CHAPTER 11 — THE MISSING WOMEN
CHAPTER 11 — THE MISSING WOMEN
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Julian stared at the man standing in the vault doorway.
Alexander Laurent.
His biological father.
A man who had supposedly been dead for more than twenty years.
A man whose photograph Julian had only seen a few minutes earlier.
A man whose face somehow felt familiar.
Not because Julian remembered him.
Because he saw pieces of himself in it.
The same dark eyes.
The same narrow jaw.
The same habit of tilting his head when suspicious.
Julian's stomach twisted.
“You're dead.”
Alexander smiled faintly.
“So I was told.”
Julian looked at Martha.
She was still holding the gun.
But her hands were shaking now.
“You said he was murdered.”
Martha's lips trembled.
“I believed he was.”
Alexander laughed.
“You knew exactly where I was.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
Martha looked away.
Alexander stepped into the vault.
The heavy door closed behind him.
Victor immediately moved in front of Julian.
Alexander looked at him.
“You're still protecting him.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“He's my son.”
“Not by blood.”
“Blood isn't what makes a father.”
Alexander's smile disappeared.
“Don't lecture me about fatherhood.”
Julian stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Both men turned toward him.
Julian looked at Alexander.
“If you're my father, prove it.”
Alexander nodded.
“I expected that.”
He reached into his coat.
Victor immediately raised his gun.
“Slowly.”
Alexander stopped.
Then carefully pulled out a small leather wallet.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A baby.
Julian.
Martha was holding him.
Alexander stood beside her.
Julian stared at the photograph.
On the back was a date.
The exact date he had been born.
Underneath were four words.
My son. My only heir.
Julian's throat tightened.
“Where did you get this?”
“I took it.”
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
Martha closed her eyes.
Julian turned toward her.
“You told me he abandoned us.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From him?”
“From everyone.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“She wasn't protecting you.”
Martha's voice broke.
“Alexander.”
“She was protecting the secret.”
Julian looked between them.
“What secret?”
Neither answered.
Julian's patience snapped.
“What secret?”
Alexander looked directly into his eyes.
“You aren't the only Laurent heir.”
Silence.
Julian frowned.
“What?”
“There were three children.”
Martha's face drained of color.
Victor looked at her.
“You told me there were two.”
Martha said nothing.
Alexander continued.
“Three children were born from the Laurent bloodline.”
Julian stared.
“Who are they?”
Alexander looked at Martha.
“She knows.”
Julian turned toward his mother.
“Mom?”
Martha lowered the gun.
“Julian…”
“Who are the other two?”
She whispered:
“Your sisters.”
The word struck him harder than anything else that night.
“My… sisters?”
Alexander nodded.
“Twin sisters.”
Julian felt dizzy.
“I have sisters?”
“You did.”
The past tense caught him.
“What happened to them?”
Martha's eyes filled with tears.
“They disappeared.”
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Julian shook his head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It does.”
Alexander walked toward the table.
“The Laurent family believed that one male heir would be easier to protect.”
Martha interrupted.
“That isn't why.”
Alexander looked at her.
“You want to tell him?”
She couldn't.
So Alexander did.
“When the twins were born, someone decided they were a threat.”
Julian's voice dropped.
“Who?”
Alexander answered:
“Your grandmother.”
Julian stared.
“My grandmother?”
“She believed the girls would eventually inherit the Laurent Trust.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Because the Laurent Trust was designed differently for daughters.”
Alexander opened another file.
Julian saw two names.
ELENA LAURENT
ELISE LAURENT
Twins.
Born twelve minutes apart.
Both listed as missing.
Both presumed dead.
Julian's hands began to tremble.
“Where are they?”
Alexander looked at Martha.
“She knows.”
Martha shook her head.
“I don't know where they are now.”
“But you knew where they went.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Martha sat down.
Her face looked suddenly exhausted.
“Your sisters were separated.”
Julian stared.
“Why?”
“To prevent anyone from finding all three of you.”
“Who separated them?”
Martha whispered:
“Me.”
Julian's face hardened.
“You did this?”
“I had no choice.”
“You always say that.”
“I was twenty-three.”
“You were their mother.”
“I was trying to keep them alive!”
Her voice echoed through the vault.
Everyone became silent.
Martha covered her face.
“The night they were born, someone broke into the hospital.”
Julian listened.
“They weren't looking for money.”
“They weren't looking for documents.”
“They were looking for the babies.”
She lowered her hands.
“I saw two men enter the nursery.”
