The Hidden heir’s revenge

Chapter 58 — The Woman Beside Him

Varek stared at the woman standing across from him.

The phone call had ended, but the man’s final words continued to echo in his head.

The real Isabel is not missing. She’s standing right beside you.

He looked at the woman again.

“Who are you?”

She said nothing.

“Your name is Mara Mercer?”

Her lips parted, but no words came out.

Victor stepped between them.

“Answer him!”

The woman slowly raised her eyes.

“My name is Isabel.”

Varek shook his head.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I gave birth to you.”

“Then prove it.”

She looked at him for a long moment.

“Your left hand.”

Varek frowned.

“What about it?”

“When you were born, you had a small mark beneath your thumb. The doctors thought it was a birth defect. They wanted to remove it, but I refused.”

Varek looked down at his hand.

There was a faint mark beneath his thumb.

Grace stepped closer.

“How could you know that?”

The woman ignored her.

“When you were a baby, you wouldn’t sleep unless someone held your left hand. I used to wrap my finger around yours until you fell asleep.”

Varek felt something tighten in his chest.

It was possible she knew these details from medical records.

He refused to let emotion make his decisions.

“Naomi will verify everything.”

The woman nodded.

“Good.”

Victor looked at her.

“What about me?”

Her expression softened.

“You had a habit of pulling my hair whenever I carried you.”

Victor’s eyes filled with tears.

“I remember that.”

“You also had a small scar on your knee. You fell near the hospital garden when you were two.”

Victor looked down at his knee.

The scar was still there.

“Why did you leave me?”

“I didn’t leave you willingly.”

“Then why did I spend my entire childhood believing Mara was my mother?”

The woman lowered her head.

“Because the people who wanted to control you needed you to believe that.”

Varek moved closer.

“Enough. We need the truth about Matthew.”

At the mention of that name, the woman’s expression changed.

“Matthew is alive.”

“Which Matthew?”

She looked at him.

“Your older brother.”

Varek’s jaw tightened.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Everyone seems to know something except where he is.”

“Because he has been hiding in plain sight.”

Varek stared at her.

“Explain.”

She glanced at Grace.

“Not here.”

“You’re not leaving this house until I get answers.”

Suddenly, Victor groaned.

His injured shoulder had begun bleeding through the bandage.

Grace rushed toward him.

“Sit down. You’re going to reopen the wound.”

Varek stepped aside.

While Grace attended to Victor, he called Naomi.

⸻

Naomi answered immediately.

“I’ve been trying to reach you.”

“Forget the other files. I need you to identify the woman standing with us.”

“Did you get a sample?”

“Not yet.”

“Then I can’t confirm her identity. But I found something else.”

“What?”

Naomi shared her screen.

An old photograph appeared.

It showed a woman standing outside St. Catherine’s Hospital. She was holding a little boy’s hand.

Varek recognized the woman immediately.

It was the person standing in Eleanor’s old house.

But the photograph had another detail.

The woman was wearing a hospital identification badge.

Naomi enlarged it.

“Look at the name.”

Varek leaned closer to the screen.

The badge read:

DR. MARA MERCER.

“She was a doctor?”

“According to the employment records, she worked in the medical records department. But her qualifications were never verified. Her badge was issued under a temporary staff identity.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Because I found another photograph from the same year.”

Naomi opened it.

A second woman stood outside the hospital.

She looked almost identical to the first.

Same face.

Same hair.

Same height.

But the badge around her neck carried a different name.

ISABEL THORNE.

Varek stared at the two photographs.

“Twins?”

“Possibly. I found a family record listing two daughters, Isabel and Mara. But the records were later altered.”

“So the woman here could be either one.”

“Exactly. And there’s something else. The hospital registered both women as deceased in different years.”

Varek frowned.

“Both?”

“Yes. One death certificate was issued twenty-five years ago. The other was issued twenty-two years ago.”

“Then who has been living under their names?”

Naomi paused.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

⸻

At the secure location, Evelyn stood beside Adrian while Naomi explained the new discovery.

Adrian looked disturbed.

“If Isabel and Mara were sisters, why did they exchange identities?”

Naomi opened another document.

“Because one of them was supposed to disappear after the hospital fire.”

“Which one?”

“The original record says Mara.”

Evelyn folded her arms.

“So Isabel took Mara’s identity?”

