Chapter 6 - The Woman With Two Faces
Everyone froze.
Clara looked toward the ceiling.
“It's not me.”
The voice laughed.
A screen lit up.
A woman appeared.
She looked exactly like Clara.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same scar on her chin.
Ruby whispered, “Aunt Clara?”
The woman on the screen smiled.
“I suppose you finally found her.”
Clara stepped closer.
“That's my sister.”
My father stared.
“You said she died.”
“I believed she did.”
The woman on the screen laughed.
“You buried the wrong child.”
The truth was worse than anything I had imagined.
My grandmother had given birth to twin girls.
Clara and Claire.
One was raised inside the Cross family.
The other was taken by an organization connected to Adrian.
Claire had grown up believing the Cross family abandoned her.
Adrian had fed that hatred for decades.
She became his most effective operative.
And she had been inside my organization all along.
As my father's assistant.
As an adviser.
As a silent observer.
The woman who had always known where our money moved.
The woman who could walk into rooms without anyone questioning her.
Claire.
I remembered a photograph from years ago.
A woman standing beside my father at a charity event.
I had assumed it was Clara.
It wasn't.
“How long?” I asked.
Clara answered softly.
“She replaced me for almost two years.”
“Then who was working for Adrian?”
“My twin.”
I felt sick.
“Where is she?”
The screen changed.
Ruby appeared.
She was sitting in a room.
Not frightened.
Beside her was Claire.
“You have twenty minutes.”
Claire looked into the camera.
“Bring the archive.”
I said, “You already have it.”
“No.”
She smiled.
“You have the original.”
I looked toward the boxes.
There was another secret compartment.
My father's old crest opened it.
Inside was a small metal drive.
The real archive.
“Give it to me,” Claire said.
“Let Ruby go.”
“No.”
She tilted her head.
“First, bring it to the tower.”
“What tower?”
“My father knows.”
I looked at my father.
He closed his eyes.
“The Cross Tower.”
The tower had been abandoned after my father's supposed death.
No one had entered it since.
We moved.
I took Ruby's bracelet.
Theo came with us.
Ranger stayed close.
Warren brought only three trusted men.
Clara insisted on joining.
Victor remained at the hospital.
Daniel was under guard.
The tower was twenty stories of concrete and glass.
At the top was my father's old office.
Claire stood by the window.
Ruby was beside her.
But the moment I entered, Ruby ran toward me.
I caught her.
Claire didn't stop her.
That was the first strange thing.
The second was that Claire looked tired.
Not triumphant.
Tired.
She stared at the metal drive.
“You really found it.”
“You wanted this.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I wanted proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That Adrian lied.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Claire looked at Clara.
“He told me our parents abandoned me.”
Clara began to cry.
“They didn't.”
“I know that now.”
Claire's voice broke.
“He told me Sebastian knew I existed and chose not to find me.”
“I didn't.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“But by then I had already done terrible things.”
Adrian had used her.
But she had still made choices.
She had helped him manipulate accounts, threaten witnesses, and move children between safe houses.
Now she wanted to escape.
“Why bring Ruby here?”
“She was the only person Adrian believed I couldn't hurt.”
Ruby looked up at me.
“She helped me.”
I stared at my daughter.
“What do you mean?”
Claire smiled faintly.
“Your daughter asked me why I was sad.”
Ruby nodded.
“She said you looked lonely.”
Claire wiped her eyes.
“I haven't heard kindness in a long time.”
Then the elevator doors opened.
Adrian stepped out.
He was holding a gun.
“You disappoint me, Claire.”
She turned.
“You lied to me.”
“I gave you purpose.”
“You gave me hatred.”
Adrian raised the gun.
I pushed Ruby behind me.
Claire stepped between us.
“No.”
Adrian shot her.
Clara screamed.
Claire fell.
I fired.
Adrian escaped through the emergency stairwell.
Warren chased him.
I knelt beside Claire.
Blood spread across her shirt.
She looked at me.
“Don't let him take Ruby.”
“You're going to live.”
She smiled.
“I hope so.”
Ruby knelt beside her.
“Aunt Claire?”
Claire reached out.
Ruby held her hand.
“You're not bad anymore.”
Claire closed her eyes.
That sentence seemed to break her more than the bullet.
We got her to the hospital.
Surgeons saved her.
Adrian escaped again.
But this time we had the archive.
The files revealed everything.
The bribed officials.
The shell companies.
The illegal experiments.
The murdered witnesses.
The stolen children.
The hidden hospitals.
And one final file.
A list of future targets.
At the top was Ruby.
At the bottom was me.
And next to both names was a date.
Tomorrow.
But there was another name.
Theo.
I looked at the boy.
“Why is your name here?”
Theo shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Eli looked frightened.
Then he whispered.
“Yes, you do.”
Theo stared at him.
“What?”
Eli pointed at the archive.
“Mom told us.”
“Tell me.”
Eli swallowed.
“She said our family used to work for Adrian.”
Theo's face went pale.
“Our father wasn't homeless.”
I looked at them.
Their father had been one of Adrian's drivers.
He had disappeared after stealing documents.
Their mother had hidden them.
The boys weren't random victims.
They were connected to the original conspiracy.
And Adrian had spent years searching for them.
Why?
Because their father had taken the final piece of evidence.
I looked at Theo.
“Where is it?”
Theo stared at Ranger.
Ranger had been lying quietly in the corner.
Theo reached beneath the dog's collar.
A tiny metal capsule was attached underneath.
Inside was a memory chip.
The final evidence.
Everything Adrian had spent decades trying to destroy.
Theo had been carrying it without knowing.
And now I understood why my daughter had been taken.
Ruby wasn't the key.
May you like
She had been bait.
The real key had been the orphan boy at my gate.
