Chapter 8 - THE MAN INSIDE MY SISTER’S HOSPITAL
I called Maya before anyone could stop me.
She answered groggy.
“Nia?”
“Where are you?”
“In my room.”
“Is anyone with you?”
“A nurse just left.”
“What did he look like?”
“She.”
Relief lasted half a second.
Then Maya said:
“But some maintenance guy came by earlier.”
My blood froze.
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Balding. Why?”
“Lock the door.”
“What?”
“Maya, lock it now.”
Adrian was already moving.
His people contacted hospital security.
I hated involving armed men.
I hated the alternative more.
Daniel Ross disappeared from the hospital six minutes before security reached Maya’s floor.
He had been working there under the name David Rowan for eleven months.
That wasn’t coincidence.
“What does my sister have to do with Elena?”
I demanded.
Adrian looked grim.
“Nothing.”
“Then why was he there before I took this job?”
That was the question no one could answer.
Then Maya told me something.
“Nia, he knew your name.”
My skin prickled.
“When?”
“Last week.”
Before I started at the Vale mansion.
A maintenance worker had seen our last names and asked whether she had a sister named Nia.
Maya assumed he was being friendly.
He wasn’t.
“Someone knew I was coming here before I did.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You were recruited.”
I thought about the agency.
The job appeared suddenly.
Triple normal salary.
Seventy-two-hour trial period.
Emergency placement.
“I didn’t apply directly.”
“Who contacted you?”
“A recruiter named Denise.”
Luke opened a laptop.
Within an hour, we learned Denise Kramer did not exist.
The agency account used a prepaid phone.
The contract payment came from a shell company.
One linked to Grant.
I felt sick.
“You think Grant wanted me here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian stared at me.
“Your sister.”
“That makes no sense.”
Unless Maya’s medical history mattered.
Her surgery involved a rare inherited vascular condition.
So did mine, though much milder.
The hospital had genetic testing records.
Adrian’s attorney uncovered something worse.
Elena had the same condition.
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
Adrian shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
But I did.
Or at least I was beginning to.
My mother died when Maya and I were children.
We were raised by our aunt.
I knew almost nothing about Mom’s biological family.
The recruiter had specifically targeted me.
Grant knew about Maya.
Elena shared our rare genetic condition.
Then the safe-deposit file produced one final document.
A copy of Elena’s birth certificate.
Mother:
Catherine Brooks.
That name made my hands go numb.
Catherine Brooks was my grandmother.
Elena Vale had not simply shared our condition.
She was my mother’s younger half-sister.
May you like
My aunt.
And the four impossible boys were my cousins.
