CHAPTER 26 : The Other Ethan
Ethan’s parents had always told him he was born alone.
His mother had died when he was young.
His father had refused to discuss the night of Ethan’s birth.
Now both were gone.
There was no one left to ask.
Olivia searched hospital archives.
The original delivery records had been destroyed in a storage fire.
A nurse’s private journal provided the only surviving account.
Mrs. Blackwood delivered two male infants.
One child transferred by family authority.
Second child removed before morning.
No death recorded.
Sophie studied the photograph of the twins.
“One of them could be the man Noah saw.”
Ethan said nothing.
The security photograph from Black Hollow showed a figure from behind.
He had Ethan’s height.
Ethan’s posture.
Even the same way of holding his left shoulder slightly lower than the right.
Daniel examined the video.
“Someone has been watching you for years. He could have learned your movements.”
“Or he moves like me because he is me,” Ethan said.
Emily opened Laura’s letter.
She had waited two days, afraid of what it might contain.
My dearest Emily,
You were born before I was strong enough to protect anyone, including myself.
They told me you died.
For sixteen years, I believed them.
When I discovered you were alive, I wanted to take you and run. But Northstar was watching Sophie. If I moved too quickly, I could lose both of you.
I began collecting evidence.
I trusted the wrong person.
If you are reading this, I did not reach you in time.
Please believe one thing.
You were never unwanted.
You were stolen.
Emily pressed the letter to her chest.
Sophie opened hers.
My sweet Sophie,
You will grow up hearing people describe courage as something loud.
It is not.
Courage is telling the truth when the person hurting you says no one will believe you.
It is opening a door after someone has taught you to fear what waits behind it.
There is one door I could not open.
Your father’s family created Northstar.
But Ethan did not know.
Protect him from the man who carries his face.
Sophie slowly lowered the page.
Laura had known about Ethan’s twin.
Ethan opened his own letter.
The first page contained only a few lines.
Ethan,
I should have told you about Emily.
I should have told you about your brother.
I believed secrecy would keep you safe.
I was wrong.
Your brother calls himself—
The rest of the page had been torn away.
Someone had entered the bank vault before them.
Daniel reviewed the vault’s access history.
The lock had been opened three weeks earlier using Ethan’s fingerprints and retinal scan.
Ethan had been at the center on that date.
“Your twin has your biometric profile,” Daniel said.
Olivia searched recent government databases.
Someone using Ethan’s identity had accessed sealed family court records, financial accounts, and Blackwood property titles.
More than fifty million dollars had been transferred into an unknown foundation.
Then Mia entered the room carrying a tablet.
“You need to see the security feed.”
The center’s cameras showed Ethan entering through the front door.
He wore a black coat.
He smiled at the receptionist.
At that exact moment, the real Ethan stood beside Mia in the bank vault thirty miles away.
The man on the camera looked directly into the lens.
May you like
Then he spoke.
“Hello, Sophie.”
