Chapter 12 - THE OTHER MOTHER
Linda’s identical sister was Laura Brooks.
Declared dead at birth.
Raised inside North Line as a dispatcher replacement.
When Linda resisted, Laura used her badge.
When records needed Linda’s voice, Laura spoke.
When Sarah called for help years earlier, Laura redirected patrols.
She participated.
She also secretly warned Sarah through anonymous calls.
Both.
Laura surrendered after the warehouse raid.
She said Michael escaped toward the river clinic.
She also revealed Ashbourne’s parent network used sisters and twins because matching DNA allowed identity confusion across hospitals and courts.
My family had been selected for biology.
Not destiny.
Utility.
Then Linda admitted she knew a second baby existed.
Their mother told her once.
Linda thought it was grief or madness.
She never investigated.
Fear and disbelief erased Laura before North Line did.
The sisters met under supervision.
No embrace.
Laura said, “You got the name.”
Linda answered, “You got the truth.”
Neither had received a whole life.
Then Laura revealed Sarah and I were not natural twins.
One of us had been placed into Linda’s pregnancy records after birth.
DNA showed we were sisters.
Not identical.
Not even full siblings.
Sarah’s biological father was Thomas Collins.
Mine was David Mercer.
The captain who controlled my career was my biological father.
His obsession with my file had another explanation.
May you like
He did not only monitor an officer.
He monitored the daughter he never acknowledged.
