Chapter 8 - The Fire of 2002
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By 9:00 p.m., the gala downstairs had devolved into utter chaos.
Rumors of Ethan Carter’s arrest had spread through the ballroom like wildfire. Journalists were crowding the lobby, cameras flashing continuously as police cars sat outside Carter Tower with their emergency lights painting the glass walls in rhythmic flashes of red and blue.
I locked myself inside the executive assistant's suite on the top floor, my heart hammering against my chest. My hands flew across my mechanical keyboard as I bypassed three security protocols using Ethan’s private master password—a password he had trusted me with months ago for emergency corporate filings.
Project Lazarus. 2002.
The encrypted file opened on my dual monitors.
It wasn't a corporate acquisition. It was a sealed medical and legal dossier from the old Carter Private Clinic in northern Manhattan.
My eyes scanned the scanned newspaper clippings, police reports, and fire department logs. On November 14, 2002, a catastrophic electrical fire had swept through the pediatric wing of the facility. According to the official report, eight-year-old Lucas Carter—Ethan’s identical twin brother—had perished in the flames.
I zoomed in on a grainy black-and-white photograph of the two young boys standing beside their father, Charles Carter. They were completely indistinguishable.
Lucas Carter hadn't died.
The man in the hospital security video, the man who had used Ethan’s biometric fingerprint to clear out Andrew’s safe, was Ethan’s living twin.
Suddenly, my personal cell phone vibrated on the desk.
An unknown number.
I picked it up with shaking hands. "Hello?"
A quiet, raspy voice came through the speaker—a voice that sounded shockingly similar to Ethan’s, but colder, hardened by decades of darkness.
"Hello, Ava," the voice whispered. "I see you've finally opened my file."
"Lucas?" I breathed.
May you like
"If you want to keep Ethan out of prison, meet me at the old clinic on 114th Street in forty minutes," Lucas said. "And bring the silver key you took from Andrew’s ring. If you tell the police, your precious doctor will make sure Ethan never sees the sun again."
The line went dead.
