Chapter 14 - MEGAN’S SISTER
Megan had buried an empty casket.
The fire destroyed the house so completely that identification relied on dental records supplied by a Cross-affiliated clinic.
Again.
The same method.
Megan listened while Claire explained.
She did not cry at first.
She asked operational questions.
Where was Amanda last seen? Who signed the certificate? Who paid the insurance?
Only after the facts were listed did her hands begin to shake.
Amanda had worked as a medical photographer. She documented injuries, procedures, and patient identities.
Richard Cross recruited her to create visual records for private guardianship cases.
Then she discovered they were altering photographs to make healthy patients appear bruised, confused, or neglected.
She threatened to report them.
Her death followed.
Rebecca found Amanda’s name in the Covenant files under “identity preservation.”
Not dead.
Retained.
Used.
Claire believed Amanda had been forced into impersonation work for years.
The attempt at Noah’s school might have been a kidnapping operation.
Or a warning.
Megan asked to contact Amanda directly.
Claire refused until risk was assessed.
Megan stared at her.
“You let victims decide what contact they want.”
“Yes.”
“Then let me decide.”
Claire did.
A message went through the school’s copied credential channel.
Megan wrote:
I KNOW YOU’RE ALIVE. I WILL NOT ASK YOU TO COME HOME. TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED.
The reply came seven hours later.
NOT HOME.
EXIT.
Coordinates followed.
An underground parking garage beneath a private surgical clinic.
Federal teams entered quietly.
They found Amanda inside an imaging room wearing Claire Brooks’s face.
Silicone structure. Temporary surgical swelling. Hair dyed dark.
She pulled away when Megan approached.
“No touching.”
Megan stopped.
Amanda asked for a mirror.
Not her sister.
Not police.
A mirror.
She removed the prosthetics herself.
Beneath them was a face altered by multiple surgeries.
She looked like Megan around the eyes.
That was enough.
Amanda explained Malcolm controlled a group called the Archive.
They collected living identities the Covenant could deploy after legal death.
Witnesses became substitutes. Dead clients signed papers. Surrogates appeared as spouses. Patients appeared on video after disappearance.
Amanda photographed and trained them under threat.
She tried to reach Noah because Malcolm planned to remove him before the dual-heir filing.
She chose the school because security would stop her if protocols worked.
It was a test and a message.
“Where is Malcolm?” Claire asked.
Amanda looked toward me.
“Inside Vance Logistics.”
My employee-owned company.
He had entered as an outside compliance auditor six months earlier under the name Mark Hall.
He already had access to board records, pension files, and executive signatures.
Elise called the company.
No answer from the internal security director.
Then every employee received an emergency email signed by Elise.
May you like
It announced Arthur Vance had died.
And ordered immediate transfer of voting authority to Rebecca Lane.
