Chapter 6 - Sarah Voss
Sarah Voss was thirty-seven.
Not Rachel’s twin.
Not biological sister.
Not clone.
Not secret Mercer child.
She was Adrian Voss’s only daughter.
Former military physical therapist.
She disappeared from public professional records six years earlier after severe car accident.
Was she masked woman?
Photographs showed same height and general build.
Old injury to left knee.
Strong possibility.
Why dress like Rachel?
Why reproduce scar?
Investigators searched medical files with warrant.
Sarah underwent reconstructive surgery after accident.
No record of wrist scar procedure.
Then Vanessa remembered seeing Sarah at Project Haven training years earlier.
Sarah sometimes volunteered as role-player in extraction exercises.
She knew Rachel.
Could she have copied scar deliberately?
Maybe.
But why?
Adrian Voss finally appeared with attorney.
He denied kidnapping Rachel.
Denied staging death.
Denied Sarah impersonated her.
But admitted he knew Rachel survived crash.
“How?”
He claimed protected source informed him.
Rachel asked:
“Why sign my death reconciliation?”
Voss refused on counsel advice.
Then investigators confronted timestamp.
His composure changed.
He asked speak under proffer.
Truth began emerging.
Voss had not created false death to steal Rachel’s life.
He had authorized an emergency identity-separation protocol after receiving intelligence someone intended abduct Rachel.
He believed threat connected to old Haven families.
Plan:
temporarily move Rachel to secure medical site under alias.
Report her missing.
Not dead.
But operation went wrong.
Someone attacked Rachel before protection team arrived.
Her SUV was stolen.
Then crash occurred.
A dead woman was found.
Voss believed attacker had staged Rachel’s death.
He made catastrophic decision.
Instead of correcting identity immediately, he allowed false death determination to stand because he thought it might protect Rachel while unconscious.
“I bought her time.”
“You stole eleven months.”
“I expected eleven days.”
Why eleven months?
Because Voss lost control.
Rachel developed memory problems.
Threat source remained unidentified.
Voss’s contractor status suspended after internal dispute.
Harbor Ridge administrators continued protective alias under standing paperwork.
No one reassessed.
Bureaucratic secrecy became unlawful deprivation of identity.
Voss admitted responsibility.
Rachel asked:
“Who attacked me?”
“I don't know.”
“Who drove my SUV?”
“I thought I knew.”
“Sarah?”
Voss looked away.
That was answer enough.
Sarah had been part of emergency protection team.
She wore Rachel-like clothing to draw surveillance away from Rachel.
A decoy.
The scar?
Temporary prosthetic makeup.
Vanessa stared.
“Then woman in canteen—”
“Sarah.”
Rachel felt fury.
“So the exact scar was fake?”
“Yes.”
“Why bring her today?”
Voss looked confused.
“I didn't.”
Everyone stopped.
Voss continued:
“I came because Vanessa contacted me.”
Vanessa surged upright.
“I did not.”
His phone showed message from Vanessa’s number:
RACHEL IS HERE. BRING SARAH. CANTEEN.
Vanessa’s phone contained no sent message.
Someone spoofed her.
Sarah had received separate instruction from her father’s number telling her dress as Rachel and meet him.
Someone had choreographed canteen encounter.
Exactly as someone had choreographed Rachel’s return.
Then Rachel understood.
The person behind this was not Voss.
Someone wanted Rachel, Vanessa, Voss and Sarah in same room.
Someone who knew Project Haven.
Someone who knew scar.
May you like
Someone who knew Elizabeth Mercer.
And someone who had just demonstrated access to all their communications.
