Chapter 3 - THE GIRL WHO NEVER EXISTEDNobody understood.
Not at first.
Then my father whispered:
“Stop.”
Victor looked at him.
“You should have told them years ago.”
Juliette stared at Dad.
“Another daughter?”
He closed his eyes.
My mind raced.
Mother had never mentioned another child.
There were no family photographs.
No birthday stories.
No bedroom left untouched.
Nothing.
I looked at Victor.
“What are you talking about?”
He spoke slowly.
“Before Eleanor married Douglas, she gave birth to a baby girl.”
My father remained completely still.
“She was nineteen.”
Juliette shook her head.
“No.”
“The father disappeared before the child was born.”
“Where is she?”
Victor looked at Dad.
Douglas finally spoke.
“Her name was Rebecca.”
My chest tightened.
“Was?”
Dad’s voice broke.
“Your mother was told she died.”
I stared at him.
“Told?”
He nodded.
“Eleanor’s parents arranged the adoption without her consent. Years later, she began searching.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“And found her?”
Dad’s silence answered.
Victor continued.
“Three years before Eleanor died, she found Rebecca.”
Juliette sat down hard.
“So we have a sister.”
“Half sister,” Victor said.
“Where is she now?”
Nobody answered.
I suddenly knew.
The body.
The burned woman in our house.
“No.”
I stepped backward.
Marcus’s expression changed.
“Victor.”
He nodded grimly.
“We believe the body identified as Caroline may have been Rebecca.”
The floor seemed to tilt.
For five years, another woman had been buried under my name.
Somewhere there had been people who believed Rebecca had vanished.
Maybe friends.
A husband.
Children.
Someone had erased her exactly the way they erased me.
“Why was she at our house?”
Victor looked at Dad.
“Eleanor secretly added Rebecca to the trust.”
My father slammed his palm against the table.
“I didn’t know!”
Victor snapped back.
“You knew she existed.”
“I did not know she was coming that night.”
Marcus turned to Victor.
“How do you know she was there?”
“Because I invited her.”
Silence.
Victor looked exhausted now.
“Eleanor gave me sealed instructions before she died. If certain financial irregularities continued, I was supposed to disclose everything to Caroline and Rebecca.”
I remembered the documents.
“The papers I found.”
“Yes.”
“You left them for me?”
Victor nodded.
“I arranged for them to be delivered anonymously.”
“You could have just called me.”
“I was afraid Douglas would find out.”
Dad rose again.
“You coward.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“You have no right to call anyone a coward.”
Marcus cut between them.
“Rebecca came to the house because Victor asked her to?”
“Yes.”
“To meet Caroline.”
I pressed my fingers against my temples.
A memory surfaced.
Not smoke this time.
A face.
A woman standing at the far end of the hallway.
Brown hair.
My mother’s eyes.
I had seen her.
For seconds.
Maybe minutes.
Then Juliette had arrived.
“What happened?”
Victor’s gaze shifted to Juliette.
She shook her head.
“Don’t.”
“You saw Rebecca.”
“No.”
“You argued with her.”
Juliette backed away.
“No.”
A memory hit me so hard I gasped.
Juliette screaming.
Not at me.
At someone behind me.
“You don’t belong here!”
The same cruelty she had shown when I entered her wedding.
Only five years earlier.
Rebecca had stood near the study doors holding documents.
Juliette had demanded to know who she was.
Rebecca told her.
Our sister.
Our mother’s first daughter.
Juliette had laughed.
Then Rebecca showed her the trust amendment.
Mother had divided more assets than Juliette ever knew.
I looked at Juliette.
“You met her.”
Tears formed in her eyes.
“She came into our home like she owned it.”
“She was Mother’s daughter.”
“She was a stranger.”
“So was I when I walked into this room.”
Juliette looked like she had been struck.
Marcus spoke.
“What happened next?”
Juliette’s voice trembled.
“We argued.”
“About the inheritance?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“The fire alarm went off.”
I remembered smoke filling the hall.
Rebecca running toward the west stairs.
Me heading toward the east corridor to retrieve the files.
Juliette following me.
Then the service door.
Then darkness.
Marcus looked at Victor.
“If Rebecca was in the house, why wasn’t she listed as missing?”
“Because nobody knew her real identity.”
“Who called her there?”
“I did.”
“And who else knew?”
Victor’s eyes moved toward my father.
Dad went pale.
Victor said:
“Douglas knew Rebecca planned to challenge the trust.”
My father shook his head.
“No.”
Marcus stared at him.
“Did you know Rebecca was at the estate that night?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was alive?”
“Yes.”
The word shattered something in me.
I stepped toward him.
“You knew we had a sister.”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“And you never told us?”
“I was trying to protect your mother’s memory.”
“No. You were protecting yourself.”
He could not deny it.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Everyone waited.
Finally, he lowered the phone.
“What happened?” I asked.
Marcus looked at me.
“The cemetery.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“The grave marked Caroline Mercer was opened an hour ago under court order.”
Nobody moved.
May you like
Marcus swallowed.
“The coffin is empty.”
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