The Death Certificate

Val’s eyes dropped to the hairbrush, then flicked to Elena’s closed fist. The air in the guest suite curdled, the silence between them stretching until the hum of the ventilator from the next room sounded like a roar.

"I was just... tidying," Elena said, her voice a brittle thread. "I found a few of your hairs. I didn't want the drain to clog."

Val’s mouth twitched into a smile that didn't move her cheeks. She reached out and took the brush from Elena’s hand, her fingers cold as a morgue slab. "You're so thoughtful, Elena. Always worrying about the small things. The drains. The cameras. The mice."

Elena didn't wait for a reply. She brushed past Val, her heart slamming against the paper tucked into her bra. She retreated to the nursery, locking the door and sliding to the floor, her breath coming in ragged hitches.

She needed a final, undeniable truth. She pulled out the eye-gaze tablet once more, her fingers flying across the glass to reconnect with the proxy tunnel.

*User: Vance_Admin_E*
*Message: Tariq, I have biological proof. But I need the history. I need to know where the real Diana Vance is. Search the UK database again. Use the maiden name.*

The cursor blinked, a rhythmic taunt in the dim light. Elena watched the screen, her pulse thrumming in her ears. Outside, the blizzard howled, a white wall separating her from the world.

*Tariq: Mrs. Vance, I’ve been running a deep-soil scrape on the London Metropolitan archives. I found a death certificate. It wasn't under Vance. It was under her mother's maiden name, Rossi.*

A new file appeared on the screen. Elena tapped it with a trembling finger.

*CERTIFICATE OF DEATH: Diana Elizabeth Rossi.*
*Date of Death: December 12, 2020.*
*Location: St. Jude’s Hostel, London.*
*Cause of Death: Acute respiratory failure due to accidental opioid overdose.*

Elena felt the floorboards tilt beneath her. She stared at the date. December 2020.

Her sister had been dead for over five years. She had died alone in a cold room in a city she hated, while Elena was still writing letters to an old address in Brighton.

The grief hit her then, a tidal wave of ice that extinguished the last of her hope. But beneath the grief, a sharper, more lethal realization began to burn.

'Diana' had shown up at Elena’s door for their 'reunion' in the spring of 2023. She had walked into Elena’s life two years after her sister’s body had been cremated by the state. Marcus had been the one to 'track her down.' Marcus had been the one to pay for her flight.

The date of death was two years *before* 'Diana' showed up at Elena's door for the reunion.