PART 19 — THE BODY MEANT TO BE DANIEL
The detention facility erupted into chaos.
Red lights flashed across the corridor.
Officers shouted.
Doors buzzed open and slammed against walls.
Rachel grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the interview table while Detective Harris drew his weapon.
Vanessa stood on the other side of the glass, suddenly terrified.
Not acting.
Not calculating.
Terrified.
“They’re here,” she whispered.
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“Who?”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“Cassandra’s people.”
A guard ran past the door.
Then came a crash.
The glass between us did not break, but it trembled hard enough to make me flinch.
Rachel pushed me lower.
“Stay down.”
For once, Daniel obeyed no one.
He moved toward the door.
I grabbed his sleeve.
He looked back.
There was fear in his face.
But also something else.
A decision.
“If they came for Vanessa,” he said, “they came for the last person who knows where Cassandra is.”
I hated that he was right.
Detective Harris opened the door just enough to see the corridor.
Two masked men moved past the security station.
Not police.
Not guards.
Private contractors.
Harris fired one warning shot into the ceiling.
“Federal police! Down!”
The men ran.
Daniel moved before Harris could stop him.
He tackled one near the end of the hall.
It was reckless.
Stupid.
Very Daniel.
But this time, it saved someone.
The second man turned toward him with a knife.
Vanessa screamed.
Then Rachel hit the emergency release on the interview room door and shoved a metal chair into the attacker’s path.
He went down hard.
Harris had him cuffed in seconds.
Daniel was bleeding from the eyebrow, breathing hard, staring at the man he had tackled.
The attacker’s sleeve had torn.
On his wrist was a tattoo.
A black crown inside a V.
Vanessa saw it and went pale.
“Vale private security.”
Rachel looked at Harris.
“Graham is cleaning witnesses.”
Vanessa whispered, “Then Cassandra is already moving.”
Harris dragged the attacker upright.
“Where is the clinic?”
The man said nothing.
Vanessa laughed shakily.
“You think they talk?”
I stepped closer despite Rachel’s warning.
“Then you talk.”
Vanessa looked at me.
For the first time, there was no jealousy in her eyes.
Only exhaustion.
“Old Vale clinic has two basements. The first one is records. The second one is surgical storage.”
Daniel’s face went gray.
“The body?”
Vanessa nodded.
“They prepared dental records. Blood type. Personal effects. Graham wanted Daniel declared dead before noon.”
Rachel’s voice dropped.
“And David?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“The body was supposed to be David. Burned enough to pass as Daniel until Graham controlled the narrative.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
His twin brother, reduced to paperwork before he had ever become a person in court.
Harris’s radio crackled.
“Units at old Vale clinic. Fire reported. Possible victim inside.”
My stomach tightened.
Daniel turned toward the exit.
Rachel blocked him.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“My brother is in there.”
Rachel’s answer was immediate.
“And Lauren’s baby still needs one legal father alive.”
That hit him.
Hard.
He looked at me.
I did not forgive him.
But I nodded once.
“Don’t die proving you’re useful.”
He gave a broken laugh.
Then followed Harris.
Rachel and I watched the live police feed from a secure room.
The clinic burned from the back.
Smoke poured from basement vents.
Officers dragged out file cabinets, medical coolers, and one unconscious woman.
Cassandra Vale.
Alive.
Then two firefighters came out carrying a man.
His face was covered in soot.
His hands were bound.
Daniel leaned into the camera frame.
His whole body went still.
David.
Alive.
Barely.
Clutched in David’s burned hand was the metal tube.
FOR DANIEL.
Rachel exhaled.
“We have it.”
But before anyone could feel relief, Cassandra opened her eyes on the stretcher.
She grabbed Daniel’s wrist with shocking strength.
“Graham has the original,” she rasped.
Daniel bent closer.
“Original what?”
Her eyes rolled toward the camera.
Toward me.
“Lauren’s file.”
My blood went cold.
Rachel whispered, “The spouse assessment?”
Cassandra shook her head.
“No.”
Her voice was barely air.
“The adoption file.”
The room froze.
My hand flew to my stomach.
“What adoption file?”
Cassandra smiled through smoke-blackened lips.
May you like
“The baby Graham chose Lauren for was never supposed to be Daniel’s first child.”
Then she passed out.
