Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WITH HER FACE
Penelope stared at the security photograph.
The woman had her dark curls.
Her full lips.
Even the small beauty mark near her left eyebrow.
But something was wrong.
"That's not me."
Dominic enlarged the image.
"Look at her left hand."
Penelope leaned closer.
The woman wore a gold ring shaped like a snake.
Penelope had never owned such a ring.
Lorenzo checked the transaction location.
"Private bank branch. Downtown Chicago."
Dominic turned toward him.
"Get the original footage."
Penelope sat slowly.
"Someone looks enough like me to steal my identity."
Gabriel's voice came through the phone.
"Not just your identity. The account's facial-recognition system was manipulated using a synthetic video."
Penelope looked up.
"A deepfake?"
"Partly. But there's another problem. The woman physically entered the bank."
Dominic's expression darkened.
"Then she's working with whoever stole the money."
Gabriel continued.
"I found her name in an old employee database."
"Who is she?"
"Vanessa Russo."
Penelope froze.
"Russo?"
"Anthony Russo's daughter."
Penelope shook her head.
"Uncle Anthony doesn't have a daughter."
Dominic studied her.
"Are you sure?"
"He's never been married."
Gabriel corrected her.
"Not publicly."
He sent another photograph.
It showed Anthony standing beside a young woman outside a luxury apartment building.
The woman resembled Penelope so closely that they could have been sisters.
Penelope whispered, "Why does she look like me?"
Dominic examined the family records.
Anthony and Penelope's father were brothers.
A family resemblance was possible.
But the age difference bothered him.
Vanessa's documents claimed she was twenty-five.
One year younger than Penelope.
Lorenzo located a private school record.
Then a birth certificate.
Then a second birth certificate under another name.
Dominic opened the final document.
His face changed.
"Penelope, I need you to see this."
The birth certificate identified Vanessa's mother.
Isabella Russo.
Penelope's mother.
Penelope gripped the table.
"No."
Dominic continued reading.
The father's name had been concealed by court order.
But an attached hospital record included a handwritten notation.
Infant transferred under emergency guardianship.
Penelope looked at him.
"My mother had another daughter?"
Dominic nodded slowly.
"And someone went to extraordinary lengths to hide her."
Penelope stared at Vanessa's photograph.
Her own face looked back at her.
Then Gabriel uncovered the original maternity record.
Vanessa wasn't born a year after Penelope.
She had been born on the exact same day.
At the exact same hospital.
Seven minutes after her.
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Penelope had a twin sister.
And someone had stolen her before their mother could take her home.
