Chapter 1 - The Pillow
Sophie was laughing when Eleanor picked up the pillow.
That was the detail Anna would remember most clearly.
Not the screaming afterward. Not Ethan’s face when he came through the front door. Not even the newborn wristband that would eventually make every adult in the mansion question what they thought they knew.
It was Sophie’s laugh.
The six-month-old lay on the white sofa beneath the chandelier, wrapped loosely in a white blanket, kicking her tiny feet while guests gathered in the adjoining ballroom for Ethan Cole’s charity dinner.
Eleanor stood over her.
Elegant. Blonde. Perfectly composed in a champagne gown.
Then she pressed a large white pillow over Sophie’s face.
Anna’s serving tray slipped from her hands.
“No! Stop!”
She lunged.
Eleanor resisted for barely a second before Anna yanked her backward. The pillow dropped.
Sophie’s scream filled the room.
Anna snatched the baby into her arms, pressing Sophie against her chest.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Eleanor reached toward Sophie.
Anna twisted away.
That was when the mansion doors opened.
Ethan entered.
His eyes moved from Sophie’s red, crying face to Anna’s terror.
Then to the pillow.
Then Eleanor.
“What did you do to my daughter?”
“You don’t understand.”
Ethan crossed the room.
The confrontation exploded.
His anger overwhelmed him. Eleanor struck the floor after the struggle, hair falling across her face.
But she wasn't watching Ethan.
She stared at the pillow.
“Check inside it.”
Anna noticed a torn seam.
Still holding Sophie, she reached inside.
A hospital wristband dropped onto marble.
Ethan picked it up.
SOPHIE COLE.
Then beneath it:
TWIN B.
Ethan stopped breathing.
“That’s why I needed her to cry,” Eleanor whispered.
Ethan stared at his mother.
“Where is Twin A?”
Then another baby cried upstairs.
Sophie screamed in Anna’s arms.
The upstairs baby screamed back.
Same pitch.
Same rhythm.
Everyone looked toward second-floor railing.
A woman stood there.
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
“She’s come back for both of them.”
The woman stepped forward.
Ethan stared up at her.
May you like
Then whispered a name he had not spoken in nearly seven years.
“Rebecca?”
