Chapter 14 - The Sister Who Never Was
The silence inside the kitchen was deafening, broken only by the distant hum of the refrigerator.
Maya pulled back, staring into Julian’s dark, unreadable eyes.
"Clara was Victoria's first child," Julian said quietly, walking toward the living room bookshelf.
He reached up, pulling down a dusty leather-bound volume of poetry.
He slipped a faded color photograph from behind the inner spine and laid it before Maya on the counter.
The photograph showed a teenage girl with wide amber eyes and long auburn hair.
Maya recognized those eyes immediately.
Ten years ago, during her freshman year at Syracuse, she had pulled a hysterical, drowning girl from a frozen lake.
The girl had vanished from the hospital before Maya could even learn her name.
"Victoria had Clara declared legally dead two weeks after that incident," Julian said, his jaw tightening.
"Why?" Maya asked, her voice trembling. "Why would a mother do that to her own daughter?"
"Because Clara wasn't my father’s child," Julian said grimly.
He leaned against the mantelpiece, staring into the dark, unlit fireplace.
"Clara was the result of Victoria’s affair with Richard Vance."
Maya’s mind spun violently. "Vance? Like Deputy Vance outside?"
"Deputy Vance is Richard Vance’s nephew," Julian said, turning to face her with dead eyes.
"The Vance family doesn't enforce the law out here, Maya. They own this entire county."
"Then why is he parked outside our house right now?" Maya’s voice climbed into panic.
Before Julian could answer, the outside floodlights flickered once and plunged the entire house into absolute blackness.
The low hum of the generator in the basement failed to kick on.
The only illumination came from the violent flashes of lightning slicing through the ocean squall outside.
"Julian," Maya gasped, scrambling off the barstool in the dark.
"Stay down," Julian ordered in a low, lethal whisper.
He reached under the kitchen counter and smoothly racked the slide of a concealed Glock 19.
The heavy metallic click reverberated through the darkened house.
"Julian, what is happening?" she whispered, crawling toward the shelter of the kitchen island.
"The trooper outside isn't guarding us, Maya," Julian whispered, his back against the wall near the window.
"He was making sure we stayed inside until the transport arrived."
Outside, through the sheets of driving rain, the engine of the patrol car didn't start.
Instead, the beam of a heavy flashlight cut through the fog, sweeping over the front porch steps.
Heavy, deliberate footsteps crunched onto the wet wooden boards of the veranda.
Then came three slow, rhythmic knocks on the front door.
*Knock. Knock. Knock.*
"Julian? Maya?" called a voice through the heavy oak door.
It wasn't Deputy Vance's voice.
It was a woman’s voice—crisp, elegant, refined, and completely devoid of human warmth.
Victoria Sterling.
"Open the door, children," Victoria called out over the howling wind.
"Your father has been waiting twenty years to meet his new daughter-in-law."
Maya gripped the edge of the kitchen counter, terror freezing the breath in her lungs.
Julian stepped between Maya and the doorway, raising the firearm with both hands, aiming directly at the center panel of the oak door.
"Get behind me, Maya," Julian said, his voice deadly calm.
"Julian..." Maya choked out, pointing a trembling finger toward the sliding glass door leading to the deck.
Standing outside on the dark, rain-swept deck was a tall man in a dripping trench coat.
His face was illuminated by the violent flash of lightning overhead.
He possessed the exact same high cheekbones, the same sharp jawline, and the same dark eyes as Julian.
The man held a silenced automatic pistol pointed straight at the back of Julian's head.
May you like
And he tapped the cold barrel against the glass with a sickening grin.
***
