofia did not look away.
“I told myself I was protecting her. The truth is that I was afraid.”
“Why come here now?”
“Because Vincent plans to take the Covenant at midnight on your birthday. Once the shares transfer into his trust, he will dissolve Whitmore Holdings and destroy every remaining Black Harbor record.”
Thomas frowned.
“He cannot dissolve the company without a board vote.”
“He already owns enough board members.”
Sofia removed a small black key from around her neck.
“The brass key opens Box One. This opens Box Two.”
“Where?”
“The original Black Harbor building.”
Elena had believed the maternity home was destroyed, but only its public wing had been demolished. The oldest section remained beneath a private rehabilitation clinic outside the city.
Margaret and Vincent had built two underground vaults.
One contained financial records.
The other contained birth records.
Jonathan discovered both.
He took one key.
Vincent kept the other.
“How did you get it?” Emily asked.
“I stole it this morning.”
Cole’s phone rang.
He listened for several seconds before his expression changed.
Elena had disappeared from custody.
The transport vehicle taking her to a secure facility was found abandoned beneath an overpass.
Both officers were unconscious.
There was no sign of Elena.
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Vincent reached her first.”
Emily approached her.
“You said prison would keep her safe.”
“I was wrong.”
“Where would he take her?”
“To Black Harbor.”
Cole ordered a full tactical response.
Sofia shook her head.
“Vincent has people inside the department. A large operation will warn him.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We enter through the old delivery tunnel beneath the clinic.”
Emily handed the baby to Thomas.
“You’re staying here with her.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You cannot go into that building.”
“My mother is there because of me.”
“She is there because of Vincent.”
“And he will use her to make me sign away the Covenant.”
Sofia stood.
“That is exactly what he will do.”
Emily looked at Cole.
“I’m going.”
Cole wanted to refuse.
Then he looked at the determination in her face and understood that ordering her to remain behind would only make her find another way.
They left the hotel shortly before dawn.
The clinic stood on a wooded hill two hours north of Manhattan.
From the road, it appeared abandoned.
Sofia led them through the trees to a rusted metal door hidden behind dead vines.
She inserted the black key.
The lock opened.
A narrow tunnel descended beneath the hill.
The walls smelled of damp stone and disinfectant.
Halfway down, they heard a woman scream.
Emily recognized the voice.
“Elena.”
She began running.
At the end of the tunnel, they found a nursery preserved exactly as it had been thirty-three years earlier.
Metal cribs lined the walls.
Faded numbers had been painted above them.
Elena was tied to a chair beneath the number seventeen.
Vincent Shaw stood beside her.
He was holding a gun.
May you like
“You arrived earlier than expected,” he said.
Then the steel door closed behind Emily.
