CHAPTER 2 - Eighteen Missing Birthdays
Celeste ordered security to leave Anna alone.
She led her into a private sitting room and locked the door before Marcus could follow.
For several seconds, the sisters only stared at each other.
Anna was twenty-five now, but Celeste could still see the little girl who used to climb into her bed during thunderstorms.
"Why are you dressed as a maid?" Celeste asked.
"I work for the catering company. It was the only way I could get inside."
Anna explained that she had grown up moving between foster homes. Aunt Lydia had visited once, warning her that Celeste had chosen wealth and no longer wanted a troublesome younger sister.
"I believed her until I was twenty-one," Anna said. "Then my foster mother gave me the pendant and our mother's papers."
Anna found Celeste online and began writing.
The first two letters disappeared.
The third came back with a message from Marcus, ordering her to stay away.
Celeste shook her head.
"He never told me."
"I came to the mansion last year. Your guards said I was on a permanent exclusion list."
Celeste remembered Marcus telling her that an unstable stranger had been stalking the family.
It had been Anna.
The door opened.
Marcus entered carrying a folder.
"This woman is manipulating you," he said. "Your aunt investigated her years ago."
Inside were reports accusing Anna of theft and fraud.
Anna read them calmly.
"That address belongs to someone else. I have never lived there."
Celeste noticed the birth date was wrong.
Marcus closed the folder quickly.
Anna then produced a photograph showing the sisters at a picnic with their parents. On the back, their mother had written:
For Celeste and Anna, my two brave girls. Never let anyone separate you.
Celeste's composure collapsed.
"I should have searched harder."
"You were nine," Anna replied. "You were a child too."
Marcus reached for Celeste's hand.
"Enough. Send her away, and we can forget this happened."
Celeste stepped back.
"Why would you want me to forget my own sister?"
Marcus's face hardened.
May you like
Then Anna placed a copy of Aunt Lydia's will on the table.
If Anna was alive, half of everything Marcus controlled through Celeste legally belonged to her.
