Chapter 6 - THOMAS
Thomas Richardson was my identical twin.
Mark was our older brother.
Helen had given birth to twins, but HomeLine took Thomas under a research agreement signed while she was sedated.
Our father knew and accepted money.
Helen spent years trying to locate him.
By the time she did, HomeLine had trained Thomas to believe I stole his mother, name, and future.
He became a replacement specialist.
He could imitate me, Mark, and other men through prosthetics, voice training, and behavioral study.
Sarah met him accidentally while investigating HomeLine.
Thomas used my identity.
Ethan’s paternity test excluding me did not exclude Thomas because identical twins share nearly all standard markers.
More advanced testing showed the biological father could be Thomas.
Not Daniel Reed.
Reed’s DNA under Ethan’s nails came from a struggle during a rescue attempt.
The entire paternity story shifted again.
Thomas contacted us through the black phone.
He said Ethan was his son.
He claimed Sarah loved him, not me.
He produced photographs of them together.
Some real.
Some staged.
I stopped caring which man owned the biological claim.
Ethan was not property.
Then Thomas demanded Helen’s archive in exchange for Noah Carter.
The second child remained alive.
We refused a private trade.
Federal teams traced the signal to an abandoned church.
Noah was recovered.
Thomas escaped.
Noah said “Grandma Helen” protected them sometimes and punished them other times.
Helen admitted using isolation to keep children from exposing the safe house.
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Protection through harm.
The investigation turned on her too.
