Chapter 8 - My Other Sister
Rachel did not look like a villain.
That almost made everything harder.
She looked tired.
Terrified.
And enough like me that watching her cry felt like seeing my own face collapse.
“You used my husband’s genetic material.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor told me it was the only way to get Samuel out.”
I stared.
Rachel had known about Samuel for years.
She worked inside the Mercer medical network.
She discovered his identity accidentally.
Then saw my name.
Her genetic match.
She investigated me.
Found out we were likely genetically related.
She wanted to contact me.
Eleanor stopped her.
How?
By controlling Samuel.
If Rachel exposed the program, the boy would disappear into another identity.
So Rachel cooperated.
She agreed to carry a child created from Julian’s stored sample.
The resulting boy would qualify as a second Mercer male heir.
Once the trust activated, Eleanor promised to release Samuel.
“You believed her?”
Rachel cried.
“For a while.”
Then she discovered the final plan.
My newborn, naturally conceived and marker-negative, was to be removed.
Not killed.
Reassigned.
Another family.
Another identity.
Rachel refused.
At the hospital, she used her access to reverse the switch.
My baby returned to me.
Her own newborn was taken by Eleanor.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Rachel had given birth six days earlier.
She barely had time to hold him.
Then Eleanor moved him.
The photograph Evelyn found was taken before the transfer.
I looked at Rachel.
“You saved my son and lost yours.”
She nodded.
I hated her less.
Not enough to forgive the deception.
But enough to understand the grief.
Then Julian asked:
“Why did Sophie see Eleanor at our house?”
Rachel answered:
“To find something Claire had.”
“What?”
I had no idea.
Then Rachel looked at my hospital bracelet.
“Your mother’s records.”
My mother?
Susan Carter had died eight years ago.
Natural illness.
At least that was what I believed.
Rachel explained that our mothers were not simply fertility patients.
Susan had discovered the twin-embryo transfer after my birth.
Rachel’s mother, Diane Bennett, discovered it too.
The two women began communicating secretly.
They planned to expose Vale.
Then Diane disappeared.
Susan stopped asking questions.
Years later, before dying, Susan hid copies of the original clinic records.
“Where?”
Rachel believed she gave them to me.
I shook my head.
“She didn’t.”
Then Sophie whispered:
“The music box.”
I turned.
“What?”
Grandma Susan gave Sophie a wooden music box before she died.
Sophie kept it in her room.
A ballerina inside.
Underneath, a false panel.
Sophie knew because Susan had shown her.
“She said only open it when Grandma Evelyn lies about a baby.”
Evelyn went still.
I stared at her.
“My mother knew you?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Yes.”
“How?”
Then Rachel answered for her.
“Because Evelyn helped Susan hide Samuel.”
Silence.
I turned toward Julian’s mother.
“You knew my son survived.”
May you like
Evelyn began sobbing.
“For six years.”
