Chapter 20 - THE OTHER DAUGHTER
Her name was Grace Bennett.
Thirty-one.
Emergency-room nurse.
Cleveland.
Clara laughed when she saw the occupation.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Of course she works in emergency medicine.”
“Genetic?”
“Don’t start.”
Grace had Nathan’s eyes.
Clara knew before the DNA test.
Grace did not.
When Clara approached her outside the hospital, Grace thought she was selling something.
Then Clara showed Nathan’s photograph.
Grace stopped smiling.
“My mother had that picture.”
Clara’s heart hurt.
Grace’s mother had known Nathan during the years after his supposed death.
Nathan had fallen in love again.
Clara struggled with that.
She hated herself for struggling.
Victor did not judge her.
“He was alive,” she whispered that night.
“Yes.”
“He had another family.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m angry.”
“You’re allowed.”
“He thought he was protecting me.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that sentence.”
“I know.”
Grace initially wanted nothing to do with Clara.
Then Mercer’s people found her.
A vehicle tried to force Grace off the highway.
Clara and Victor reached her hospital before the second attempt.
Grace stared at the armed security around them.
“What exactly is your life?”
Clara considered.
“Complicated.”
Victor said, “That’s generous.”
Grace looked at him.
“You’re the mafia guy?”
“Former.”
“Sure.”
Clara almost smiled.
The sisters were nothing alike.
Grace was louder.
Funnier.
Less cautious.
But when a trauma patient arrived, they moved almost identically.
Victor watched them work.
Nathan lived in both women.
That night Grace agreed to the genetic test.
Positive.
She carried Nathan’s marker.
Mercer needed her.
Which meant Grace was now in danger.
Clara refused to let history repeat.
“You stay with us.”
Grace folded her arms.
“Do I get a vote?”
Victor opened his mouth.
Clara pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
He closed it.
Grace smiled.
“I like you.”
Victor looked offended.
The humor lasted until Roman entered.
Mercer had escaped federal custody during a hospital transfer.
Clara stared.
“How?”
Roman looked furious.
“He never went to federal custody.”
The agents who removed him from Clara’s apartment had been impostors.
May you like
Mercer had staged everything.
And now he knew exactly where Grace was.
