Chapter 13 - Gabriel
My entire life changed in four seconds.
I had a brother.
Not a distant cousin.
Not another trust beneficiary.
My identical twin.
Gabriel Whitlock.
Lorraine couldn't speak.
Daniel could.
“I knew.”
I turned on him.
“You knew?”
“Not until later.”
“Everyone in this family discovers missing children and decides silence is reasonable?”
Daniel accepted that.
Arthur had learned the truth when I was twenty-six.
Dr. Vance's father had supervised Lorraine's delivery.
One twin was declared dead.
Gabriel was removed.
Why?
Research.
The elder Vance had been working with my grandfather on genetic inheritance studies disguised as fertility medicine.
Children weren't people to them.
They were variables.
Arthur discovered Gabriel decades later after taking control of old clinic archives.
He wanted to bring him home.
Gabriel refused.
“He knew about me?”
“Yes.”
That hurt differently.
“Why didn't he come?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Because Vance raised him to hate the Whitlocks.”
Which Vance?
Simon.
After his father's death, Simon became Gabriel's guardian.
He taught Gabriel that Arthur chose one son and abandoned the other.
That Lorraine knew.
That I inherited the life Gabriel should have had.
Most of it was false.
But pain doesn't need accurate paperwork.
“Where is he?”
Nobody knew.
Then Mason entered.
“We may.”
The airport hard drive contained an access log.
Someone had remotely opened the files three hours earlier.
IP address traced to Scottsdale.
A Whitlock property.
My mother's house.
Lorraine stared.
“Impossible.”
We returned to Arizona.
Her estate appeared untouched.
Then the front door opened before we reached it.
A man stepped outside.
My height.
My build.
My face.
Older around the eyes.
A scar across one cheek.
Tessa stopped breathing.
The twins stared.
Gabriel looked at me.
“So.”
His voice sounded almost like mine.
“This is what they kept.”
I stepped forward.
“You're my brother.”
“Biologically.”
“That's usually how it works.”
Something almost like amusement crossed his face.
Then disappeared.
Lorraine approached.
“Gabriel?”
He looked at her.
Nothing.
No recognition.
No affection.
“You're the woman who kept Grant.”
She flinched.
“I was told you died.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Arthur found me.”
“Arthur knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because I asked him not to.”
That surprised everyone.
Gabriel had met our father secretly eleven years earlier.
Arthur apologized.
Offered money.
A place in the family.
Gabriel rejected it.
Then Simon Vance showed him evidence of Arthur's involvement in the old experiments.
Some real.
Some forged.
Gabriel didn't know what to believe.
“So why are you here now?”
He looked at Noah and Lucas.
“Because Simon crossed a line.”
“Which line?”
“He took Lucas.”
“You helped him?”
“No.”
“Lenora?”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“She helped Simon.”
“Where are they?”
“Lenora is dead.”
Lorraine staggered.
“What?”
Gabriel placed a phone on the table.
Video.
Lenora confronting Vance after Lucas's kidnapping.
She threatened to expose him.
Vance attacked her.
The recording ended before we saw the result.
Gabriel said she died afterward.
Walter sat down.
His mother.
Whatever she had done, grief still landed.
Then Gabriel looked at me.
“Simon is preparing to leave the country.”
“Where?”
“Mexico first.”
“Then?”
“I don't know.”
“Why come here?”
“Because he left something behind.”
Gabriel walked to Lorraine's study.
Behind a portrait was a safe none of us knew existed.
Inside was one document.
A custody order.
Noah and Lucas Monroe.
Emergency guardian requested:
Gabriel Whitlock.
I stared at my twin.
He looked genuinely confused.
Then Tessa noticed the date.
Tomorrow.
May you like
Vance wasn't escaping.
He was preparing for us to disappear.
