Chapter 8 - THE SECOND GIRLThe FBI interrogation lasted until sunrise.
Eleanor said nothing.
Grant demanded lawyers.
Nathan went into surgery.
And Maya sat beside Sophie in a hospital corridor wondering how many secret daughters one family could reasonably contain.
Sophie finally said:
“I hate rich people.”
Maya looked at her.
“You are rich.”
“Then I hate myself.”
“That seems inefficient.”
Sophie smiled weakly.
They were becoming friends.
Not cousins.
Not exactly nieces.
Something stranger.
Survivors.
Ruth slept nearby.
Evelyn approached with two coffees.
She handed one to Maya.
Maya accepted it.
A small beginning.
“Emily Rose Cole,” Maya said.
Evelyn sat.
“Nathan had a daughter named Emily?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“We need Eleanor.”
They found her in federal custody.
Maya entered alone.
Eleanor sat behind glass.
Even arrested, she looked aristocratic.
“You came.”
“Who was Emily?”
Eleanor smiled.
“Someone Nathan loved.”
“Who?”
“Ask him.”
“He’s unconscious.”
“Then wait.”
Maya slammed her palm against the glass.
“I’m finished waiting.”
Eleanor’s smile disappeared.
Good.
Maya continued.
“You built your power by making people believe you knew more than they did. Secrets made you important.”
Eleanor watched her.
“But Orpheus released everything.”
Maya leaned closer.
“You have nothing left except one story.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“And once you tell it, nobody needs you.”
Maya stood.
“So keep it.”
She walked toward the door.
“Emily was Nathan’s wife.”
Maya stopped.
She turned.
Eleanor smiled.
“Nathan married at twenty-two.”
“Celeste?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Anna Cole.”
Maya sat again.
Eleanor continued.
“Anna became pregnant. Nathan wanted to leave Grant’s organization.”
“So Grant killed her.”
“No.”
Eleanor looked almost offended.
“I did.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Nathan was useful.”
“You murdered a pregnant woman because your son wanted a normal life?”
“I saved him from weakness.”
Maya stared at the woman across the glass.
There was no madness in Eleanor.
That was worse.
Only conviction.
“Anna survived long enough to give birth.”
“Emily.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“I placed her with another family.”
“Why switch hospital bracelets with Sophie?”
“To erase the trail.”
Maya understood.
“You used Sophie’s birth to fake Emily’s death.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Emily now?”
Eleanor smiled.
“Close.”
Maya felt cold.
“How close?”
“You’ve met her.”
Maya ran through every woman in the mansion.
Staff.
Guests.
Foundation employees.
Then she remembered someone.
A woman in her early twenties.
Quiet.
Always around Sophie.
Her assistant.
“Lena.”
Eleanor’s smile confirmed it.
Maya stood.
Lena Ward had worked for the Harrow Foundation for two years.
Sophie adored her.
Maya raced out.
“Sophie!”
The chair was empty.
Coffee spilled across the floor.
Evelyn stood nearby.
“What?”
“Where is Sophie?”
“She got a text from Lena.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
“Where did she go?”
“The parking garage.”
They ran.
Too late.
Sophie was gone.
On the concrete floor lay her phone.
A message glowed:
I know who your real father is. Come alone. — Lena
Maya cursed.
Evelyn grabbed her arm.
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
“No, you’re panicking.”
“That’s because a seventeen-year-old has been kidnapped!”
“Lena may not know who she is.”
Maya stopped.
“What?”
“If Eleanor hid Emily, she probably raised her under another identity.”
“Then why take Sophie?”
Evelyn looked at the message.
“Because someone told her enough to make her angry.”
Grant.
Maya understood.
Grant had lost everything.
But he could still destroy Nathan.
And Nathan had just discovered one daughter.
Grant could weaponize another.
Nathan woke two hours later.
Maya told him.
He stared at the ceiling.
“Emily survived?”
“Yes.”
“And she has Sophie?”
“Yes.”
Nathan tried to get out of bed.
Maya pushed him down.
“You have fresh stitches.”
“My daughters are missing.”
Maya paused.
Daughters.
Plural.
Nathan looked overwhelmed by the word.
Twenty-four hours ago he had none.
Now he had two.
“Where would Lena go?”
Nathan thought.
Then whispered:
“San Pedro.”
Maya stared.
“The warehouse.”
Nathan nodded.
“It wasn’t demolished.”
“Why would she go there?”
“Because Grant knows that’s where guilt owns me.”
They drove to San Pedro.
Celeste insisted on coming.
So did Evelyn.
Ruth threatened to remove her own IV if anyone tried to stop her.
Maya finally said, “Fine. Apparently kidnapping response is a family activity.”
At the abandoned warehouse, Nathan stopped.
The place looked exactly as it had eighteen years earlier.
Burn marks still scarred the brick.
He struggled to breathe.
Maya noticed.
“You don’t have to go inside.”
“Yes.”
“You can wait.”
“No.”
“Nathan—”
“I spent eighteen years wishing I could walk back through that door.”
He looked at the building.
“Maybe this is the closest I get.”
They entered.
Sophie sat tied to a chair.
Lena stood behind her with a gun.
She was twenty-two.
Dark-haired.
Gray-eyed.
Nathan stopped.
She had Anna’s face.
His dead wife.
The gun trembled.
“Don’t come closer.”
Nathan’s eyes filled.
“Emily.”
“My name is Lena.”
“You were born March seventeenth.”
“Shut up.”
“You had a birthmark behind your left shoulder.”
Lena froze.
Nathan continued.
“Your mother wanted to call you Emily because—”
“SHUT UP!”
She fired into the ceiling.
Sophie screamed.
Nathan didn’t move.
“Because Emily was her grandmother’s name.”
Lena started crying.
“You abandoned me.”
“No.”
“Grant showed me the files.”
“He lied.”
“He showed me your signature!”
Nathan’s face changed.
“What signature?”
“Transfer authorization.”
Nathan understood.
Eleanor.
Forgery.
Lena screamed:
“You signed me away!”
Nathan slowly raised his hands.
“I believed you died.”
“Liar.”
“I buried an empty coffin.”
Lena’s face cracked.
“I visited it every year.”
She shook her head violently.
“No.”
Nathan took another step.
“Your mother’s name was Anna.”
Lena cried harder.
“She hated roses.”
Another step.
“She put hot sauce on eggs.”
Another.
“She snored when she drank wine.”
Lena’s gun lowered slightly.
Nathan’s voice broke.
“And when you were born, I held you for forty-three seconds before Eleanor took me out of the room.”
Lena stared.
“I remember counting.”
He was crying now.
“Forty-three seconds were all I thought I ever had with my daughter.”
The gun dropped.
Nathan crossed the distance.
Lena collapsed into him.
He held her.
Sophie began crying too.
Maya turned away.
Even Celeste wiped her eyes.
Then applause came from the darkness.
Grant Harrow stepped forward.
Everyone froze.
He should have been in custody.
Instead he stood there with a gun.
And beside him was a federal agent.
Maya recognized the agent from the vault.
Grant smiled.
“You released Orpheus.”
Nathan shielded both daughters.
Grant continued.
“But you forgot something.”
Maya looked at the agent.
Corruption.
Orpheus had exposed thousands.
Some were inside the investigation itself.
Grant smiled.
“Information doesn’t destroy power.”
May you like
He raised the gun.
“It merely tells power who to kill first.”
