Chapter 9 - The Woman Behind Claire's Face The deeper we went, the uglier the truth became.
Vanessa had copied Claire's voice from family videos.
She had recorded board meetings.
She had collected emails.
She had studied Claire's mannerisms.
She hadn't just impersonated her.
She had built a version of Claire designed to destroy me.
Then we found the cremation invoice.
The deceased name was:
MARA COLE.
Date of cremation:
Three days after Claire's injury.
The crematorium director remembered the case.
“A private transfer,” he said.
“Who brought the body?”
“Dr. Hale.”
“And who collected the ashes?”
He opened the old ledger.
The signature was unmistakable.
V. CARTER.
Vanessa.
“She said she was taking the ashes to a cemetery.”
“Which one?”
“She never said.”
He paused.
“There was one other thing.”
He handed me an evidence envelope.
Inside was a silver chain.
Claire's chain.
But the compass was missing.
I remembered Noah.
The necklace had been in his possession.
Except the compass was gone from the evidence.
Someone had taken it.
That night, Marcus Hale was awake enough to speak.
He looked at me from his hospital bed.
“Claire survived.”
I stared at him.
“For how long?”
“Long enough to forgive you.”
My jaw tightened.
“Don't talk about forgiveness.”
“She knew you would come eventually.”
“Where is she?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Not where Vanessa thinks.”
Before he could explain, the lights went out.
A masked man entered.
Ruiz fired.
The man escaped down the stairwell.
I chased him.
The mask slipped.
I saw his face.
Elliot Price.
The man who had been calmly sitting in our boardroom while my sister was supposedly dead.
May you like
He looked at me once.
Then he ran.
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