Chapter 3 - THE SECRET UNDER THE BED
Headline: "A stolen hair brush, a midnight break-in, and the terrifying truth hidden inside a DNA lab..."The morning after the coffee incident, Maya felt the walls closing in. She hadn't been fired, which was a miracle, but the atmosphere in the mansion had shifted. Mrs. Gable had reassigned her exclusively to the East Wing, far away from Eleanor.
But Chloe Vance was watching her. Everywhere Maya went, she could feel Chloe’s icy, paranoid gaze tracking her movements.
Chloe wasn't stupid. She had lived her whole life knowing she didn't look like Eleanor or her late father. She had blamed it on recessive genes, but the sudden appearance of a maid who looked like Eleanor's twin was a nightmare realized. If Maya was who she appeared to be, Chloe’s entire empire, her billions, her status—everything would vanish.
"I need her gone," Chloe whispered frantically into her phone while pacing her luxury bedroom. She was speaking to Julian Vance, Eleanor’s greedy younger brother who managed the family’s real estate portfolio. "Julian, you don't understand. She has the eyes. She has the birthmark. If Mother investigates—"
"Calm down, brat," Julian’s voice sneered through the phone. "Eleanor has been paranoid for twenty-five years. A pretty face doesn't change a birth certificate. But if you're that scared... get proof before she does. Find out who the girl is."
That night, driven by a desperate need to protect her future, Chloe crept out of her room. The mansion was dark. She slipped into the staff quarters, using a master key she had stolen from Mrs. Gable.
She unlocked Maya's small, humble room.
Chloe slipped inside, her flashlight beam cutting through the darkness. She rummaged through Maya's backpack, knocking over a small, worn wooden box. A few items spilled onto the mattress: a cheap silver bracelet, an old hospital receipt, and a hairbrush filled with dark strands of hair.
"Perfect," Chloe hissed, pulling a plastic bag from her pocket. She carefully pulled the hair strands from the brush, sealing them away.
But as she went to stuff the wooden box back into the backpack, a faded piece of paper fell out. It was a birth certificate from St. Jude’s Community Hospital, dated exactly twenty-five years ago. The mother’s name listed was Sarah Collins. But stamped at the top in faded red ink was a terrifying detail: Maternity Ward B - Switched Infant Investigation Pending (1998).
Chloe’s breath hitched. Her heart hammered so loudly she thought it would burst.
Suddenly, the doorknob jiggled.
Chloe gasped, shoving the paper into her pocket and diving under Maya’s narrow twin bed just as the door opened.
Maya walked in, exhausted from a twelve-hour shift. She didn't notice anything amiss. She threw her coat onto the chair, kicked off her shoes, and collapsed onto the bed.
Directly beneath her, holding her breath in the pitch black, Chloe clutched the stolen hair strands. A sinister realization washed over her. The maid really is the heiress. And I am the imposter.
The next morning, Chloe secretly delivered the hair sample, along with a swab of Eleanor’s DNA she had taken from a wine glass, to a private, highly corruptible genetic lab owned by one of Julian’s shell companies.
"I don't care what the machine says," Chloe told the lab director, shoving a thick envelope of cash across the table. "The result must say zero percent probability of maternity. Do you understand me? If this leaks, you ruin your career."
May you like
The director nodded greedily. "Consider it done, Miss Vance."
But Chloe didn't know that Eleanor Vance had already bypassed her entirely. Eleanor hadn't slept a wink. She had already sent her own trusted private investigators to dig into Maya Collins’ past.
