Chapter 7 - The Woman Wearing Rachel’s Name
I kept the doors locked.
The woman by the gate lifted both hands away from the control panel.
“My name is Rachel Ames,” she said.
Daniel’s voice came through the garage speakers again.
“Rachel Ames died nine years ago.”
Julian’s smile widened.
“Clara,” he said through the window, “unlock the car.”
I ignored him.
The woman walked slowly toward the sedan.
“Daniel is using a death certificate filed under an alias,” she said. “The record was created after I disappeared.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t. Check the photograph in the personnel file.”
I looked down.
The page showed a younger woman with shorter hair, but the shape of her eyes and the scar beside her chin matched the woman outside.
Julian struck the window.
“She altered her face.”
Rachel looked at him. “You know I didn’t.”
The way she said it mattered.
Not accusation.
Recognition.
“You’ve met before,” I said.
Julian stopped hitting the glass.
Rachel nodded. “Three months after your mother died.”
“Where?”
“In a basement interview room at Mercer Security. Julian was brought in as a witness.”
“I didn’t know him then.”
“He knew you.”
The garage seemed to contract around me.
Julian and I had supposedly met two years after my mother’s death.
Rachel continued, “He had photographs of you in his wallet. School photographs.”
Julian pulled the rear door handle as though force might break the lock.
“She’s lying.”
“Why did Mercer interview him?” I asked.
“Because his mother was the client who ordered surveillance on yours.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered but left it on speaker.
“Clara, listen to me,” he said. “That woman manipulated your grandmother. She has spent years constructing a story around Eleanor.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Ask him for the original case number.”
“Daniel,” I said, “what was the number?”
A pause.
“I don’t have it in front of me.”
“It’s on the document you supposedly found.”
Another pause.
Julian looked toward the garage entrance.
Waiting for someone.
I saw it.
“Who else is coming?” I asked.
“No one,” he said.
A low engine sounded outside the gate.
Headlights swept across the driveway.
Rachel moved closer to my window. “The real case number ends in 417. If Daniel gives you anything else, he’s reading from the false file.”
I raised the phone.
“Daniel?”
“MS-2049.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Julian’s face remained blank, but his shoulders loosened.
Daniel had failed the test.
The approaching vehicle stopped outside the partially raised gate. Two men in gray security uniforms stepped out.
Mercer Security.
Daniel spoke rapidly. “My team is there to protect you.”
“From whom?”
“Rachel.”
The men ducked beneath the gate.
Neither looked at Julian.
Both moved directly toward Rachel.
She backed away.
I started the sedan.
Julian jumped in front of the hood.
“Don’t,” he warned.
I pressed the accelerator just enough to force him aside, then turned sharply and drove toward Rachel. She pulled open the passenger door and climbed in as the security men reached us.
One grabbed the frame.
I accelerated.
He lost his grip and stumbled backward.
We cleared the gate.
In the rearview mirror, Julian stood beside the Mercer team, speaking calmly as if they had arrived exactly when he expected.
Rachel twisted around in her seat.
“He isn’t trying to stop us anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows where you’ll go.”
My phone chimed.
A location-sharing notification appeared.
JULIAN VALE CAN SEE YOUR LIVE LOCATION.
I disabled it.
The notification vanished.
Then Rachel reached beneath the dashboard and pulled out a small magnetic tracker wired into the sedan.
May you like
Its green light was still blinking.
📖 Follow Clara as she learns where Julian expected the tracker to lead them—and what waited there in CHAPTER 8. 👇