“Who?”
“I recognized one.”
“Richard?”
“No.”
Martha's eyes met Julian's.
“Your grandfather.”
Julian's stomach turned.
“And the other?”
“I never saw his face.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“That man was working for the Laurent Trust.”
Julian looked at him.
“What did they want?”
“The girls.”
“Why?”
Alexander hesitated.
“Because the Laurent inheritance had been changed.”
“How?”
“Your grandfather had discovered that the original Laurent succession rules could be triggered by the birth of three direct descendants.”
Julian frowned.
“So all three of us mattered.”
“Yes.”
“Then why were my sisters targeted?”
“Because your grandfather wanted to control the inheritance.”
Martha nodded.
“He wanted one child.”
Julian understood.
“You.”
“No.”
Martha's voice was barely audible.
“He wanted the girls gone.”
Julian stared.
“Why?”
“Because they were older.”
He felt sick.
“Older?”
“The Laurent Trust favored the firstborn children.”
Julian looked at the file.
Elena.
Elise.
Born before him.
“They were the rightful heirs.”
“Yes.”
“And I wasn't.”
“No.”
Alexander stepped forward.
“That's why you were raised as a Hale.”
Julian looked at Victor.
Victor's eyes filled with regret.
“You knew.”
“I knew you were Laurent.”
“But you raised me as your son.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor answered quietly.
“Because your sisters were already gone.”
Julian looked back at Alexander.
“Where were they taken?”
Alexander's face became grim.
“One went to Europe.”
“The other?”
“America.”
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
Julian stared.
“You don't know where your own daughter is?”
“I spent twenty years looking.”
“And you found nothing?”
“I found traces.”
“Of what?”
Alexander reached into his coat again.
He removed two photographs.
The first showed a young woman standing outside a hospital.
The second showed another woman behind the counter of a small bookstore.
Julian stared at both.
Something about them felt familiar.
The first woman had his eyes.
The second had Martha's smile.
“Are they alive?”
Alexander nodded.
“They were.”
Julian's heart jumped.
“Were?”
“The photographs are old.”
“How old?”
“Seven years.”
Julian stared.
“Then what happened?”
“They disappeared.”
Again.
The word seemed cursed.
Everyone connected to this family disappeared.
His father.
His sisters.
His grandfather.
Women.
Men.
Everyone leaving behind secrets instead of answers.
Julian suddenly understood something.
“The missing women.”
Alexander looked at him.
“What?”
“Bianca.”
“What about her?”
“She wasn't the only woman who disappeared.”
Alexander's expression changed.
Julian began counting.
“My sisters.”
“Your father's first wife.”
“Bianca.”
“Elena.”
“Martha.”
He stopped.
“Everyone keeps disappearing.”
Alexander nodded.
“Because the women are the key.”
Julian looked at him.
“To what?”
“The Laurent archive.”
Victor suddenly spoke.
“Alexander.”
“What?”
“You shouldn't tell him.”
“Why?”
“Because once he knows, there's no going back.”
Julian turned.
“I already crossed that line.”
Victor stared at him.
Julian's voice became cold.
“Tell me.”
Alexander looked toward the ceiling.
“The Laurent archive contains a list.”
“Of what?”
“Every person who ever participated in the Trust.”
Julian frowned.
“That doesn't explain the women.”
“It does when you understand how the archive is accessed.”
Alexander picked up the silver key.
“The system requires three biological signatures.”
Julian's eyes narrowed.
“Mine?”
“Yours.”
“And my sisters'?”
“Yes.”
“All three?”
“Yes.”
“Then if they're alive…”
“We can open it.”
Julian stared at the key.
“And Richard wants me dead because he can't access it without me.”
“Correct.”
“And Bianca was trying to marry me because she needed access.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother…”
Alexander looked at Martha.
“She wanted to find your sisters before Richard did.”
Julian's anger faltered.
“You were trying to find them?”
Martha nodded.
“For years.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because every time I got close, someone disappeared.”
Julian remembered Elena.
The nurse.
The recordings.
The secret accounts.
The photographs.
“What about Elena?”
Alexander's face changed.
“She is one of them.”
Julian froze.
“The nurse?”
Alexander nodded.
“Your sister.”
Julian's heart stopped.
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
He thought about the woman in the hospital.
The familiar eyes.
The strange sense that he had seen her before.
His sister had been standing only a few feet away.
And he hadn't known.
“Where is she now?”
Alexander looked at Martha.
