Chapter 6: The Dead Man's Final Confession
The lights dimmed as the lawyer placed an old flash drive into the television.
Static filled the room.
Then Richard Sterling appeared on the screen.
Older.
Sick.
Clearly dying.
He looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this..."
"I'm already gone."
Emily couldn't breathe.
Richard smiled bitterly.
"Everyone thinks I wanted the Sterling fortune."
"They're wrong."
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a faded birth certificate.
"There were never two children."
"There were..."
"Three."
Gasps echoed through the mansion.
William stared in disbelief.
Richard continued.
"The hospital fire wasn't an accident."
"It was meant to erase evidence."
"Someone much more powerful than me ordered it."
He coughed violently before speaking again.
"I took one baby."
"Sarah escaped with another."
"But the third child..."
His voice broke.
"...was taken by someone neither of us could stop."
Emily whispered,
"Third child?"
Richard nodded weakly.
"Your twin brother."
The room spun.
William nearly collapsed.
Sarah covered her mouth, sobbing.
"No..."
Richard looked directly into the camera one final time.
"If you want the truth..."
"Go to Vault 17 beneath Sterling Memorial Hospital."
"The answer has been waiting there for twenty-three years."
The screen suddenly went black.
At that exact moment...
William's phone rang.
He answered silently.
His expression turned to horror.
"The hospital just called."
"They've opened Vault 17..."
"And..."
"They found a living man chained inside a hidden underground room."
May you like
The caller whispered one final sentence.
"He has the exact same DNA as Emily."
