Chapter 9 - Claire’s Twin
Claire’s mother delivered two girls.
Claire.
And Anna.
Thomas had raised only Claire.
What happened to Anna?
Margaret claimed the second infant died.
Daniel said she was adopted.
Evelyn found no death certificate.
The original trial records showed a transfer authorization signed by Elaine.
But the signature was forged.
Police followed hospital archives.
Anna had been discharged to a private foster agency.
Three months later, adoption finalized.
New identity sealed.
Claire felt something she couldn’t name.
Not grief exactly.
Grief for a person she had never known.
“What does this have to do with my pregnancy?”
Everything.
The experimental embryo selection had produced fraternal twins carrying different combinations of the Hale variants.
Claire carried one.
Anna carried the other.
Margaret had tracked Claire.
Daniel had spent years searching for Anna.
If Anna had children, their genetics could answer questions the original study never resolved.
Claire stared at Evelyn.
“So all of this is about finding my sister?”
“Partly.”
“Where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
Then the Hale Archive unlocked another document after Claire uploaded Thomas’s photograph.
An adoption agency receipt.
Thomas had known.
He spent years paying investigators to find Anna.
One eventually succeeded.
Anna had grown up in North Carolina.
Married.
Changed her name.
Had a daughter.
Then died in 2021.
Claire cried for a sister she had discovered after losing.
But Anna’s daughter was alive.
Fourteen years old.
Her name:
Sophie.
Claire immediately said:
“Keep Margaret away from her.”
Police were already moving.
Too late.
Sophie had been missing from school for two days.
Her adoptive father believed she was staying with a friend.
She wasn’t.
Security footage showed Sophie leaving voluntarily with a woman.
Margaret.
Claire’s terror became rage.
Margaret had been under investigation.
How had she reached Sophie?
She hadn’t.
The footage was six months old.
Sophie had met Margaret before.
Repeatedly.
Margaret had been building a relationship with her.
Presenting herself as a distant family friend.
Buying gifts.
Talking about ancestry.
The current disappearance involved someone else.
A man.
Baseball cap.
Gray SUV.
Daniel.
Claire’s biological father had taken her twin sister’s daughter.
He called that evening.
“Sophie is safe.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“Put her on.”
A teenage voice came through.
“Hello?”
“Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Can you leave?”
A pause.
Daniel returned.
“She doesn’t understand.”
“Neither do you.”
“I’m her grandfather.”
“No. You’re a stranger who took a child.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“She came voluntarily.”
“Then tell me where you are.”
Silence.
Claire understood.
Daniel didn’t want ransom.
He wanted Claire.
“What do you want?”
“To finish what Thomas interrupted.”
“What?”
“The comparison.”
Claire looked at her belly.
Her blood.
Sophie’s blood.
Two branches from the twin pregnancies.
“You want genetic samples.”
“I want the truth.”
“You kidnapped a child for a laboratory result.”
“I rescued my granddaughter from ignorance.”
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was.
The same disease infecting every generation.
Calling control protection.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“You spent your entire life saying Thomas stole your family.”
“He did.”
“And now you’re doing exactly what you accused him of.”
Silence.
For the first time, Daniel had no answer.
Then Sophie shouted somewhere behind him:
“Who’s Ryan?”
Claire froze.
Daniel returned.
“Interesting question.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Daniel.”
“You should ask Ryan why his fingerprints are on Anna’s adoption file.”
Claire turned toward the door.
Ryan had been a toddler when Anna was adopted.
Impossible.
Unless Daniel meant another Ryan.
Or another falsified identity.
Then Daniel said:
“Margaret named her son after someone.”
“Who?”
“The man who took Anna from the hospital.”
Claire’s blood went cold.
“Who was he?”
Daniel whispered:
May you like
“Ryan Bennett.”
Margaret’s father.
