Chapter 4 - The Sister Nobody Knew Existed
I spent the next six hours trying to convince myself Margaret was lying.
There was no sister.
There had never been.
I was an only child.
I had spent my entire life being told that.
But the photographs did not lie.
The first showed my mother holding two newborn babies.
The second showed my father carrying one infant away from the hospital.
The third had a date and a name.
Amelia Russo.
My mother had written it herself.
Amelia.
My twin sister.
The same daughter who was supposedly buried in a tiny cemetery outside Chicago.
I looked at Ethan.
“Why would they fake her death?”
“Because someone wanted her hidden.”
“Who?”
He shook his head.
“We need more evidence.”
Margaret finally admitted she had kept the secret for years because my mother had begged her to protect both children.
But after my mother’s death, the family split.
One child remained with my father.
The other disappeared.
Then the Russos found her.
I felt sick.
“My sister is with the Russos?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
Margaret looked down.
“We don’t know.”
That answer was almost worse.
That evening, Ethan received a message from an unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
My sister.
Alive.
Older.
Standing in front of a warehouse.
Beside her was my father.
I stared at the picture.
“That’s him.”
Ethan nodded.
“He’s alive.”
The message contained an address.
Then one sentence.
COME FIND YOUR FAMILY.
Brian immediately objected.
“It’s a trap.”
“I know,” Ethan said.
I looked at him.
“We still have to go.”
He stared at me.
“No.”
“You said my father was alive.”
“I said the photograph suggests he is.”
“I’m going.”
“So am I.”
I felt a strange tension between us.
“You’re not letting me come.”
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
That was different.
We left after midnight.
The warehouse was abandoned.
At least, it looked abandoned.
Inside, we found my father tied to a chair.
He had been beaten.
“Dad!”
Ethan held me back until the room was secure.
My father looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I hated that those were his first words.
“You lied to me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Everyone says that.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I thought I could make things right before you knew.”
“What happened to Amelia?”
He closed his eyes.
“I gave her away.”
I froze.
“To whom?”
“The Russos.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“They threatened to kill both children.”
“So you traded one daughter for the other?”
My father cried.
“I thought they would raise her safely.”
“You thought?”
His silence answered everything.
A sound came from the doorway.
A woman stepped into the light.
She had dark hair.
Gray eyes.
My eyes.
My heart stopped.
She looked at me as if she were looking into a mirror.
“Jane?”
I whispered her name.
“Amelia?”
She smiled through tears.
“Yes.”
For the first time in my life, I met the person who had existed beside me without ever knowing I was alive.
We did not hug immediately.
We simply stared.
Then Amelia crossed the room.
She touched my cheek.
“You really exist.”
“So do you.”
She laughed and cried at the same time.
My father lowered his head.
“I wanted you to meet differently.”
“Then you should have told me years ago.”
Amelia looked at Ethan.
Her expression changed instantly.
“You married him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my father arranged it.”
She glanced at my father.
“Then he sold both of us.”
The room went silent.
Ethan stepped forward.
“I didn’t marry her to hurt her.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed.
“But you knew who she was.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew what the Carter family did to our mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you still married her.”
Ethan nodded.
“Yes.”
Amelia turned toward me.
“Then you need to know something.”
She pulled a small flash drive from her coat.
“The Russos don’t want your inheritance.”
“Then what do they want?”
“They want the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one your mother hid before she died.”
My heart raced.
“What is in it?”
“Every shipment, every account, every bribed official, every family name connected to Chicago’s criminal network for the last thirty years.”
I looked at Ethan.
“That would destroy half the city.”
“And the other half would kill for it.”
Ethan reached for the drive.
Amelia stopped him.
“It’s encrypted.”
“Do you have the key?”
“No.”
“Who does?”
Amelia looked at me.
“You.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know any key.”
“You do.”
She reached into her coat again.
Then she gave me a childhood necklace.
I recognized it instantly.
My mother had given it to me when I was five.
I had worn it almost every day until I was twelve.
I had thought the chain had broken and been lost forever.
Amelia turned it over.
There was a tiny symbol engraved on the back.
“A number.”
I stared.
It was my mother’s favorite painting number.
The number of a painting hanging in my father’s house.
We returned to the mansion before sunrise.
I went straight to the solarium.
The painting was still there.
A stormy lake under a gray sky.
I removed it from the wall.
Behind the frame was a metal compartment.
Inside was a handwritten ledger.
Names.
Dates.
Accounts.
Enough to bring down powerful men.
But one name appeared over and over.
Victor Carter.
Ethan’s grandfather.
And beneath his name was another.
Ethan Carter.
My hands shook.
“What is this?” Ethan asked.
I turned.
He saw the pages.
His face went pale.
“You knew your grandfather was involved.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the ledger.”
“No.”
I held up the page.
“Then why is your name here?”
He stared at it.
“I don’t know.”
I wanted to believe him.
I did.
But trust had become fragile.
Then I noticed something.
The entries beside Ethan’s name were dated before he was eighteen.
Impossible.
Someone had been using his name long before he could have participated.
Ethan stepped closer.
“He was preparing to frame me.”
“Your grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if anything ever happened to the family, he needed a scapegoat.”
A terrible thought entered my mind.
“Is that why you were so cold?”
He looked at me.
“Partly.”
“You thought everyone wanted something from you.”
“Yes.”
“And you thought I did too.”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“Did you ever think I wanted you?”
His eyes stayed on mine.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he said quietly, “That was the one possibility I couldn’t allow myself to believe.”
My heart hurt.
“Why?”
“Because wanting you would make you the one thing I couldn’t survive losing.”
Before I could answer, every light in the house went out.
Then the front windows exploded.
Gunfire filled the room.
Ethan threw himself over me.
Amelia screamed.
Brian shouted orders.
And somewhere in the darkness, a voice called out:
May you like
“Give us the ledger, Jane!”
The war had finally come to our doorstep.
