Chapter 5 - The Second Laura
My father looked as though Daniel had struck him.
“What did you say?”
Daniel immediately realized he had revealed too much.
Vanessa noticed too.
“You told me you never met her.”
“I didn't.”
“Then what does ‘which Laura’ mean?”
Daniel refused to answer.
Dad opened his folder.
There were photographs inside.
My mother.
Laura Hayes.
Beautiful dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
The same eyes I saw in my mirror.
Then another photograph.
A woman entering Aurum House eighteen years after Mom’s supposed death.
The image was blurry.
But she looked like Laura.
“Where did you get this?”
“Private investigator.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
The same year Dad began suspecting Mom might be alive.
He followed the woman for weeks.
Then she vanished.
Again.
“She never contacted you?”
“No.”
“Me?”
Dad shook his head.
That hurt differently.
If Mom survived, why abandon me?
Then Vanessa whispered:
“Maybe she didn't.”
We looked at her.
“Daniel once mentioned something called the Mirror Protocol.”
Daniel went white.
Dad repeated:
“Mirror?”
Halcyon had specialized in protecting assets for clients with complicated international holdings.
But an internal group apparently developed something darker.
Identity substitution.
Not fake passports for criminals.
Financial duplicates.
People with sufficiently similar biographies could be used to sign, appear, authorize, inherit.
A living person became financially interchangeable with another.
My father’s eyes sharpened.
“The woman in Laura’s grave.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Could've been her mirror.”
My skin prickled.
“So someone died pretending to be my mother?”
“Or was made to look like her afterward.”
We still had no proof.
But one thing was certain.
The sapphire necklace had appeared tonight intentionally.
Someone wanted us asking these questions.
Dad suddenly examined the clasp.
Inside was an engraved number.
The exact beginning of Daniel’s declined $998,214 charge.
Coincidence?
Dad didn't believe in coincidences involving fraud.
Neither did I anymore.
The remaining digits—214—were engraved on the opposite side.
Not a price.
A code.
Daniel whispered:
“No.”
Dad looked at him.
“You recognize it.”
Daniel backed away.
Vanessa stared.
“What is it?”
Daniel finally answered.
“A vault number.”
“Where?”
May you like
He looked around Aurum House.
“Under this building.”
