Chapter 8 - THE OTHER GIRL
My mother admitted giving birth to twins.
Lena and Elena Bennett.
The Carter family wanted one child because twins complicated the biometric plan. After the fire, hospital records listed Elena dead.
My mother saw only one daughter afterward.
She assumed I was Lena because Vincent said so.
Vincent claimed the identification came from my red coat.
Both girls owned identical coats.
Thomas had registered Lena as evidence custodian.
If I were Elena, the vault should have rejected me permanently.
But it accepted the story password after Evelyn opened the system.
Biometrics alone no longer proved identity.
The archive showed Elena transferred to Carter Wellness under another name.
Ryan might have known.
He called me Lena from the day we met.
Maybe he selected me because he knew exactly which twin I was.
During interrogation, he refused to answer.
Margaret did.
“You are Elena.”
My real sister, Lena, had been raised inside Carter facilities as a controlled heir. She was trained to unlock the vault and later disappeared.
Margaret used me as a substitute after Lena escaped.
Ryan married the wrong twin knowingly because he believed either sister could provide access through Evelyn.
The family treated identity as interchangeable.
Thomas insisted I was Lena.
Evelyn was no longer certain.
Vincent said the distinction did not change who I became.
That sounded comforting.
It also avoided the question.
Federal agents searched Carter Wellness archives.
They found videos of a girl who looked like me learning codes, signatures, and family histories.
At sixteen, she escaped.
She later became an investigator using the name Elena Ward.
Detective Ortiz recognized it.
Elena Ward had disappeared while investigating Carter Development five years earlier.
She may have been my twin.
A sealed message in the archive carried her voice.
“If my sister reaches the vault, tell her Ryan did not marry her to find me. He married her because I asked him to.”
My stomach turned.
Had the sister arranged my marriage?
The message continued.
“I believed Ryan wanted to expose Margaret. I was wrong.”
Ryan had approached Elena claiming he wanted freedom from his mother. Elena guided him toward me because I lived outside the Carter network and could safely receive evidence.
Instead, Ryan chose the money, the company, and control.
My sister’s plan placed him in my life.
She had tried to use our resemblance strategically.
Then disappeared after realizing what she caused.
Another protector choosing risk for me.
The final line gave her location.
An abandoned restaurant beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
The place where Ryan first met me.
Federal agents entered.
They found a hidden apartment below the kitchen.
Someone had lived there recently.
On the wall were photographs of my marriage.
One current photograph showed me leaving the hospital with Vincent.
Taken tomorrow.
The date was impossible.
Unless the camera clock was wrong.
Or someone had already planned my next movement.
Then a woman called from behind us.
“Lena.”
May you like
I turned.
My own face stared back.
