Chapter 5: The Secret Hidden Inside Lily's Blood
Victor Hale vanished without a trace.
Private jets.
Fake passports.
Offshore accounts.
By the time federal agents searched every one of his properties, he had disappeared as if he had never existed.
But he had left one clue behind.
The classified photograph of newborn Lily.
Edward couldn't stop staring at it.
Something wasn't right.
"Why would Victor risk everything... for a picture of a baby?"
The answer came two days later.
Lily was invited to the headquarters of the FBI's Art Crime Division to identify several recovered documents from Victor's private vault.
Boxes filled with stolen paintings...
Rare musical scores...
Hidden ledgers...
And one sealed military envelope labeled:
PROJECT ECHO
"Do not open," one agent warned.
"It has nothing to do with the music case."
But as Lily walked past the evidence table...
The folder suddenly slipped onto the floor.
Several pages scattered across the room.
Edward bent down to help.
Then his eyes froze.
One page contained Lily's birth certificate.
Another contained a DNA report.
But this report was different from the one Amelia had hidden.
Its conclusion read:
SUBJECT POSSESSES A RARE GENETIC MARKER.
Edward frowned.
"What does that even mean?"
The lead investigator's face turned pale.
He quietly closed the folder.
"I'm sorry."
"You're not authorized to see this."
That night...
Someone broke into the FBI evidence room.
No alarms sounded.
No fingerprints were found.
Only one thing disappeared.
Project Echo.
The next morning, every security camera showed the same impossible image.
A person wearing a black hood walked directly past armed guards...
yet no one reacted.
Almost as if...
they couldn't even see him.
Meanwhile, Lily returned to her mother's old apartment for the first time.
Everything remained exactly as Amelia had left it.
The piano bench.
The faded photographs.
The unfinished tea cup.
As Lily cleaned beneath the old bookshelf...
she noticed one loose floorboard.
Hidden underneath was a tiny velvet box.
Inside rested a gold locket.
When she opened it...
she found two baby photographs.
One was hers.
The other showed another newborn girl.
Identical.
Same birthday.
Same hospital bracelet.
Same tiny birthmark on the left shoulder.
Lily stared in disbelief.
"I..."
"I have a twin sister?"
Edward took the second photograph.
On the back, Amelia had written only six chilling words.
"Protect Ava. Never let them meet."
Edward looked at Lily in horror.
"Ava..."
"We've never heard that name before."
Just then...
The television suddenly switched on by itself.
Breaking News flashed across the screen.
"Authorities confirm Victor Hale has been spotted crossing the border with a teenage girl believed to be approximately twelve years old."
The security footage was blurry...
But as Lily looked closer...
her heart nearly stopped.
The girl had the same face.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
Victor hadn't escaped alone.
He had been raising Lily's identical twin...
for the last twelve years.
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And now...
he knew exactly where Lily was.
