Chapter 12 — The Husband Grace Chose
Chapter 12 — The Husband Grace Chose
Grace confronted Margaret at the hospital.
“You knew about Noah.”
Margaret looked away.
“Alexander told me.”
“Is the man with me Noah?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do I know Nathan is not already dead?”
Margaret reached for Grace’s hand.
“You may never know through biology. They were identical.”
Grace pulled away.
“There has to be something.”
“There is.”
Margaret explained that Alexander had created private audio diaries for each son. They were stored in separate safe-deposit boxes.
“Nathan’s diary mentioned you,” Margaret said. “Before you ever began dating.”
“Where is it?”
“First Atlantic Bank.”
Grace and the man she had called Nathan entered the bank under federal escort.
Inside the vault, they found three boxes.
Nathan.
Nicholas.
Noah.
The Nathan box was empty.
The Nicholas box contained cash, false passports and photographs of Grace taken from a distance.
The Noah box contained dozens of recorded therapy sessions.
Grace played the final tape.
A young male voice spoke.
“My name is Noah Cole. Dr. Shaw says I can become anyone if I practice long enough. She wants me to study Nathan. The way he speaks. The way he moves. The girl he loves.”
Grace looked at the man beside her.
The tape continued.
“But I don’t want his life. I want someone to know I existed.”
A second voice entered the recording.
Young Nathan.
“You exist to me.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Nathan had visited Noah secretly.
The brothers had been close.
The final section contained their plan to expose Dr. Shaw.
Nathan promised Noah that if anything happened to him, Noah should protect Grace.
The man beside her began crying silently.
“I remember this room,” he said. “I remember Nathan giving me his coat.”
Grace stared at him.
“You’re Noah.”
He nodded.
“I think so.”
“You let me believe you were Nathan.”
“At first, I believed it too. When I remembered the truth, I was afraid you would send me away before we stopped Nicholas.”
Grace stepped back.
“You slept beside me.”
“No.”
She frowned.
He continued.
“Since I returned, I never touched you. I slept on the couch whenever you closed the bedroom door.”
Grace remembered.
He was right.
Noah had never claimed intimacy that belonged to Nathan.
“Where is my husband?” she whispered.
Noah looked toward the empty Nathan box.
“I think Nathan survived the lake house fire thirteen years ago.”
Grace stared at him.
“The fire happened before we married.”
“No. The second fire.”
Her blood turned cold.
Three years earlier, Nicholas had not simply staged a boating accident.
He had taken Nathan to the rebuilt lake house.
Noah had arrived too late.
“I saw one brother escape,” Noah said. “I assumed it was Nicholas.”
“And the other?”
“Trapped inside.”
Grace looked at the empty box.
Someone had removed Nathan’s diary recently.
Her phone rang.
An unknown number.
She answered.
A familiar voice said, “Grace, don’t trust Noah.”
May you like
She stopped breathing.
It was Nathan.
