Chapter 31 Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Chapter 31
~THIRTY-ONE~

The lawyer's office was downtown, in one of those old buildings that tried too hard to look important. Declan came with me, refusing to let me face whatever Victoria had left behind alone.

"Mrs. Harris, Mr. Harris," the lawyer greeted us. He was an older man with gray hair and kind eyes. "I'm Thomas Webster. Thank you for coming."

"What did Victoria leave me?" I asked directly. "And why?"

Mr. Webster opened a file. "Victoria Laurence made this will three weeks before her death. She was very specific about wanting you to have certain items."

"What items?" Declan asked.

"A storage unit containing personal belongings," Mr. Webster said. "And a letter. She insisted the letter be read before you access the storage unit."

He handed me an envelope. My hands shook as I opened it.

Dear Anita,

If you're reading this, I'm dead. Good. I couldn't live with what I'd become anymore.

I'm not writing to apologize. What I did was unforgivable. But I want you to understand something. Everything I did came from a place of pain. When Declan chose you, it broke something inside me. Something that was already cracked.

The storage unit contains my journals from the past ten years. Everything is in there—my thoughts, my plans, my regrets. I want you to read them. Not to justify what I did, but so you understand that monsters aren't born. They're created.

There's also something else in the unit. Something I kept hidden all these years. Something that changes everything you think you know about your family.

I'm sorry for the pain I caused. I'm sorry I couldn't be better.

But mostly, I'm sorry for what you're about to discover.

- Victoria

"What does she mean?" I asked, looking up at Mr. Webster. "What's in that storage unit?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Victoria didn't tell me. She just insisted you had to be the one to open it."

He handed me a key and an address.

Declan and I drove to the storage facility in silence. My mind was racing with possibilities. What could Victoria have that would "change everything" about my family?

The storage unit was small, about the size of a walk-in closet. Inside were boxes of journals, just like Victoria had mentioned. But in the back, there was a locked safe.

"Should we open it?" I asked Declan.

"We've come this far," he said.

I tried the key Mr. Webster had given me. It fit.

Inside the safe were documents. Birth certificates, medical records, photographs. And a letter addressed to me in handwriting I didn't recognize.

I opened it with trembling hands.

Dear Anita,

My name is Patricia Lawson. You don't know me, but I knew your mother before you were born. We were best friends in college.

I'm writing this because you deserve to know the truth. Your mother had a twin sister. Her name was Diana. They were identical in every way except personality. Your mother was kind and gentle. Diana was wild and unpredictable.

Diana died when your mother was pregnant with you. A car accident. Your mother was devastated. She'd lost her other half.

But here's what you don't know. Before Diana died, she was pregnant too. She gave birth three months before the accident. A baby girl she named Sarah.

Your mother adopted Sarah after Diana died. She raised her alongside you, telling everyone Sarah was her daughter too. But Sarah isn't your sister. She's your cousin.

I'm telling you this because Victoria discovered the truth and kept it secret. She planned to use it against you somehow, but she died before she could. I found out about her plans through mutual friends and decided you needed to know.

I'm sorry to drop this bomb on you. But secrets always come out eventually. Better you hear it from me than discover it some other way.

- Patricia

I read the letter three times, trying to make sense of it.

Sarah wasn't my sister. She was my cousin.

"This can't be real," I said to Declan. "My mother would have told me."

"Maybe she planned to," Declan suggested gently. "Maybe she was waiting for the right time."

I looked through the other documents in the safe. Birth certificates confirming everything. Medical records. Even photos of my mother with her twin sister Diana.

They looked exactly alike. It was eerie.

And there was Sarah—baby Sarah—with a birth certificate listing Diana as her mother.

"I need to talk to my mother," I said. "Right now."

We drove straight to my parents' house. My mother took one look at my face and knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" she asked.

I showed her the letter and the documents.

My mother's face went pale. She sat down heavily.

"How did you find this?" she whispered.

