Chapter 52: The Plan

I stepped back as the door swung open. Edith stood in the hallway, flanked by two armed guards. Dr. Thorne lingered behind them, looking like a man marching to his own execution. But next to Edith, her hand resting casually on the guard's arm, was Lucia.

My sister. The woman who had tased me.

"Sarah," Edith said, her voice dripping with artificial concern. "You look unwell. Dr. Thorne, check her pupils."

Thorne shuffled forward, but I didn't look at him. I looked at Lucia.

"Why?" I asked.

Lucia shrugged, a gesture so casual it was chilling. "Money, Sarah. Edith offered me five million dollars to bring you in. I've been poor my whole life. I didn't want to be poor anymore."

"She killed our mother," I said.

"So?" Lucia said. "I never met her. She's a ghost. Edith is a bank vault."

Edith smiled, a preening, satisfied smile. "Family is complicated, isn't it? But loyalty... loyalty is simple. It goes to the highest bidder."

She stepped into the room, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. She looked at the shattered frames, the glass glittering in the sunlight.

"A pity," she said, nudging a piece of silver with her toe. "I always liked that photo of us."

"It was a lie," I said. "Everything was a lie."

"Does it matter?" Edith asked. "You had the best schools. The best clothes. The best life. And you threw it away for what? The truth?"

She laughed.

"The truth doesn't pay the mortgage, Sarah. The truth doesn't buy influence."

She walked to the window and looked out at the grounds.

"I need you to sign something," she said. "A statement. Retracting your claims. Admitting to a mental breakdown."

"I won't sign it."

"You will," Edith said, turning around. "Because if you don't, Leo dies."

"Leo is safe," I said, my voice steady. "Ben has him. They're gone."

Edith's smile widened. It was predatory.

"Did you really think I wouldn't track the truck?" she asked. "My team picked them up an hour ago. Ben put up a fight. He's... resting. But Leo? Leo is back in the hospital. In the isolation wing. And this time, Dr. Thorne isn't going to lower the dosage. He's going to increase it."

I looked at Thorne. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You monster," I whispered.

"I'm a survivor," Edith said. "Now, sign the papers."

She pulled a document from her coat pocket and tossed it onto the bed.

I looked at the paper. Then I looked at Lucia.

She was watching me, her expression bored. But her hand... her hand was tapping against her thigh. A rhythmic, deliberate tapping.

*Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.*

I frowned. It was Morse code.

I had learned it years ago, during a summer camp phase Edith had insisted on because it "built character." Lucia couldn't have known that.

Unless she had researched me. Unless she knew everything about me.

*T-R-A-P.*

My heart skipped a beat.

*Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.*

*Trap.*

She wasn't bored. She was waiting.

"Well?" Edith asked. "I don't have all day."

"I need a pen," I said.

Edith nodded to Thorne. He handed me a Montblanc from his pocket.

I walked to the bed. I picked up the document.

"I'll sign," I said. "But I want to see him. I want to see Leo."

"After," Edith said.

I uncapped the pen. I leaned over the paper.

And then I looked at Lucia.

She winked.

Suddenly, the lights went out.

Not just the lights in the room. The entire estate plunged into darkness. The hum of the air conditioning died. The electronic locks on the doors clicked open as the fail-safes engaged.

"What is this?" Edith shrieked. "Thorne! Fix it!"

"It's the grid," Thorne stammered. "The power is out."

"It's not the grid," I said, dropping the pen.

In the darkness, a phone screen lit up. It was Lucia's.

She held it up, illuminating her face. She was smiling. But it wasn't the cold, mercenary smile from before. It was a grin. A Sterling grin.

"It's a hack," Lucia said. "I didn't just spend thirty years being poor, Edith. I spent them learning how to code."

She tapped the screen.

A voice echoed through the room. Edith's voice.

*He fathered you. And he fathered Leo. And he fathered Mark. He was the stud horse for the entire dynasty.*

Edith gasped. "That... that was at Sarah's house. How do you have that?"

"Sarah recorded it," Lucia said. "But she didn't just save it to her phone. She uploaded it to the cloud. And I downloaded it."

She tapped the screen again.

*I killed her. I killed Alice because she wouldn't sell me the baby.*

The voice filled the dark room, damning and undeniable.

"And now," Lucia said, "I'm uploading it to the police server. And the *Times*. And every news outlet in the state."

Edith lunged for the phone. "Give me that!"

But Lucia was faster. She sidestepped, and Edith crashed into the heavy oak dresser.

"Guards!" Edith screamed. "Seize them!"

The guards moved forward, their flashlights cutting through the dark.

"Run!" Lucia yelled.

She grabbed my hand. We bolted for the door.

We didn't run down the hall. We ran to the servant's stairs at the back of the house.

"How do you know where to go?" I panted as we took the steps two at a time.

"I studied the blueprints," Lucia said. "The ones Ben had. I've been watching you for weeks, Sarah. I wasn't waiting for a DNA match. I was waiting for you to make a move."

"You... you were helping us?"

"I was protecting you," she said. "I knew Edith would try to turn me. I let her. I let her think she bought me so I could get close enough to burn her down."

We burst out of the servant's entrance into the garden. The night air was cool.

"Where's Ben?" I asked. "You said they took him."

"They did," Lucia said. "But he's not helpless. He's waiting for us."

"Where?"

"At the greenhouse," she said. "The one place Edith won't look."

We ran across the lawn, the grass wet with dew. The greenhouse was still a smoking ruin, a black scar on the landscape.

But standing in the shadows of the carriage house, nursing a bruised jaw but looking very much alive, was Ben.

And next to him, holding a flashlight, was Mark.

"You're okay," I breathed, hugging Ben.

"Barely," he said, wincing. "But I got away. Mark pulled me out of the van before they could secure me."

"We need to get back to the house," I said.

"Why?" Mark asked. "We need to leave."

"No," I said. "Edith is trapped in there. The police are coming. But she has one more exit strategy."

"What?"

"The tunnels," I said. "The ones that lead to the hospital. If she gets to the hospital... if she gets to Leo..."

"She'll use him as a shield," Ben said.

I looked at the house. The windows were dark, but I could see flashlight beams moving inside. Edith was hunting.

"We have to beat her there," I said. "We have to go back in."

"Into the tunnels?" Mark asked, looking at the dark earth where the entrance lay hidden.

"Into the belly of the beast," I said.

I looked at Lucia. My sister. My twin.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

Lucia smiled. She pulled a taser from her pocket—the same one she had used on me.

"I've been ready for thirty years," she said.