Chapter 24 - The Prosecutor’s Bargain
Ava’s agents separated them.
Elise and Nora were placed inside one vehicle. Victor and Rebecca were taken in another.
Ava sat across from Elise.
“I am not working for Malcolm.”
“Then why do you wear his ring?”
“Because he believes I belong to him.”
Ava explained that Malcolm had raised her for six years before Samuel helped her escape. She kept the ring as evidence of her connection to the Registry.
The accelerated hearing was Malcolm’s attempt to force Lydia’s transfer before the Orchard files became public.
Ava had moved it to a federal courtroom where Malcolm controlled fewer people.
“Why arrest Victor?”
“To make Malcolm believe our bargain failed.”
At the courthouse, Lydia waited beside Adrian Hale.
She wore Elise’s navy suit, styled her hair the same way and carried years of stolen photographs.
The resemblance was not physical.
It was behavioral.
Lydia copied Elise’s posture, gestures and expressions with disturbing accuracy.
The judge ordered both women to identify private details from Elise’s life.
Lydia answered every question correctly.
She knew Elise’s first school.
Her father’s favorite song.
The words Victor spoke before proposing.
Then the judge asked about the wooden bird.
Lydia smiled.
“My mother gave it to me after a nightmare.”
Elise remembered Rebecca’s story.
But something was wrong.
Rebecca had not given Elise the bird.
Elise had carried it when Rebecca first met her.
“It wasn’t a gift,” Elise said. “It was the only thing I owned before I had a name.”
The judge looked toward Lydia.
Lydia’s confidence disappeared.
A courtroom door opened.
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Malcolm Hale entered with Samuel Ward’s original adoption file.
It declared Lydia the child holding the wooden bird.
