LOGIN“Read it again.”Damian’s voice was barely audible.Helen stared at the register.“Mother: Sophia Blake. Child: Amelia Carter.”Daniel took the book from her.“This is impossible.”“That’s what we’ve been saying about everything,” Elias replied. “But the records keep telling us something different.”Damian looked at the name again.Sophia BlakeThere had been two women with that name. The older Sophia, who had raised the younger Sophia, and the younger Sophia, who had been involved with Damian.Which one had given birth to Amelia?“Call Margaret,” Daniel said.Damian dialled immediately.It rang several times before someone answered.“Damian?”“Where are you?”There was a pause.“Why?”“Because we need to talk about Amelia’s birth.”Silence.Then Margaret spoke.“Have you found the register?”Damian’s eyes narrowed.“You knew?”“I suspected.”“Did Sophia Blake give birth to Amelia?”Margaret exhaled shakily.“Yes.”Daniel closed his eyes,Damian gripped the phone.“Which Sophia?”“The firs
“Vanessa!”Damian searched the bedroom again, as though she might somehow have disappeared behind the curtains.The window was open. A thin strip of fabric hung from the frame, suggesting someone had climbed through it.Daniel knelt beside Eleanor.“Eleanor. Can you hear me?”He checked her pulse.“She’s alive.”Elias rushed towards the window.“There’s a vehicle outside.”Damian followed him.A black SUV was disappearing around the corner.He pulled out his phone and dialled Vanessa’s number.It rang.Once.Twice.Then someone answered.“Hello, Damian.”Richard.Damian’s jaw tightened.“Where is she?”“Who?”“Vanessa.”Richard gave a quiet laugh.“Your family has become rather difficult to keep track of.”“If you’ve touched her”“You really should stop making threats you cannot carry out.”Damian looked at the disappearing vehicle.“What do you want?”“Bring me the original trust documents.”“You already have copies.”“I don’t want copies.”“And if I refuse?”Richard paused.“Then you’ll ha
Vanessa stared at the photograph until the edges began to blur.Eleanor Vale.Her mother.Holding a newborn baby,Her.The date beneath the photograph was unmistakable.November 12, 2000.“Where did you get this?” she whispered.Nobody answered.She turned the phone towards Daniel.“Tell me this is fake.”Daniel examined the image, his expression growing darker.“I can’t.”Vanessa laughed, but there was no humour in it.“Of course you can’t. Nobody can ever tell me anything. Everybody just looks at me with those miserable expressions.”Sophia approached carefully.“Vanessa…”“Don’t.”“I know what it feels like to discover that the people who raised you—”“You don’t know what it feels like to discover that your entire identity might be a lie.”Sophia stopped.Vanessa looked at the photograph again.“Eleanor gave me away?”Daniel took a breath.“There’s a possibility she didn’t know what was happening.”“Don’t defend her.”“I’m not. I’m saying we need the original records before we accuse anyo
“That’s not Vanessa.”Sophia’s words hung in the air.She pointed at the reflection in Damian’s phone.“Look at the eyes. Look at the shape of her face. That’s my mother.”Vanessa snatched the phone.For several seconds, she stared at the image.The woman standing behind Amelia had her face. Her hair was pulled back, and the poor lighting made it difficult to distinguish her features. But there was something else.The woman was wearing a silver bracelet.317-B.Vanessa slowly touched her bare wrist.“My bracelet.”Elias took the phone from her.“The photograph could have been altered.”“No,” Sophia whispered. “I’ve seen that bracelet before. My mother never took it off.”Damian looked at her.“Why would your mother be wearing Vanessa’s bracelet?”Sophia shook her head.“I don’t know. But there’s something I’ve never told you.”“Then start talking.”“My mother had a scar.”“Where?” Helen asked.“Behind her left ear. She said it came from an accident when she was young.”Vanessa immedia
“Richard, don’t.”Isabella’s warning barely registered.Amelia was still staring at the photograph.Vanessa.The face was unmistakable. The eyes, the nose, the small scar near her chin. It was the same woman Amelia had stood beside, argued with, cried with, and slowly come to love as a sister.Yet Richard was claiming she had never been born.“Explain that,” Amelia demanded.Richard calmly returned the photograph to the folder.“Vanessa Blake is an identity created from several falsified records. The woman you know has lived under a name that was never legally hers.”“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist.”“Of course she exists. I’m talking about the identity, not the woman.”Amelia’s expression hardened.“Then stop playing with words.”Richard smiled faintly.“You have your grandmother’s temper.”“Don’t mention my family.”“Your family is precisely why you’re here.”Isabella moved between them.“Richard, you’ve done enough. Let her go.”He glanced at her.“You’re in no position to make de
“She’s lying.”Daniel’s voice was firm, but his expression betrayed him.Damian turned towards him. “You said that about Richard. You said it about the records. You said it about almost everything we’ve discovered. How many times are we supposed to hear that someone is lying before we accept that there’s something you don’t want us to know?”Daniel didn’t answer immediately.Vanessa stepped between them.“We don’t have time for another argument. Amelia is being held somewhere, and whoever has her knows we’re looking for her.”Elias was still examining the documents.“There’s a location code on the back of the photograph.”He held it up.Damian approached.Written in tiny letters beneath the faded image was:VMC — ARCHIVE 04.“Vaughn Medical Centre,” Helen said.“Archive four?” Vanessa asked.“It’s not a public archive. The hospital used to have a restricted records department beneath the old maternity wing.”Daniel’s face changed.“I know that place.”Damian looked at him.“Of course you







