CHAPTER 5: The Twin They Could Never Find
The room fell into stunned silence.
"There were... twins?" Lily whispered.
Detective Harris nodded slowly, his face drained of color.
"We only discovered it after recovering the hospital's archived records."
He placed two birth certificates on the coffee table.
Baby A: Lily Grace Carter.
Baby B: Rose Grace Carter.
Emma burst into tears.
"I begged them to save both of my girls..."
"I saw someone carry one baby out of the nursery before the explosion."
"I thought the other had died."
Lily's adoptive father closed his eyes.
"I never knew there were two."
Everyone turned toward him.
"What do you mean?" Emma demanded.
He swallowed hard.
"The night of the fire, an anonymous man left Lily at our front door."
"He handed us forged adoption papers and said..."
'Raise her. Never let anyone know she's alive.'
"He disappeared before I could ask another question."
Detective Harris suddenly stood up.
"The anonymous man wasn't the mastermind."
"He was trying to save one child."
Before anyone could respond, another detective rushed through the front door.
"You need to see this!"
He carried an old evidence box that had been sealed for seven years.
Inside was a tiny silver bracelet.
Engraved on it were two words.
Rose Carter.
Emma gasped.
"She was wearing that the day she disappeared."
The detective continued.
"We found it this morning inside an abandoned cabin nearly two hundred miles away."
Beneath the bracelet lay a faded photograph.
It showed a little girl about Lily's age standing beside a tall man whose face had been scratched away.
On the back was a recent date.
Only three months ago.
Rose was alive.
Someone had been raising her in secret all these years.
Just then, Lily remembered the videotape she had found beneath the Rainbow House.
She hurried downstairs and placed it into an old player.
The screen flickered.
A man wearing a black hood appeared.
His face remained hidden.
"If you're watching this..."
"...I've already failed."
He slowly stepped aside.
Two baby cribs came into view.
Twin girls slept peacefully inside.
"The fire was never about your mother."
"It was about you."
He pointed directly into the camera.
"There are people who believe the Carter twins should never grow up."
"They will never stop hunting you."
The recording suddenly distorted.
A gunshot echoed through the speakers.
The camera crashed to the floor.
For a brief second, everyone saw the killer's hand.
Tattooed across his wrist was the image of a black raven.
Detective Harris froze.
"I know that symbol."
"It's not just a tattoo..."
"It belongs to a criminal organization we've been chasing for over twenty years."
At that exact moment...
A black envelope slid underneath the front door.
No one had heard anyone approach.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed Rose.
Now fourteen years old.
She was alive...
But her wrists were chained to a chair.
Written across the bottom in red ink were eight chilling words:
"You found one daughter. Earn the right to save the other."
Lily looked at the photograph with tears in her eyes.
She had spent her whole life believing she was an only child.
Now she knew the truth.
Somewhere in the darkness...
May you like
Her twin sister was waiting.
And the countdown to save her had already begun.
