Chapter 8 - The Girl in the Kitchen
Darkness.
A gunshot.
Someone screamed.
Stallone grabbed Ethan and pulled him down.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Bell shouted commands.
“Police! Nobody move!”
A side window shattered.
By the time power returned, Vanessa was still cuffed.
Ethan was safe.
But Keller was gone.
So was one officer’s radio.
Bell cursed.
“He planned that.”
Stallone shook his head.
“He was terrified.”
“Terrified people still run.”
Vanessa smiled from the floor.
“You’ll never find Rose.”
Stallone looked at her.
“You heard Keller. I already know her.”
“That’s what he wants you to think.”
“You’re scared.”
She stopped smiling.
Bell crouched beside her.
“Who is Rose?”
Vanessa said nothing.
They returned to the mansion near dawn.
Maria was waiting in the kitchen with a bandage above one eyebrow.
When Ethan saw her, he ran to her.
She hugged him fiercely.
“My baby.”
Stallone stopped.
My baby.
Nothing strange about the phrase.
Maria had helped raise Ethan.
But Keller’s words returned.
You already know her.
Stallone looked at Maria carefully.
She was thirty.
Too old.
Not Rose.
Then a teenage girl stepped into the kitchen.
“Mom?”
She had been crying.
Maria released Ethan.
“Sofia, you should be asleep.”
“I heard the police.”
Sofia Alvarez.
Maria’s adopted daughter.
Twelve years old.
Stallone had seen her dozens of times.
Maybe hundreds.
Homework at the kitchen table.
Birthdays.
Christmas parties.
Swimming with Ethan in the pool.
He stared at her.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A small scar under her left ear.
Rachel had had the same scar.
His heart stopped.
Sofia noticed him staring.
“What?”
Stallone sat down.
Bell entered behind him.
One look at Stallone’s face was enough.
“What is it?”
Stallone pointed.
“She looks like Rachel.”
Maria went pale.
Very pale.
Bell looked at her.
“Mrs. Alvarez?”
Maria sat down slowly.
“I didn’t steal her.”
Nobody had accused her.
Stallone’s voice came out rough.
“Maria.”
“She was left at a church.”
“Maria.”
“I swear to God.”
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
Bell stepped closer.
“Exact date?”
Maria started crying.
“August fifteenth.”
The day after Rachel gave birth.
Stallone could hear nothing but his heartbeat.
Sofia backed toward the wall.
“Mom, what are they talking about?”
Maria covered her mouth.
Stallone didn’t move toward the girl.
Didn’t touch her.
Didn’t want to frighten her.
He spoke gently.
“Sofia, we may need to do a DNA test.”
Her eyes widened.
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
Then Ethan did.
“Because you might be my sister.”
Sofia stared at him.
“No.”
Maria sobbed.
“I’m sorry.”
Sofia turned on her.
“You said my parents abandoned me.”
“That’s what I was told.”
“By who?”
Maria’s gaze moved to the doorway.
Vanessa was being escorted past the kitchen by officers.
Sofia saw her.
And Vanessa saw Sofia.
For the first time since her arrest, Vanessa looked truly defeated.
She whispered:
“Rose.”
Sofia heard it.
“What did you call me?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Bell stopped the officers.
“Say it again.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Sofia stepped closer.
“My name is Sofia.”
Vanessa opened her eyes.
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“You were Rose first.”
Stallone gripped the edge of the table.
Bell turned toward Maria.
“We need that DNA test now.”
But before anyone could move, Sofia said something that changed everything.
“There’s another girl.”
Stallone looked at her.
“What?”
Sofia wiped her eyes.
“When I was little, someone used to visit me.”
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“Who?”
“A girl who looked exactly like me.”