Martha whispered:
“Richard took her.”
Julian's face hardened.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
Alexander looked toward the monitor.
“Then we need to move.”
Suddenly, the screen flickered.
A video appeared.
Elena was sitting in a dark room.
Her hands were bound.
Beside her sat another woman.
Julian stared.
The second woman from the photograph.
His other sister.
Elise.
Both women were alive.
A voice came through the speakers.
Richard.
“Family reunion.”
Julian stepped closer to the screen.
“Richard!”
Richard smiled.
“You finally figured it out.”
Elena looked toward the camera.
“Julian, don't trust him.”
Richard laughed.
“Which one?”
He gestured toward the three men and Martha.
“Your father?”
“Your mother?”
“Your uncle?”
“Or perhaps yourself?”
Julian clenched his fists.
“Let them go.”
Richard shook his head.
“You're going to bring me the Laurent key.”
“No.”
Richard smiled.
“Then your sisters die.”
Martha stepped forward.
“Richard, please.”
He looked at her.
“You should have thought about that twenty-seven years ago.”
Julian's eyes narrowed.
“What happened twenty-seven years ago?”
Richard smiled.
“Ask your mother.”
The screen went black.
Julian turned.
Martha was crying.
“What happened?”
She whispered:
“I made a deal.”
“With Richard?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
Martha looked at Alexander.
“I gave him one of your sisters.”
Julian stopped breathing.
“What?”
“I gave him Elena.”
Alexander stared at her.
“You promised me she was safe.”
“I thought she was.”
Julian's face twisted with disbelief.
“You gave my sister to him?”
“I was trying to save you and Elise.”
“You traded one child for another?”
“I was terrified!”
Julian stepped back.
“And Elise?”
Martha couldn't answer.
Alexander did.
“She gave Elise to the people in Europe.”
Julian stared at his mother.
“You separated them.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to everyone.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe I was an only child.”
“Yes.”
“And all this time, my sisters were alive.”
Martha nodded.
Julian's eyes filled with tears.
“I spent my entire life wondering why our family felt incomplete.”
Martha covered her mouth.
“I know.”
“No.”
Julian's voice cracked.
“You don't know.”
He turned away.
Then he noticed something on the floor.
A small envelope.
It hadn't been there before.
He picked it up.
His name was written on it.
JULIAN.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena and Elise as children.
Standing beside a third child.
Julian.
All three were smiling.
On the back was a handwritten message:
WE WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE SEPARATED.
Below it was an address.
Julian read it.
Then looked at Alexander.
“What's this?”
Alexander's face went pale.
“That isn't an address.”
“What is it?”
“It's the original Laurent estate.”
“Where?”
Alexander whispered:
“Where your grandfather died.”
Julian stared.
“Why would Richard send us there?”
Alexander looked at the clock.
“Because he wants us to find something.”
“What?”
Alexander's expression was grim.
“The truth about who ordered the disappearances.”
Julian looked at Martha.
She was shaking.
“Mom?”
She whispered:
“Don't go there.”
“Why?”
“Because that's where I buried the truth.”
Julian looked at the photograph of his sisters.
Then at the address.
For twenty-seven years, his family had been built on silence.
Tonight, the silence had finally broken.
He picked up the silver Laurent key.
“We're going.”
Victor looked at him.
“Julian, it's dangerous.”
“So is doing nothing.”
Alexander nodded.
“We have one problem.”
“What?”
“We don't know whether Richard is holding your sisters there.”
Julian looked toward the vault door.
“Then we'll find out.”
Martha grabbed his hand.
“Julian.”
He stopped.
She looked into his eyes.
For the first time, there was no manipulation in her expression.
Only fear.
“I am sorry.”
Julian slowly pulled his hand away.
“I believe you.”
Martha looked surprised.
“But forgiveness comes later.”
He turned toward the door.
“Right now, I have two sisters to bring home.”
Behind them, the vault monitor suddenly turned on again.
A single image appeared.
A woman.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Standing inside the Laurent estate.
Julian stared.
He knew her.
Everyone knew her.
She had appeared in old photographs.
She had been presumed dead for decades.
His grandmother.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
And spoke four words:
“Come find me, Julian.”
The screen went black.
Julian stared at it.
Victor whispered:
“Impossible.”
Alexander looked horrified.
Martha began crying.
Because the dead woman on the screen wasn't merely alive.
May you like
She was waiting.
And she had just invited her grandson into the place where the Laurent bloodline had begun bleeding.