"Victoria left it for me," I said. "Mom, is it true? Is Sarah really my cousin, not my sister?"

My mother was quiet for a long moment. Then she nodded.

"Yes," she said softly. "It's true."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, feeling betrayed. "I grew up thinking Sarah was my sister!"

"Because she is your sister in every way that matters," my mother said firmly. "When Diana died, I promised myself I would raise Sarah as my own. Give her the same love and attention I gave you. I didn't want her to grow up feeling different or less loved because she wasn't biologically mine."

"Does Sarah know?" I asked.

"No," my mother said. "And I'd prefer to keep it that way. She doesn't need to know. It would only cause pain."

"She has a right to know where she came from," I argued.

"Why?" my mother asked. "What good would it do? Diana is dead. I'm the only mother Sarah has ever known. Why complicate things?"

"Because secrets destroy families," I said. "Look at what happened with Victoria and Catherine. With Marcus and Jake. Every terrible thing that happened to us started with someone keeping secrets."

My mother looked stricken. "This is different."

"Is it?" I asked.

I left my parents' house feeling confused and angry. Not just at my mother for keeping this secret, but at Victoria for revealing it even in death.

"What are you going to do?" Declan asked as we drove home.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Part of me wants to tell Sarah immediately. But part of me thinks my mother is right—knowing the truth won't change anything except how Sarah sees herself."

"This is your decision," Declan said. "Whatever you choose, I'll support you."

That night, I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about Sarah, about how she'd react if she knew. Would she be angry? Hurt? Would it change our relationship?

And what about my aunt Diana? I'd never even heard of her before today. What kind of person was she? Why did my mother never mention having a twin?

The next morning, I went through Victoria's journals, looking for more information about how she'd discovered the secret.

I found it in a journal from five years ago.

Today I met Patricia Lawson at a charity event. She was drunk and started talking about the old days, about Anita's mother and her twin sister. She told me the whole story—how Diana died, how Anita's mother took Sarah in, how they've kept it secret all these years.

This is perfect. I can use this. If Declan ever completely rejects me, I can destroy Anita by exposing her family's lies. I'll wait for the right moment.

So Victoria had known for five years and never used it. Why?

I kept reading.

I met with Patricia again today. She's dying—cancer. She feels guilty about telling me the secret and made me promise not to use it to hurt Anita. She said Diana was her friend and wouldn't want her daughter used as a weapon.

I promised. I don't know if I'll keep that promise, but Patricia seemed to need to hear it.

So Patricia was dead. And Victoria had kept the secret because of a promise to a dying woman.

But why reveal it now, after her own death?

I found the answer in Victoria's final journal entry, written the day before she died.

I'm so tired. Tired of hating, tired of plotting, tired of being angry. Anita didn't deserve what I put her through. Neither did Declan or their children.

I'm leaving her the storage unit because she deserves to know the truth about her family. Not to hurt her, but because secrets are poison. They rot families from the inside out.

Maybe by telling her this final secret, I can do one good thing before I die. Give her the chance to have honest relationships with the people she loves.

I'm sorry for everything. I hope death brings me the peace I couldn't find in life.

I closed the journal, tears streaming down my face.

Victoria's last act hadn't been revenge. It had been an attempt at redemption.

"Are you okay?" Declan asked, finding me crying in the study.

"Victoria was trying to help me," I said. "In her twisted way, she thought revealing this secret would save my family from the same kind of poison that destroyed hers."

"So what are you going to do?" Declan asked again.

I took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell Sarah the truth. And then I'm going to let her decide what she wants to do with that information."

"When?"

"Today," I said. "No more secrets. No more lies. Even well-intentioned ones."

But as I picked up my phone to call Sarah, I got a text from an unknown number.

Don't tell Sarah the truth. If you do, someone she loves will die. I'm
watching. - A Friend

My blood ran cold.

Victoria was dead. Catherine was in prison. Marcus was in prison. All the conspirators were locked up.

So who was sending this message?