Chapter 43 - THE DAUGHTER WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER
Daniel brought Emma to an abandoned safe house.
She refused to let Claire touch her.
“You left me there,” Emma said.
Claire began crying.
“I thought you were dead.”
“You never checked!”
Emma struck her across the face.
Claire stumbled against the wall.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Emma turned on him.
“You always protect her!”
“I'm protecting you from making a mistake.”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“You protected the wrong daughter for seventeen years.”
Daniel had no answer.
Emma revealed that she had discovered the hidden laboratory when she was nine. She had watched Claire and Richard move children between rooms, changing their names and records.
She had tried to escape.
Instead, they erased her identity and replaced her with Abigail.
“They told you I died,” Emma whispered. “Then they made you raise someone else.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Is that true?”
Claire nodded.
“I was afraid.”
Emma pulled a recorder from her pocket.
A recording of Claire's voice filled the room.
“If the original Emma doesn't survive, replace her with Abigail. Daniel must never know.”
Daniel felt his heart shatter.
Claire dropped to her knees.
“I was trying to save you.”
Emma raised a pistol.
“Then why did you let them kill me?”
Daniel moved between them.
“Put the gun down.”
Emma's hands trembled.
“You don't understand what they did to me.”
“I understand that you're hurting.”
She struck him across the face.
“Stop pretending you're my father!”
A gunshot suddenly rang out.
Daniel fell to his knees.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Emma dropped the weapon.
“Dad?”
But Daniel wasn't the one who had been shot.
Claire stood behind him, clutching her stomach.
Harris appeared in the doorway.
“Time to finish this.”
He seized Emma by the arm.
Daniel lunged at him, punching him across the jaw.
Harris retaliated with a blow to Daniel's ribs.
They fought across the room until Emma grabbed a metal lamp and smashed it against Harris's head.
He collapsed.
Claire sank to the floor.
Daniel rushed to her side.
“Stay with me!”
She gripped his hand.
“Find the real Emma.”
Daniel looked at the girl standing beside him.
“She's here.”
Claire shook her head.
“No. That girl is Abigail.”
Daniel turned.
The young woman beside him had gone pale.
She whispered, “I'm sorry.”
Then she ran.
Daniel chased her outside, but a black car pulled away before he could reach it.
Inside the house, Claire's eyes closed.
Daniel returned to her.
She was dead.
On the floor beside her lay a photograph of two identical girls.
One was Emma.
The other was Abigail.
But a handwritten note beneath the photograph revealed another name.
LILY HALE — THIRD SISTER.
Daniel stared at the image.
Three daughters.
Three identities.
One dead wife.
His phone rang.
Abigail's voice whispered, “Dad, I found the real Emma.”
“Where?”
“At the estate.”
“I'm coming.”
“No!” she screamed. “Richard is here!”
A struggle followed.
Then Richard's voice came through.
“Daniel, bring the necklace.”
The line went dead.
May you like
Daniel grabbed the silver key and ran into the night.
If Abigail had discovered the real Emma, why had she fled—and what did Richard intend to do with the three sisters once they were reunited?
