Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS MY SISTER
:
I read the sentence again.
Then again.
Seraphina.
My husband's mistress.
My mother's daughter.
My sister.
The room spun.
“No.”
Claire stared at the letter.
“She had another child.”
“I thought I knew everything.”
“You didn't.”
The letter continued.
My mother had given birth to Seraphina years before me.
She had hidden the pregnancy because my father's enemies wanted the child.
Seraphina had been raised under another surname.
Then she came back.
Quietly.
Beautifully.
Dangerously.
My mother had hoped she could protect both daughters by separating them.
Instead, she had created the perfect weapon.
Seraphina had grown up believing I had stolen the life that belonged to her.
The wealth.
The family.
The company.
The love.
She had hated me before we ever met.
I sat down.
“That means Blake knew.”
“Yes.”
“Did he love her?”
Claire shook her head.
“Probably not.”
I stared at the letter.
My mother had written one final sentence.
Blake told Seraphina that if she helped him take control of AeroSpace, he would make her the legal heir.
My chest tightened.
She wasn't merely his mistress.
She was his accomplice.
And perhaps his intended replacement for me.
Damien entered.
He took one look at my face.
“What happened?”
I handed him the letter.
He read it.
His expression changed.
“So Seraphina thought she was fighting for her inheritance.”
“I think so.”
“And Blake?”
“He was using her.”
Damien sighed.
“Then she may be useful.”
I looked up.
“How?”
“If she believes Blake betrayed her, she might testify.”
The idea seemed impossible.
Seraphina had ruined my marriage.
But now I understood something.
She had also been manipulated.
That didn't excuse what she did.
But perhaps there was more to her story.
We visited her in federal custody.
She looked exhausted.
Without makeup, designer clothes and champagne, she looked younger.
Almost ordinary.
She stared at me.
“You hate me.”
“Yes.”
“I deserve it.”
“Yes.”
She looked down.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
She began crying.
“Because I thought he loved me.”
I said nothing.
“He told me you didn't love him.”
“He lied.”
“I know that now.”
She looked at Damien.
“Did he ever love me?”
Damien answered honestly.
“No.”
She closed her eyes.
Then she whispered:
“He never loved either of us.”
Silence.
Seraphina gave us something unexpected.
A password.
Blake's encrypted archive.
“Why?”
“Because I want him destroyed.”
Claire looked at her.
“What about your claim to the family?”
Seraphina laughed bitterly.
“I don't want their money anymore.”
She looked at me.
“I just want him to stop using women as weapons.”
For the first time, I saw not my rival.
But another woman who had been lied to.
We used her password.
The archive opened.
Millions of documents appeared.
Contracts.
Emails.
Bank records.
Then one folder froze the room.
PROJECT MIRROR.
Inside were files about my father's death.
Blake had not merely profited from it.
He had arranged the final meeting.
He had sent the driver.
He had manipulated the medication records.
My father had not died naturally.
He had been murdered.
And the person who had ordered it wasn't Blake.
It was someone else.
A name appeared.
Victor Sterling.
Seraphina went pale.
“My father.”
The room went silent.
Her own father had ordered the murder that destroyed my family.
She began shaking.
“I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
She looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because I know what it's like to love someone who isn't who you thought they were.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
For the first time, we understood each other.
Not as sisters.
Not yet.
But as two women who had both been used.
Then Victor Sterling disappeared.
May you like
And every investigator in Boston knew where he was heading.
Toward me.