“Or Mara took Isabel’s. The records are too damaged to establish which one was first.”

Adrian looked toward Daniel.

The boy was sleeping peacefully.

He lowered his voice.

“Could this have something to do with my identity?”

Naomi nodded.

“I think it does.”

She opened another document.

It was an old photograph of three children standing beside a hospital bed.

One boy was an infant.

Another was slightly older.

The third was a little girl.

On the back, someone had written:

THE FIRST THREE.

Evelyn pointed at the little girl.

“Who is she?”

Naomi enlarged the image.

A necklace hung around the girl’s neck.

Two connected circles.

Evelyn immediately recognized it.

“The same necklace Isabella wore.”

Adrian looked at her.

“Isabella?”

“The young woman we found at St. Catherine’s.”

Naomi nodded.

“I compared the necklace with the photograph. They’re identical.”

“Then she was there from the beginning?” Adrian asked.

“Possibly. But the photograph is dated several years after the original birth records.”

Evelyn stared at the children.

“Why would someone write ‘The First Three’ if there were four children in the picture?”

Naomi looked again.

There was a fourth figure partly hidden behind the hospital curtain.

A small hand rested on the bed.

She zoomed in.

A name had been written beside the hand.

DANIEL.

Adrian’s face tightened.

“Daniel was there?”

“According to this photograph, yes.”

He looked at his sleeping son.

“How many times are they going to tell me my child belonged to someone else?”

Evelyn placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll find out what happened.”

⸻

Back at Eleanor’s house, Varek ended the call with Naomi.

He turned toward the woman.

“Naomi found your photograph.”

She looked at him.

“Which photograph?”

“One with your hospital badge. Another with a different woman who looks exactly like you.”

For the first time, she seemed genuinely shaken.

“Where did she find them?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

Varek moved closer.

“Then tell me why two women with the same face were registered as separate people.”

She looked at Victor.

“Because we were sisters.”

“Isabel and Mara?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“Which one are you?”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I was Isabel.”

Varek studied her.

“Was?”

She swallowed.

“After the fire, I became Mara.”

Grace shook her head.

“You expect us to believe you simply changed your name?”

“No. I changed my entire identity because the real Isabel was supposed to be dead.”

Victor stepped forward.

“Then who was the woman who raised me?”

The woman looked at him.

“I did.”

“Under which name?”

She did not answer.

Victor laughed bitterly.

“You don’t even know who you are anymore.”

The woman reached for him.

He moved away.

Varek’s phone vibrated again.

A message from Naomi appeared.

I FOUND ELEANOR’S LOCATION.

He opened it.

A map appeared with a red marker.

The location was an abandoned medical building outside the city.

Another message followed.

THERE IS A LIVE SECURITY FEED. I’M ACCESSING IT NOW.

Varek called her.

“Naomi, don’t do anything until I get there.”

“I need you to see something first.”

A video appeared on his screen.

It showed a dimly lit room.

A woman sat on a chair with her hands tied.

Eleanor.

Varek’s stomach dropped.

“Eleanor!”

He watched as a man entered the room.

The man’s face was partially hidden, but his voice was clear.

“Tell him what you told me.”

Eleanor raised her head.

“I already told you.”

The man placed a folder on the table.

“Then tell him again.”

Eleanor looked directly at the camera.

“Varek, if you’re watching this, don’t come looking for me.”

Varek clenched his jaw.

“She’s alive.”

Naomi zoomed in on the man’s face.

The image became clearer.

Varek stopped breathing.

It was Matthew Cross.

But the man in the video looked younger than the Matthew they had been hunting.

His face was almost identical to the man in the childhood photograph.

Then he turned toward the camera.

And smiled.

“Hello, little brother.”

Varek’s blood ran cold.

The man lifted a second photograph.

It showed two boys standing beside a woman.

One boy was Varek.

The other was Matthew.

But there was something strange about the picture.

Both boys had been marked with the same number.

ONE.

Matthew spoke again.

“Mother has told you many stories. Now it’s time for you to hear mine.”

He leaned closer to the camera.

“And before you come looking for Eleanor, you should know something.”

He raised the folder.

“Your birth certificate is not the only document that was changed.”

The screen went black.

A moment later, Naomi received another message.

It contained one sentence.

THE MAN YOU CALL VAREK THORNE WAS REGISTERED AS DEAD BEFORE HE WAS BORN.