Chapter 7 - The Name Behind the Poison
Norah stared at the screen.
"That's impossible."
Gideon said nothing.
The records were old.
Hospital records.
Birth weights.
Times.
Two girls born seven minutes apart.
Norah Elizabeth Blake.
Natalie Evelyn Blake.
Twins.
Norah shook her head.
"My mother would've told me."
"Unless she couldn't," Gideon said.
"Couldn't?"
"Or believed telling you would put you in danger."
Norah remembered Evelyn's letter.
Despite everything I did to keep you away from it.
Away from what?
Not merely the Wolf family.
Perhaps away from someone.
Rafael searched the database.
Natalie Blake's record ended six days after birth.
No death certificate.
No adoption record.
Nothing.
"She vanished," he said.
Gideon looked at Norah.
"Or somebody made her vanish."
Norah sat down.
For twenty-seven years, she'd believed she was an only child.
Now a hidden computer inside a dead mafia patriarch's office claimed she had a twin sister.
A woman who might still be alive.
A woman whose existence had been erased.
"Find her," Norah whispered.
Gideon nodded at Rafael.
"Everything we have."
The search took six hours.
At 3:17 a.m., they got a match.
Natalie Evelyn Blake had become Natalie Vale.
Norah stared at the name.
"Vale?"
Rafael nodded.
"Samuel Vale was listed as guardian."
Marco closed his eyes.
"My brother."
"You knew?"
"No."
"She was raised by him."
"Apparently."
The timeline was horrifyingly clear.
Evelyn had separated her daughters.
One stayed with her.
One went to Samuel.
Why?
Nobody knew.
Then Samuel died.
Natalie disappeared again.
Until five years ago.
A passport appeared under another name.
Natalie Voss.
Gideon looked at the photograph.
Norah stopped breathing.
Same eyes.
Same mouth.
Same face.
Different hair.
"She's alive."
Rafael nodded.
"And she's been in the city for three weeks."
Exactly as long as Gideon had been sick.
Norah felt the truth approaching.
She didn't want it.
Gideon saw her fear.
"This doesn't mean she's involved."
"She's here."
"That's all we know."
Rafael's computer chimed.
A current address appeared.
An apartment six miles away.
Gideon reached for his jacket.
Norah stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"She's my sister."
"Which is why you're not."
"Gideon."
"If she's involved in poisoning me, I won't put you in the same room."
Norah stepped close enough that nobody else could hear.
"You said I could help."
"I changed my mind."
"Because?"
His jaw tightened.
"Because I trust you."
Norah's anger weakened.
Those words meant something from Gideon Wolf.
Maybe too much.
"Then trust me to make my own decision."
Their eyes held.
Finally:
"Stay behind Rafael."
They reached the apartment before sunrise.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, photographs covered a wall.
Gideon.
The estate.
Medical deliveries.
Norah.
Dozens of photographs of Norah.
At work.
At a grocery store.
At her mother's grave.
Norah covered her mouth.
"She's been watching me."
On a table lay another glass.
Dark red residue coated the bottom.
Gideon saw it.
His expression hardened.
Then a floorboard creaked behind them.
Norah turned.
A woman stood in the bedroom doorway.
Her face was Norah's face.
Older somehow.
Harder.
A scar crossed one eyebrow.
Norah couldn't speak.
The woman could.
"Hello, sister."
Gideon's hand moved toward his gun.
Natalie raised both hands.
"If I wanted him dead, he'd already be dead."
Norah stared.
"Did you poison him?"
Natalie looked at Gideon.
"No."
"Then who did?"
Natalie's expression changed.
"The same man who killed Samuel."
"Anthony Wolf?"
Natalie smiled sadly.
"You've been looking at the wrong Wolf."
Gideon stepped forward.
"Who?"
Natalie looked directly at him.
"Your brother."
Gideon's face emptied.
"I don't have a brother."
Natalie reached into her pocket.
Rafael raised his gun.
"Slow."
She removed a photograph.
Two boys.
One was Gideon.
The other looked nearly identical.
On the back, handwritten:
Gideon & Gabriel, age 6.
Gideon stared at it.
"My brother died."
Natalie shook her head.
"No."
"Where is he?"
She looked toward the apartment window.
Then at Gideon.
"Closer than you think."
A red laser dot appeared on Natalie's chest.
Norah saw it first.
May you like
"DOWN!"
The window exploded.
