Chapter 6 - The Missing Twin
Lily cradled a warm cup of tea Ethan’s assistant had brought her, her breathing finally slowing down. She looked at Claire sitting on the sofa and spoke in a calm, clear voice that echoed through the room.
“Maya wasn't just a girl you paid off, Claire,” Lily said quietly. “She was your twin sister.”
The statement hit the room like a bomb. Ethan froze, looking from Lily to Claire, whose head snapped up in absolute horror. Claire’s eyes were wide with a desperate, wild terror as she screamed at Lily to shut her mouth.
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Lily reached into her pocket once more, pulling out an old, faded photograph showing two young blonde girls wearing matching white dresses and identical gold clover bracelets. On the back of the photo was a handwritten note from their late mother, detailing how the twins had been separated after a bitter divorce thirty years ago—one raised in extreme wealth by the Senator, the other left with her struggling mother in the countryside.
Ethan looked at the photograph, then at Claire. The truth was finally falling into place: Claire had found her struggling twin sister four years ago, but instead of helping her, she had used Maya’s existence to cover up her own medical emergencies and private life, eventually hiding her away in the sanatorium when Maya became pregnant to prevent the family secret from leaking to the press.
