Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WITH MY MOTHER’S FACE
Evelyn Sterling had been hidden since infancy.
Elias Sterling believed twins complicated succession.
He publicly acknowledged Eleanor.
Evelyn was placed with a private physician and raised under another name.
No birth certificate connected her to the family.
She became Dr. Evelyn Stone.
A reproductive geneticist.
Brilliant.
Secretive.
Bitter.
Twenty-five years earlier, she created the embryo preservation program with Cross.
Her original goal was to protect women with cancer.
Then the Sterling trust discovered her work.
Margaret offered funding.
The program shifted from preservation to selection.
Evelyn became the scientific architect.
Cross became the operator.
Thomas signed corporate support without knowing full use.
Eleanor discovered the truth and tried to shut it down.
Evelyn disappeared into Northfield under the claim of illness.
Was she prisoner?
Partner?
Both?
The video continued.
“If Claire sees this, the trust has reached its final stage.”
She explained the Founder’s Clause was never about inheritance.
It was about control of genetic patents worth more than the real estate empire.
Lily and Vanessa’s baby carried engineered markers tied to a proprietary treatment.
Their health condition was not inherited naturally.
It had been introduced deliberately to test the therapy.
My daughters had been used as human trials.
I nearly dropped the tablet.
Eleanor caught it.
The room went silent.
Lily was playing with blocks across the safe apartment.
Alive.
Laughing.
A child whose heart had been treated as data before birth.
Vanessa’s baby slept in a guarded neonatal room.
Two girls.
One experiment.
Then Evelyn said:
“The treatment works only if administered before age two.”
Lily was eight months? Wait original Lily 8 months. Yes, not five like previous story. Good. So before age two still possible. Vanessa's newborn also.
Cross held the formula.
Without him, both children could deteriorate.
That was the cliff.
He had fled with the treatment protocol.
Then a secure message arrived.
ONE SIGNATURE FOR TWO LIVES.
Cross wanted the trust patent rights transferred to him.
In exchange, he would release treatment.
No guarantee.
No verification.
Eleanor said:
“We do not negotiate with him privately.”
I wanted to scream.
“My daughter may die.”
“Yes.”
“So may the newborn.”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“Public pressure. Federal warrants. Medical replication. Every path at once.”
No secret deal.
No single rescue.
Teams began reconstructing the treatment from archived research.
Marcus provided genetic samples.
Thomas surrendered all Sterling Biomedical records.
Vanessa authorized the newborn’s data.
I authorized Lily’s.
Not public release.
Controlled medical access.
Then Claire traced Cross’s passport to Switzerland.
A private clinic near Geneva.
Interpol moved.
Cross escaped hours before the raid.
But agents found Evelyn.
Alive.
Weak.
Under surveillance.
She had recorded the video secretly.
Eleanor flew to meet her.
I stayed with Lily.
When the sisters spoke by secure call, they looked like mirrors aged differently.
Eleanor:
“Did you create this?”
Evelyn:
“Yes.”
“Did you consent to what happened later?”
“Some of it.”
“Which part?”
“I wanted proof the therapy worked.”
“On children who could not consent?”
Evelyn cried.
“I told myself their parents did.”
“The parents were frauds.”
“I know.”
“Where is Cross?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Evelyn revealed the final location.
The original treatment protocol was not with Cross.
It was inside the gold brooch Eleanor wore.
The small key-shaped brooch.
Their mother designed it to store encrypted medical data.
Eleanor had worn the cure for years without knowing.
The brooch opened with both twins’ fingerprints.
Evelyn touched the scanner in Geneva.
Eleanor touched hers in Connecticut.
The protocol released.
Doctors began treatment.
Lily responded.
Vanessa’s baby responded.
Both stabilized.
Cross’s leverage disappeared.
Then federal agents captured him in Montreal while he attempted to sell fake protocol access.
May you like
The lives he threatened no longer depended on him.
The criminal case became unstoppable.
