Chapter 8 - Khloe’s choice
Khloe called me before police found her.
“Don’t hang up.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m trying to help.”
“You stole my mother’s medical record.”
“Because Victoria was sending someone to destroy it.”
I wanted to hate her cleanly.
She refused to make it easy.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because Caleb doesn’t know what his mother did.”
“Neither did you?”
Silence.
“Khloe.”
“I knew pieces.”
Of course.
“How many times did you manipulate him?”
“I never forced Caleb to choose me.”
“No. You just created emergencies until he did.”
“That’s fair.”
Her willingness to admit it disarmed me.
“My mother taught me survival meant staying useful to Victoria.”
“Your mother is alive.”
“I know.”
“You lied about her death for years.”
“Because Victoria paid for my education, my doctors, everything. She told me if anyone learned Mom survived, she would find her.”
“Yet you kept running to Caleb.”
Khloe’s voice hardened.
“Because Caleb was the only person Victoria would never let me lose.”
There it was.
Not romance exactly.
Insurance.
Khloe had attached herself to my husband because his protection shielded her from his mother.
It did not excuse what she did to me.
But it changed its shape.
“Why steal Helena’s file?”
“Because I found my father’s name inside.”
My breathing stopped.
“Your father?”
“I never knew who he was.”
She sent me one photographed page.
Genetic donor comparison.
Two names were visible.
Khloe Reed.
Lucia Sinclair.
Probability of half-sibling relationship:
99.7%.
I stared at it.
No.
Khloe was three years younger than me.
Our mothers had known each other.
Same father?
“Who?”
“The original page is missing.”
Khloe began crying.
“Victoria removed it.”
My hatred collided with something far more complicated.
The woman Caleb had chosen over me might be my half sister.
“Where are you?”
Before she answered, glass shattered on her end.
Khloe screamed.
The call disconnected.
Police traced the signal.
An abandoned Blackwood surgical office.
They found Khloe unconscious but alive.
The stolen records were gone.
On the wall someone had left a message written across a blank medical board.
SINCLAIR WOMEN NEVER LEARN.
Caleb arrived minutes after I did through video feed.
He tried reaching Khloe.
Police stopped him.
Then he saw me on Rebecca’s tablet.
“Lucia…”
For once, he did not ask me to comfort Khloe.
He looked terrified.
“My mother didn’t do this.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she disappeared this morning.”
“Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Caleb looked behind him.
“My father’s grave was opened last night.”
I felt cold.
May you like
“What was inside?”
“Nothing.”
