Chapter 10 - Michael’s Real Assignment
Michael had not entered Catherine's network voluntarily.
He had entered mine.
Years earlier, before Catherine died, I suspected someone was leaking information from my organization.
I sent my supposedly dead brother undercover.
Then I was shot during a warehouse ambush.
Recovery erased weeks of memory.
By the time I returned, Raymond told me Michael had been killed.
I believed him.
Michael stayed undercover.
Catherine became his handler.
Then they discovered the blue-room operation.
“Why didn't you come back after Catherine died?”
Michael looked at Claire.
“Because I had something worth staying alive for.”
Romantic.
Also cowardly.
Claire seemed to agree.
“You let Alexander mourn you.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you'd disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You let our daughters grow up without you.”
His voice broke.
“Yes.”
Charlotte's threat concerned Michael's first assignment.
He had infiltrated Thomas Vale's organization.
Claire's husband.
Michael was responsible for gathering the evidence that eventually destroyed Vale.
But during the operation, Thomas was murdered.
Claire believed rival criminals killed him.
Michael finally admitted the truth.
“I did.”
Silence.
Claire stepped backward.
“You killed my husband?”
“He found the safe house.”
“You killed him?”
“He was coming for you.”
“You don't get to decide that makes it okay!”
“I know.”
That answer stopped her.
No justification.
No demand for forgiveness.
Just truth.
Charlotte wanted the girls to know their father was a killer.
Perhaps they eventually should.
But not as a weapon.
We traced Charlotte's call.
An abandoned lakeside hotel.
Catherine once used it as a relocation center.
We went.
Ethan stayed behind.
He hated me for it.
I could live with that.
Parents occasionally needed children angry and alive.
Inside the hotel, we found Mercer tied exactly as shown.
No Charlotte.
No children.
“Where?”
He laughed.
“She's insane.”
“You married her.”
“I underestimated her.”
“Common male disease.”
Claire almost smiled.
Almost.
Mercer told us Charlotte had taken control of his operation two years earlier.
The sleeping photographs weren't his.
They were hers.
He had discovered them and hidden copies in his bag.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Of course.
“Why pressure Claire to marry you?”
“Charlotte ordered it.”
Claire stared.
“Why would my sister want that?”
“To destroy your trust in Michael.”
Charlotte wanted Claire isolated.
Wanted the girls alienated from their mother.
Wanted Michael exposed.
Then she intended to take the children herself.
“Why?”
Mercer looked toward Michael.
“Because she thinks they're hers.”
Claire's face tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Mercer smiled.
“You still haven't asked why four sisters look so similar despite being born years apart.”
Michael moved.
I stopped him.
“Talk.”
Mercer revealed that Claire had suffered severe complications after Lucy's birth.
Doctors warned another pregnancy could be dangerous.
Yet Claire remembered carrying all four girls.
Claire stared at him.
“I did.”
“Did you?”
Her face changed.
Fragments.
Hospitals.
Medication.
Missing weeks.
Michael looked horrified.
“What are you saying?”
Mercer answered:
“Two of those girls were born to Claire.”
Pause.
“Two were born to Charlotte.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Michael whispered:
“No.”
Mercer nodded.
“Your wives didn't just share a face.”
“They shared children.”
Then little footsteps came from the hotel corridor.
Ellie appeared.
Alone.
Crying.
Claire ran to her.
“Where are your sisters?”
Ellie pointed upstairs.
“With other Mommy.”
Claire froze.
Ellie buried her face against her.
May you like
Then whispered:
“She says tonight we have to choose which Mommy gets to keep us.”
